Posted on 09/09/2017 11:28:08 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
We've been hearing for some time about how crushing student debt is. It's particularly amusing to hear about it from students who spent six figures getting their degree in something like lesbian fruitbat studies, but plenty of young people have talked about how difficult it is for them to live with debt they accrued in college.
However, a new poll found out a few things about what many students use their student loan money on, and I'm a little less sympathetic than I was.
A majority of college "Greek" students have used student loan money to pay membership dues to their fraternities and sororities, and some have even spent it on drugs and alcohol, according to a new poll.
- 54.8 percent of current, 4-year college students that are in a fraternity/sorority and have student loan debt admitted that they have used student loan money to pay for fraternity/sorority dues or membership fees.
- Females (57.2 percent) were more likely to use financial aid to afford "Greek" life than males (52.4 percent), but males were less regretful about that decision (51.15 percent) when compared to females (58.04 percent).
- 5.6 percent used financial aid to pay for drugs.
- 12 percent used the money to pay for alcohol. Males were more likely than females to use student loan money for these purposes.
Student loans can be crushing to new graduates. Millions owe an average of $28,000.
While student loans do pay for school first, any additional money is basically given to the student. They can then use that money for whatever...including things like drugs,
(Excerpt) Read more at pjmedia.com ...
I'm curious just how many who engaged in this behavior now want their student loans forgiven. Even if we simply assume that these percentages hold up among any subgroup--not always a fair assumption, to be sure, but work with me here--then a majority of the people demanding debt forgiveness are people who want the American taxpayers to subsidize some aspect of their partying in college.
$28000 is half the price of a new truck. Not “crushing” at all. Unless you were stupid enough to get a degree with no employment prospects.
Times haven;t changed much. The Patriotic father of Mexico, Miguel Hidalgo got a grant of 3000 pesos, and he lost it all in a poker game in Maravatio. He told his dad that it was stolen. But thoughout history students who get free things tend to be careless with what was given them.
WHen we had actual real Standards regarding who was allowed to attend Higher Education, it was FREE! in California at least. Only about 10% of the “people” belong in a University.
In California they just eliminated all remedial English and Math requirements for Community College because 80%-90% of the new enrollee’s can NOT read, write, or count passed a 3rd grade level and it was just too damned expensive to actually teach these College Kids how to FRIKKIN READ!!!
I paid off a dozen student loans , never found a particularly high- paying job, and managed just Fine, nonetheless. The whiners ( aside from a few genuine hardship cases who have access to needed assistance anyway) mostly refuse to work , expect instant gratification of expensive big- ticket items, and/or waste their money on entertainment/ vacations/new clothes/ parties/ expensive cable tv/etc. not to mention the author’s excellent point about majoring in Lesbo dingbat studies. Govt- assisted or underwritten grants and loans should not be extended for such uneconomic dreck
“...Millions owe an average of $28,000. ..”
that’s the cost of a new, four cylinder car. So what’s the problem??
The problem is that I know some people were wrongly told they couldn’t give back the money, but had to take the total amount of the loan.
I know one individual who was told exactly that. I don’t know why that was the case. But if true there has been something wrong with the system for awhile now.
If a person wanted to use the debt purely for tuition they couldn’t, because they were forced to borrow more. I don’t think that was legal, and I’m almost positive it was someone screwing with them at the bank, or the university.
Btw, yep they used it for the above problems. Its a statistical probability that if you loan people without the integrity to know why they have to refrain from bad lifestyle you will end up owning them and their resulting bad habits.
That is why I think the program was designed the way it was. The point was to equip young idiots with the monetary opportunity to destroy themselves. Rather then valuing the money they had from hard work, they got it too easy.
I’m not saying that we should pay the price as a community, but I am saying the program should stop right now.
My daughter quit work to finish an advanced nursing degree. Despite how she was raised and despite parental protests, student loans pay her bills over and above school costs. Repayment never crosses her mind.
Well, there goes my degree in Lesbian Fruitbat Studies. BTT
It’s all about MEEEEE! They can barely manage a 9 hour class schedule. They can’t work to help with tuition. They have to live in pricey apartments and eat out all the time. Even with getting a year of AP classes under their belts, it still takes them 5 years to graduate costing even more for that piece of paper.
Back in the day, before AP classes, we started out freshman year with no credits nor did we have scholarship night where all HS seniors got scholarships. Many of us took the max. number of semester hours, worked part time, lived cheaply in the dorms and had a campus meal ticket. Weekends were slim pickin’s with a can of spaghetti on Saturday and a one piece fried chicken box on Sunday and going out consisted of $1 night at the movies. We managed to graduate in 3 years with no outstanding bills and lined up full time real world jobs right after graduation and didn’t crawl back into mama’s basement.
Well, there goes my degree in Lesbian Fruitbat Studies. BTT
My degree was in Transgender Fruitbats.
Or they could live at home and attend local college paying instate tuition and have no student debt or very little.
I never understood the caterwauling about student debt either. If $28,000 is the average debt, as you say, that’s about what a lot of these kids borrow for a new car. My first home mortgage was for over $100,000 and that was nearly 30 years ago. I never had any presidential candidate promise to pay it off for me!
The problem is that many of the degrees received end with the word "Studies". Their employment prospects are somewhat diminished by that. (Had they minored in Sub-Saharan Homoerotic Music and Dance, that African Studies degree would be a gold mine. /s)
While it’s been quite a while, I seem to recall that at least some portion of my fraternity dues went for housing in the chapter house.
Free stuff is the root of all evil
So... Co-ed submarine racing is probably not a good choice?
I agree with this op-ed completely. No loan forgiveness. It’s part of learning to be a responsible adult. You pay your debts and honor your word and contracts you enter into.
Very basic adulthood 101 learning.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.