Posted on 04/25/2019 5:41:46 AM PDT by Kaslin
Its the greatest crisis facing the country today and threatens not only the present, but the future as well. Its not the national debt, terrorism, nuclear proliferation, climate change, health care, or any of the other issues Democratic candidates for president routinely ramble about, no. This is something far more serious people making informed, really bad choices. And the Democratic Party is rallying to their defense.
Out of pure self-loathing, I watched most of the 5-hour lovefest on CNN Monday with Democratic candidates for president. One hour each for Amy Klobuchar, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris and Pete Buttigieg. These back-to-back town halls featured pre-selected questions from a screened audience of college students looking to government to solve their problems. Of course, government cant solve your problems, especially when your biggest problem is looking to government to solve your problems.
Still, it was a look not only into the minds of the candidates, it was a look into the minds of people who, someday, will be in elected office themselves. It was scary.
A day after more than 300 people were killed in a terrorist attack because of their faith, I dont remember a single question or statement from anyone about it. There were, however, a lot of questions about student loans.
Judging by the amount of coverage student loan debt has gotten this year, youd think there were loan officers hiding in bushes outside of high schools waiting to jump out and force college bound seniors to sign their lives away to big banks.
Thats not happening, of course, students are signing those documents willingly after actively seeking out loans for college. But youd never know it by the way the candidates talk about student loans.
The issue isnt so much an issue as it is an opportunity to pander. Candidates dangle varying versions of loan forgiveness and free college to students with more debt than many companies as a way to buy votes. Its also a way for Democrats to advance an idea that is at the core of progressive politics: no personal responsibility.
So much of what Democrats are pushing this year is designed to insulate people from the bad choices they make dont worry about consequences, government is here to fix it. Its the let mommy kiss your booboo of 2020.
Nothing captures this attitude like student loan forgiveness. Fully informed people making bad choices to borrow more money than their education will ever be worth, flocking to politicians promising to make it all better.
Rather than stealing from taxpayers to absolve people of their bad decisions, heres an alternative that will serve the much more important purpose of teaching future generations about responsibility: tell the truth.
One questioner at Mondays CNN event asked what can be done for her. According to her question, shed amassed $25,000 in loans for just her freshman year of undergraduate studies at Saint Anselm College, which cost $38,000 per year in 2017. Rather than pander to someone like this girl, all candidates, and all Americans, should ask her why in the hell she chose to attend such an expensive school. Ask what undergraduate degree she thought could justify such a move. These people need to be taught that a degree in interpretive dance or 1940s bisexual polar bear studies might make you super-woke in your Young Socialists of America drum circle, but they arent viable for future employment.
Additionally, every student with a complaint about student debt should be asked the following:
1. Why go to an expensive school if you cant afford it without taking on massive debt?
2. Why would your parents allow you to choose a school if you have to take on upwards of $100,000 in loans?
3. Do you understand the concept of a loan?
Knowing those questions had to have gone through their heads at some point, they should then be asked why they should be absolved of their debts when they willingly and knowingly made bad decisions?
They wont have an answer, at least not a good one.
Candidates should pat them on the back, tell them theyre sorry but theres nothing they can do for them. Not everyone is meant to lead a life of example, some people serve as cautionary tales so let it be with these people.
Future generations can learn from the high self-esteem, snowflake generation whose parents should have but didnt tell them no, so they can avoid their mistakes. Unless youre going to be roommates with the next Mark Zuckerberg, no undergraduate education is worth $100,000 or more in debt. If you cant pay for it with savings, scholarships, grants, and some moderate amount of loans, dont go to that school. There are other options.
There should be no student loan forgiveness. Itll be a tough lesson for kids to learn, but its one they need. Their parents failed them, their guidance counselors failed them, and they failed themselves. Let a group of liberal billionaires step-up, put their money where their mouths are and help, but dont force an autoworker in Michigan or farmer in Wisconsin whos helping their kid work their way through a state school or commuter college do it.
Choices have consequences, especially bad ones. At least they should. Government is supposed to protect peoples rights, not from themselves. And certainly not at the expense of everyone else. Let these people serve as an example of what not to do. It wont help them, but itll do wonders for the next generation.
For me, it was a morning paper route, getting up at 4 or 4:30 every morning, rain, snow, etc. from grammar school until high school. Collecting from my customers, paying my bill to the paper, having spending money for my expenses, occasionally helping my Mom with groceries, etc.
Family farming is a much more comprehensive education, though!
If parents would make their kids spend one hour playing Sim City and one hour playing Farm Sim for each hour spent playing Angry Birds or Zombie Blaster, that alone would be a bit of education.
If the schools scheduled one Saturday a month for pulling kudzu or patching potholes or cleaning grafitti off of buildings & street signs, the kids might “learn a thing or two”...
Confiscate 1 percent of all college endowments per year until all student loan debt is paid. This will force colleges to stop issuing stupid loans. Stupid loans deserve a stupid tax.
Parents like me ain't co-signing for that crap anymore. My 17YO son knows it...I told him I'm not paying for a damn thing until he gets his grades up and starts growing up.
He's on a fast track to community college, where he can get his prerequisites out of the way, while working part time to pay for it.
I wish one of the medias superb investigative journalists would address what caused the "crisis" in the "Student Loan Crisis".
Worth repeating in large font.
I got through college on an academic scholarship and waited tables 20 to 25 hours per week.
I lived at home or in a dorm (much cheaper than an apartment), didn’t have a car, and rode my bicycle everywhere, including in the Phoenix summer months when the temperature was 115 degrees. I did not wear designer jeans, didn’t carry a designer purse, didn’t have salon manicures and pedicures, almost never ate at restaurants, didn’t have a credit card nor used my parents’ credit cards. It was a very frugal existence but it was only 4 years out of my life.
I majored in engineering, a degree I knew would result in many lucrative job offers. I graduated with no debt and $3000 in the bank—this was back in 1985. Everything I owned at the time could fit into my parents’ station wagon.
Mr. Roo Roo had a similar college experience—worked his way through college, was dirt poor while he did it, had no trouble getting good-paying jobs after college.
When I read about spoiled millenial snowflakes who racked up $50k plus in loans for stupid degrees like Spanish literature, communications, sociology, I just shake my head in amazement. These little brats SHOULD NOT have their debts forgiven. They screwed up, and now they should pay the price—and hopefully learn from their own stupid mistakes.
“The point though of somebody borrowing more than they can pay back is spot on but it goes to show ya how damaging government interference can be on a persons life.”
The Federal Government has existed for decades on the idea of borrowing more than it can pay back so that the people in power can do the things they want - like give favors to people who in turn get them re-elected.
No one should be surprised that they favor the idea that they don’t see a problem with individuals doing the same thing.
First, get the Feds out of the student loan business. Second, make student loans available only from the universities.
If universities are on the hook for the loan, they will only loan money to those degree candidates who are likely to be able to pay it back after graduation. A positive long term effect of this policy will be a reduction in the number of ‘studies’ degree plans and an emphasis on degrees that will produce productive graduates who will become productive citizens. Another long term effect is that tuition prices will likely plummet.
Democrats create disasters and offer solutions that enslave the recipient into even deeper debt.
I Had a neighbor whose daughter got a B.S. in French from McGill and was $100,000 in debt!!
I partly blame lazy HR people for the problem, requiring a degree as part of the job requirement. Indeed, most advertisements don't specify exactly what kind of degree, which is why some students elect "gender studies" as a major.
So, under the concept that subsidizing something makes it more attractive, and taxing something makes it less attractive:
Impose a $100 tax on any job description that calls for a degree without specifying the subject matter of the degree.
So a job description including "college degree" would be subject to the tax, while "college degree in Computer Science" would not be.
That change would signal to students that some degrees are worth more than others.
My beef with student loans is that the government and other sources are charging as much as 7 to 8 percent.
After 2008, the rate should be locked at 25 basis points above the discount window TO PAY US BACK FOR THE MESS THEY MADE WHICH BLEW UP IN 2008 AND CONTINUES TO THIS VERY DAY!!!
So pisses me off. 239 Trillion in derivatives minus collateral out there still to unwind.
Little guy will continue to pay.
There is one thing that everyone of the debtors can do but no one is suggesting it. They can all get a second job until their debt is paid. Plenty of single moms have more than one job and so can they. Just because they have a college degree does not prevent them from taking a night job at Walmart or a C-store until the loan is paid. Most of them made a stupid decision and they don’t want to accept the responsibility for it.
If the Feds give a gift to all who owe a student loan, what are they prepared to do for all who don’t owe anything. Fair is fair.
There is one thing that everyone of the debtors can do but no one is suggesting it. They can all get a second job until their debt is paid. Plenty of single moms have more than one job and so can they. Just because they have a college degree does not prevent them from taking a night job at Walmart or a C-store until the loan is paid. Most of them made a stupid decision and they don’t want to accept the responsibility for it.
If the Feds give a gift to all who owe a student loan, what are they prepared to do for all who don’t owe anything. Fair is fair.
“...absolved by being a community organizer in Rat enclaves?”
That, of course, would be the urban answer for many municipalities.
And yes, this abuse would be used frequently. But again, not as part of any Federal make-work program. This would have to be on the local level, and the agency would have to take over the ultimate responsibility for the remaining outstanding balance. The individual remains on the hook for any unfulfilled portion of the debt not discharged in this manner.
In old legal parlance, this is called a “bond servant”. After so many years at intern wages (or no wages at all), the obligation is discharged, and like a person released from prison, the debt to society is paid.
Lower the interest rate from 10% to something more like a mortgage. My daughter pays and pays and the principal hardly drops.
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.