It at least used to be a free country. If people wanted to study for other than a professional trade license, take their chances on being able to do well with what they chose to study, or other than the motivation of improving their hiring chances at all — that’s their business.
It was foolish of them to take on debt that they a) didn’t know they could repay and b) was by contract not covered by our bankruptcy system. And that’s the deal with freedom. You can’t have freedom without the foolish being free to be foolish.
Once more, the government should be entirely out of student loans, and then the market will take care of itself. The sorry truth is that smart people can find gainful employment almost anywhere at any time. Stupid people are exactly the ones who shouldn’t be taking out loans for college. Not only are there options for getting a college education without such loans, but they are exactly the sorts of bad risks that the private banking system wouldn’t opt to bet on either.
So what is your excuse for being a massive pinko on this issue, tossing around the term “odious” as if that makes you an expert when it really doesn’t apply here at all? If there was outright fraud, it can be handled by our legal system. But there wasn’t outright fraud. Just stupid and greedy people looking for their frivolous, six-year spring break to be paid by someone else.
> was by contract not covered by our bankruptcy system. And that’s the deal with freedom.
Do you even read what you write? Lifelong bondage to a contract signed the moment a person can lawfully sign a contract is the exact opposite of freedom - it’s indentured servitude.
I can’t help but notice that your sense of personal responsibility for one’s actions seems to curiously exempt the two main parties that profit from the scam: banks, which made bad loans on purpose; and colleges, who have been exploiting the system mercilessly by ramping up enrollment and tuition together.
It must be a truly bizarre world you live in, where 18-year-olds are the evil criminals and the people who run and operate a system that enslaves them are the good guys. I feel really bad for you, something big must be missing from your soul to not get this.
>>Once more, the government should be entirely out of student loans, and then the market will take care of itself.
I’m certainly not arguing against this. You will note my original comment said “too”, implying I agreed with what you had proposed. I’m not sure why you felt the need to belabor your earlier point.
And the fact of the matter is we have to unwind the problem that has been created. The colleges are part of that, and should be part of the solution. Yes, the students were stupid, but they were very much taken advantage of many supposedly prestigious institutions who enjoy lots of favorable FedGov treatment.
I generally agree with you, but when you have 18 years olds that their parents, teachers, counsellors, colleges, TV and websites all tell them to go into debt for college, its hard to blame the kids too much, especially since we don’t teach them personal finance in HS.