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Using your logic, why should young people continue to pay into Social Security when they will have no benefit from it?
There are way too many people whose lives are stifled from tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars of student loan debt. If we can bail out banks and seniors, we should certainly consider bailing out the most productive citizens.
Well, I am not a fan of bail out nation. There are plenty of ways to get loan forgiveness. How about the guy with Harvard loans doing a 5 year stint in the military? If they ask for a big break, they should be prepared to serve in a big way. From here on out, I recommend that people do what I did. Go to a community college and work at the corner store your first two years. Enough beer bongs at some private liberal arts college studying Etruscan poetry and expecting a bailout down the road. We need to teach our kids to think realistically about their futures, and own up to the consequences.
Bailing out scumbags in the financial sector is of course, criminal. But that is another thread. In no way would I compare the majority of our college graduates, who were naive and are perhaps prone to self-pity, to those sociopathic sleazeballs and their minions in our government.
In purely economic terms, forgiving debt among our citizens would increase spending, but that could include mortgages, credit cards as well as college. All would reward poor judgment. The mortgages are perhaps the most defensible, because everyone told us real estate cannot go down, and all those in control of information in that industry were in on the take. There is no excuse for graduating with $100k+ in student loan debt. If you are smart enough to get into an elite private college, you should be smart enough to do basic math.
I've got a niece that ended up at an out of state private college for 4 years taking some esoteric major. Ended up with $95K in loans and is a receptionist at a day care center.
Her mother NEVER sat her down and talked finances or reality of what a degree is all about because.."she should pursue her dreams". Well those dreams are costing her now and for the next decade at least.
This is the bs I see too. My kid HAS to go to some great, expensive college straight out of high school. This sets everyone up for failure. It is just dumb.
I screwed off and had weak grades in high school, so I dodged a bullet. I knew full well I was headed for the community college, and my dad with six kids said flat out he would not pay for college. Both disabused me of the notion that anything except sustained hard work was going to matter. I went to the CC, got a B+ average and transferred. Took the hardest classes I could and got better each year. I ended of getting a PhD and living two years abroad with $17k in student loans. I did it by being cost conscious, going to state schools, and always working in summers of at least part time. I did not go back for graduate school until I had a full financial package that was sensible, and I was certain the field would repay my efforts. It has. It was not that hard, and I am not that smart. It just took a smidge of forethought. So, the brilliant kids in with 1500+ SAT scores (and their parents) should be able to figure this out.
It starts by realizing that the difference between a $50k university and a $1k community college or a $5k state college is really not as great as you think, especially in the first two years, and unless you are going into corporate law or academia or Wall Street, those elite colleges are just not a good deal for working or middle class kids. They are simply not worth the exorbitant costs.
It won't have a stimulative effect, because there are no jobs and there won't be any jobs for the remainder of the decade. If you want to work, you'll have to wait for a Baby Boomer to die or retire (and no I'm not suggesting people start knocking off Boomers -- but that might actually save your Social Security and Medicare programs) and then fight the hordes of unemployed and underemployed competing against you.
That is silly. There most certainly are jobs especially for people with college educations. The overall unemployment rate is 9.1%, but it is 4.3% for people holding a BA. Certainly the economy is bad, but most college educated people can get jobs and pay bills.
No American student should have to pay anything for advanced education. Their resulting contributions to society way more than compensate for the expense of educating them.
Why not? They go to college because they want to be richer than everyone else who doesn't. Doesn't that make them greedy? They want money, they want bigger money than they would otherwise have, and liberals usually want to tax the richer, but now you want to provide them a free ride?
Yes I went to college and it's paid off but why should anyone else have given me anything? I worked my way through and had no debts when I graduated, and for some reason, I had more cash then than I have now.
Why not? They go to college because they want to be richer than everyone else who doesn't. Doesn't that make them greedy? They want money, they want bigger money than they would otherwise have, and liberals usually want to tax the richer, but now you want to provide them a free ride?
Yes I went to college and it's paid off but why should anyone else have given me anything? I worked my way through and had no debts when I graduated, and for some reason, I had more cash then than I have now.
Ain't that the truth! I am still in the "Panini years" myself. Kid, mortgage,utilities, etc.,etc.
After my summer jobs 25 years ago, I could save a grand and have a blast. Now, if I had a grand it would go right towards the bills!!!!
No American student should have to pay anything for advanced education. Their resulting contributions to society way more than compensate for the expense of educating them.
I partially support this. In so much as if we want to keep our spot as the strongest economy in the world, our workers will have to be the strongest in the world. So, there should be a high quality "public option." We already have that in the vast system of public schools, community colleges, and state colleges. However, the people who run up the choking student loan debt are the ones who would never consider using those options. There is a lot of "prestige" shopping for higher education that creates inordinate debt. This is especially a problem right out of high school, when kids and their parents (especially first time college goers) are far too status conscious. I mean who really cares where and when you learned Avogadro's number and the definition of a Newton? Just get it as cheaply as you can!
I would agree with the post (malamute, I think) who says that students and parents buying expensive private degrees hope to get richer than the rest, so why should we pay for it? Personally, I would like to see the differences in employment/placement rates between people who chose the "public option" (CC, state schools) vs. those who chose the deluxe private schools, and how those differences play out over a typical working career. Do their employment rates justify their extra expenses? That information should be made available to high school freshman!
Regardless, I am having a hard time feeling sorry for them. To me, they seem like the person who goes into the restaurant and orders the 8 course meal, $200 bottle of wine and then refuses to pay the bill. Worse yet, they want the people who ate beans and cornbread at home to bail them out. Absurd.
All this from a lefty liberal academic type.
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yup
