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Student Loan Interest Rankles College Grads
theodp writes "Like many recent college grads, Steven Lee finds himself unemployed in one of the roughest job markets in decades and saddled with a big pile of debt — he owes about $84,000 in student loans for undergrad and grad school. But what's really got Lee angry are the high interest rates on his government-backed student loans. 'The rate for a 30-year mortgage is around 5%,' Lee said. 'Why should anyone have to pay 8.5%? The government has bailed out homeowners. It's bailed out big businesses. Why can't it also help students?' Not only that, federal student loans are the only loans in the nation that are largely non-dischargeable in bankruptcy, have no statutes of limitations, and can't be refinanced after consolidation, so Lee can forget about pulling a move out of the GM playbook. And unlike mortgages on million-dollar vacation homes, student loans have very limited tax deductability. A spokeswoman for the Department of Education blamed Congress for the rates which she conceded 'may seem high today,' but suggested that students are a credit-unworthy lot who should thank their lucky stars that rates aren't 12% or higher. Makes one long for the good-old-days of 3% student loans, doesn't it?"
I saw the problem with school loans when my brother graduated from law school. I decided to work 40 hours a week at night and put myself through school. I graduated without any loans, but it took 6 years. All I can say is you're damned if you do and damned if you don't.
The real problem with school is that it's too expensive. We should consider it an investment to make college cheap. We don't. Business has decided that they don't need to pay taxes to keep schools open or up to date. They merely recruit the "best and the brightest" from around the world and lobby for low corporate taxes in the U.S.
The U.S. is becoming a really nice place to live...if you're rich.
I'm in the same boat. Tonnes of student loans, struggling to pay it off and find work in my field.
We're going to be a lost generation. By the time the jobs come back, no one will want to hire our tired, old faces when they can pick and choose from the next naive and optimistic generation.