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?"

Comments

Re:The worthlessness of "education"

[Darkness404]

Ideally, yes. In practice no. Ideally we would all learn how to think for ourselves, how to form opinions, how to learn and how to adapt. In practice you sit through lectures about topics that most of the time won't benefit you, cram before a test, regurgitate the information on a test and repeat. Not only that but everyone is out to screw you for your last dollar. You pay for overpriced texbooks with new editions that are just old editions rebranded with pages switched around so you can't use the old textbook, you pay overpriced tuition, you live in tiny dorms that are smaller than some bedrooms with some strange roommate who either enjoys doing drugs, listening to the type of music you don't like at full blast, coming in late at 3 AM and waking you up, or something equally as annoying. Yeah, education should be more than how you will function in society but if you've stepped onto a typical campus in 2009, you will find that isn't the case.

Re:All mine were cheap!

[icannotthinkofaname]

I disagree. Housing should be free. Food and water should be free. Health care should be free. Education on how to get these things should be free. Stuff required to sustain human life should be free.

However, education in general should be reasonably-priced. That much, I can give you. It costs far too much, but it's certainly worth paying for.