US Student Loans Exceed $1 Trillion

sycodon writes "Politico reports that student loan debt now exceeds one trillion dollars, an amount that should impress even Dr. Evil. Politico further reports that this is one of the more concrete issues driving the OWS protests and provides some enlightening examples of their particular gripes."

Comments

Re:You think the housing collapse was bad

[JBMcB]

You can't default on student loans, they never go away. The fed will garnish your wages forever until they are paid off.

Re:heh

[iamhassi]

With almost any decent job these days requiring a 4-year college degree, what the hell do you expect?

That is why high school is worthless now days. You might as well drop out with a GED and go to community college. High school and GED gets you the same job now days, there's no need to waste those 4 years when you could go to college and at least get an associates and move on to bachelors at a real school.

Of course this only applies to the 99%, the 1% go to Ivy League high schools and Ivy League colleges so they don't need to worry about community college.

Re:You think the housing collapse was bad

[scubamage]

No, its not possible these days on average. The average public university costs close to 11034 a year according to the census. The average minimum wage is 7.35. That comes out to a 35 hour workweek alongside being a fulltime student (1823 hours). This is only public schools - NOT private schools. Not to mention prices for everything have gone up steeply. If they're trying to put themselves through school, its almost impossible to avoid debt. Baby boomers don't quite seem to understand the math, so here it is: A dose of Financial Reality.

Re:You think the housing collapse was bad

[shadowsurfr1]

Eh that's a good point. I've interned at the company I'll be working for after graduation for every summer since I got into college (started right after my freshman year). So far, I've done 5 summer internships and a 1 during the school year. Looking back, that's the best decision I could have made when it comes to my employment.

Re:You think the housing collapse was bad

[uigrad_2000]

Working your way through school is now impossible with a minimum wage job, since, you're looking at 35 hours a week at minimum wage to be able to afford only tuition - that doesn't include books or board.

After my freshman year of college, which was stupidly at a private college, I took a year off, and worked 65 hours a week at 3 jobs (paper routes in the morning, lab rat stuff during the day, package handling 2nd shift). I paid down as much as I could in a year, and then went back to school.

It's hard, but not impossible to pay your way through school today. It's not as fun as the lives of most college students, but it can certainly be done.

College Education Scam

[advid.net]

A must-see documentary about student loans :

NIA today officially released the most comprehensive documentary ever produced about higher education in the U.S. NIA's hour-long documentary called 'College Conspiracy' exposes the facts and truth about America's college education system. 'College Conspiracy' was produced over a six-month period by NIA's team of expert Austrian economists with the help of thousands of NIA members who contributed their ideas and personal stories for the film. NIA believes the U.S. college education system is a scam that turns vulnerable young Americans into debt slaves for life.

It also remind us:

After the burst of the Real Estate bubble, student loans are now the easiest loan to receive in the U.S., and total student loan debts now exceed credit card debts.

It was written May 16, 2011 ...

Re:College Education Scam

[jwhitener]

I'd never heard of NIA. I went to their site and read the 'about' section.

I got a bit suspicious when I saw this: "Our food inflation report was featured on FOX News by Glenn Beck, who called NIA a "very credible" organization." I don't consider Glenn Beck very credible.

Googling NIA lead me to this: National Inflation Association co-founder admits NIA is a FRAUD!

And a ton of other articles basically saying that NIA is a scare scam to pump and dump gold/silver. Now it could very well be true that total student loans exceed pricey credit card debts, but does that 'fact' actually mean anything? More students than ever are going to school, largely because unskilled labor jobs are drying up. So its no surprise that there are more loans.

I'd rather build a business that had an educated population to hire from and live in a community that voted intelligently than cut back on federal loans.

Re:You think the housing collapse was bad

[AnonGCB]

Sounds like government is at fault here for guaranteeing the loans.

Really simple solution tested in practice:

[blind biker]

Make all education free for all. That's what Finland is doing, and it works brilliantly: the scientific output of this small (by population numbers) country is extremely high, as well as the effects of it on industry.

Now the UK has introduced tuition fees that are, in most cases, about GBP 9000/year. Many universities in The Netherlands (where education is free for all, as well) are now marketing all-English language master programmes to UK students that cannot afford the tuition fees. That will cause an influx of people who will, by studying in The Netherlands, contribute to the science in that country, and most likely stay as PhD students, contributing even more.

By the way, in addition to free education for all, the US should really introduce single payer, too. A system where children (as well as adults) are left without health insurance should alarm you.