Next U.S. Bailout: College Students (And Grads)

[JakeStratham]

In a nutshell:

College students and graduates owe more than $1 trillion. The problem is, there aren't too many jobs out there. A big gonzo is the fact that these kids can't get out from under the loans via bankruptcy. Why, you ask? Because the banks essentially were able to write the fucking law governing the loans.

Still, there's a difference. With mortgage defaults, banks seize and resell the home. But if a degree can't be sold, that doesn't deter the banks. They essentially wrote the student loan law, in which the fine-print says they aren't "dischargable." So even if you file for bankruptcy, the payments continue due. Hence these stern word from Barmak Nassirian of the American Association of College Registrars and Admissions Officers. "You will be hounded for life," he warns. "They will garnish your wages. They will intercept your tax refunds. You become ineligible for federal employment." He adds that any professional license can be revoked and Social Security checks docked when you retire. We can't think of any other statute with such sadistic provisions.

So, the kids are stuck. Or, are they?

There's now murmurs about a bailout:

Student Loans: The Next Bailout?

It is in its very early stages. Moreover, there are a lot of different ways to do it so the public - who'll be picking up the tab - doesn't catch wind of it.

Of course, it doesn't help that a lot of these kids made horrible decisions as consumers of education:

The 13 Most Useless Majors, From Philosophy to Journalism - The Daily Beast

Dummies.

Or, maybe they were pretty savvy, and the joke will eventually be on us.

 

[amateursurgeon]

Wouldn't surprise me. Politicians are probably getting hell from their boomer donors who are fucking sick of having kidults laying about the place whinging it's not fair they can't get a job with their media studies degree.

I have an idea: student loan forgiveness in return for military service. That way your government can get a cheap replacement of all the soldiers they keep getting killed. I can see Romney running with that, would go down great with the rednecks. Plus, he needs to bulk up the troop numbers for the Iran/China/Venezuela invasion he'll pull when his popularity starts waning.

 

[MediaBuysEyez]

The student loan trap isn't just for those with economically useless philosophy-type degrees. I know several lawyers who have been out of school a few years and are saddled with $200k plus in loans. They'll be paying that pile of debt off for around 20 years at their current rate of repayment...

The bailouts already given to others has already done so much good for the US economy, why not do another Trillion Dollars more?

/Sarcasm

 

[roclafamilia]

is that asher roth?

 

[InternetAuthor]

Wouldn't surprise me. Politicians are probably getting hell from their boomer donors who are fucking sick of having kidults laying about the place whinging it's not fair they can't get a job with their media studies degree.

Maybe the politicians should just tell the Boomers to go ahead and retire to make room for the new generation of workers. Sure, it's age discrimination, but if the Boomers had acted like responsible parents and told their kids that you need to get a "real" degree to get a job, we wouldn't be in this spot.

Actually, it would help if they would go ahead and retire, but our current climate of fear is making that hard since so many are tied up in bad real estate and investments. I'm sure there will be some sort of help, but it won't just help the kids of today - it would probably help a lot of older people as well. I'm 32 (my parents are the oldest of the Baby Boomers) and my friends still have some school debt.

Lowering and freezing interest rates, especially in private debt as well as government debt, would go a long way to helping. But I'm hard core enough to shudder a bit at the thought of excusing or bailing out someone who has a $100k degree in basket weaving. They had those degrees when I was in school ten years ago for about the same price, and only the idiots got them then. It's messy - like all things political.

How can we have so many people holding worthless degrees and student loans, but so many companies crying over a lack of skilled employees without pushing some of the blame back on students, the schools taking their money and the parents for not actually helping the kids choose wisely when possible?

Also, how many of the kids are moving to where the jobs are? How many are working minimum-wage jobs to start heading up some sort of career ladder and gain experience? How many are sitting in dirty clothes whining about it and waiting for a handout? Ugh.

 

[Fiver]

In a nutshell:

Or, maybe they were pretty savvy, and the joke will eventually be on us.

No one is savvy here. The kids are just doing what every American kid does after high school. They go to college, most from parental pressure to do so.

I can see the guv giving them some kind of help with loans (just in time for Obama's re-election vote) but I can't see a complete bail out like the banks got. The American people, even in their sleepwalking state, would go nuts.

But yeah, I can definitely see Obama trying to capture votes from young people by offering them something and having the rest of us pay for it.

 

[IceToEskimos]

You cannot establish sound security on borrowed money.

 

[this_guy]

OccupyColleges.org - In Solidarity with Occupy Wall Street

 

[barman]

if only everyone stopped paying back their loans all at once and fucked over the big banks some more.... that'd be glorious

 

[lukep]

Great news. It was well past time for us (humanity) to introduce each other to the Khan academy and other free online learning institutions.

Let's see it how the Unis all do in their scam when free education is suddenly popularized...

 

[Gambit]

Best argument I've heard on why gov't should stop guaranteeing student loans

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yk0DJ5WUSU8]Peter Schiff: Why government guaranteed student loans are a terrible idea. (Part 2) - YouTube[/ame]


TL;DW: Government guaranteeing loans artificially drives up the cost of tuition, making a degree wayyyy overpriced.

 

[amateursurgeon]

Maybe the politicians should just tell the Boomers to go ahead and retire to make room for the new generation of workers. Sure, it's age discrimination, but if the Boomers had acted like responsible parents and told their kids that you need to get a "real" degree to get a job, we wouldn't be in this spot.

Actually, it would help if they would go ahead and retire, but our current climate of fear is making that hard since so many are tied up in bad real estate and investments. I'm sure there will be some sort of help, but it won't just help the kids of today - it would probably help a lot of older people as well. I'm 32 (my parents are the oldest of the Baby Boomers) and my friends still have some school debt.

Lowering and freezing interest rates, especially in private debt as well as government debt, would go a long way to helping. But I'm hard core enough to shudder a bit at the thought of excusing or bailing out someone who has a $100k degree in basket weaving. They had those degrees when I was in school ten years ago for about the same price, and only the idiots got them then. It's messy - like all things political.

How can we have so many people holding worthless degrees and student loans, but so many companies crying over a lack of skilled employees without pushing some of the blame back on students, the schools taking their money and the parents for not actually helping the kids choose wisely when possible?

Also, how many of the kids are moving to where the jobs are? How many are working minimum-wage jobs to start heading up some sort of career ladder and gain experience? How many are sitting in dirty clothes whining about it and waiting for a handout? Ugh.

There's a problem with that - if the Boomers retire, they'll want to start drawing down their pensions. And then they'll discover how little is left in the pot.

We have a similar problem over here... young people can't afford housing because the housing market is so stupidly high. You get a lot of older people wringing their hands over how terrible it is. But when it comes to sell their home? They're happy to be part of the problem. It won't even be solved when they all die, because the government will suck up the gains in inheritance taxes.

90% of degrees are a total fucking con (apart from medicine, law, engineering etc). Universities are just another way to tie the populace into debt-slavery.

 

[barman]

i think a good amount of this problem can be solved (wishful thinking) if their was more focus on entrepreneurship and / or the individual spirit. when the country is depending on a a few thousand corporations for its 'jobs' that's not going to win in the long run.

it seems like things are changing with progressive schools that teach differently (see Brain Rules), but there's still a longggg way to go. Kids are only taught how to take tests so they can get into college. Then they go to college to get a job, but when there are no jobs, well, you're fucked.

Are there any entrepreneurial colleges out there? There are business schools for sure, but business schools exist so you can be become a corporate drone. And if you stick it out long enough, you might figure out how to become the drove slave-driver.

Are any schools teaching how to be fuckin pro in sales, invention, or entrepreneurship in general? This path seems like something you have to be born with, or pick up on the school of hard knox, because they sure crush that spirit through our educational system.

If you can't find a job make your fucking own.

 

[JakeStratham]

At barman:

Thiel had the right idea.

Hyper-libertarian Facebook billionaire Peter Thiel's appalling plan to pay students to quit college. - Slate Magazine

*Aside from its entertainment value, ignore the author's huffing and puffing.

 

[Unarmed Gunman]

Seems like a great way to buy votes.

 

[7Radu]

re: the value college education: it seems like most of the guys here only see white and black;

good luck bros

 

[JarredLv]

I'm sure the timing of this is purely coincidental.


Presidents gonna pander

 

[guerilla]

Maybe the politicians should just tell the Boomers to go ahead and retire to make room for the new generation of workers. Sure, it's age discrimination, but if the Boomers had acted like responsible parents and told their kids that you need to get a "real" degree to get a job, we wouldn't be in this spot.

You don't need a degree to get a job, and I am much more interested in hiring someone who didn't get a degree than someone who did get one. Why would I want to hire someone who is 4 years work experience behind someone who didn't go to school?

Actually, it would help if they would go ahead and retire, but our current climate of fear is making that hard since so many are tied up in bad real estate and investments.

It's not a climate of fear. Western economies, but worst of all the US economy, are completely backwards. People were encouraged to spend instead of save, and that is a social and political consequence of economic games the government has played since the Depression.

Lowering and freezing interest rates, especially in private debt as well as government debt, would go a long way to helping.

Distorting interest rates is exactly why this mess exists. Higher rates would make people think twice before borrowing and create more incentive for these loans to be paid off or settled quickly.

The interest rate is a the price of savings. When you play with it, you destroy the capital structure of an economy.

All of our economic progress is predicated on having a very strong capital structure. Deprived of capital (savings), economies can and will regress.

Also, how many of the kids are moving to where the jobs are? How many are working minimum-wage jobs to start heading up some sort of career ladder and gain experience? How many are sitting in dirty clothes whining about it and waiting for a handout? Ugh.

Yes, big mess.

 

[amateursurgeon]

re: the value college education: it seems like most of the guys here only see white and black;

good luck bros

Not at all, it's just that on an Internet forum, shades of grey make for a fucking boring debate.

 

[CLKeenan]

Paid for my private college tuition in cash cause I saved before college, worked my ass of through college, and didn't get a fucking useless degree. I'll be slightly upset if people get their debts wiped.