I don’t get it but I do. Going abroad and shirking your responsibilities is better then living on the street. My junior daughter went to Indonesia for study abroad then with the state department critical language learning program and then traveled on her own dime for 2 months going to Thailand, Loas and Cambodia. She also taught English and did youth hostels etc. Very cheap over there and they don’t praise material items like we do. But when she had 3 months in the summer before going back to school and within one week she had 3 nanny jobs with 3 more families wanting her. This was at about $20.00/hour. She worked two families back to back most days including the weekends but managed to make some time for herself to go out etc. It can be done. Kids just have to have the tenacity to make it work. When my daughter is done with school she already knows she might have to work her day job with another job to make ends meet until she gets a promotion etc.
My S wanted to save a lot AND live in a nicer place than he could easily afford with the paycheck he was getting, so he opted to work a part time job along with his full-time job. This allows him to save AND have more money to spend as he chooses.
Shirking responsibilities and opting to move to another country while allowing your debt to balloon certainly burns a bridge to return. If they inherit anything, in the US, said asset may be seized as well.
While I agree there are lots of problems with granting young people significant loans, graduating owing $20,000-30,000 doesn’t seem insurmountable and seems a short-sighted reason to become a fugitive.
I’d imagine these defaulters will make lenders more likely to want co-signers for more educational loans who will remain liable even if the student becomes a fugitive.
One of my sons is working in Eastern Europe. COL is such that he can live independently AND pay his student loans. Before he left, he had a second job a couple evenings a week to make more money. It was still nowhere near enough to live on his own in our high COL area.
DH and I didn’t finish paying off his student loans til 1998 at age 37 (mine finished in 1994). Had to finish that before we could buy a house. We were also paying rent and child care during those years. Things were tight, but the mortgage on our brains is what got us out of the paycheck-to-paycheck/debt collector scenarios we grew up in.
Pay your loans and pay it forward!
Failing to file US income tax, and failing to pay it if owed, can result in the individual being unable to renew their US passport. Do hope that these folks are at least filing. Chances are that their incomes are too low to owe US tax because of the foreign income exclusions.
I know people who moved abroad to teach English so as to pay off their student debt. In one case the debt was in the 90k-100k range, but the person did manage to get rid of the debt in about 10 years working in Japan and Korea.
Society: Go to college!
Teenager: Goes to college, acquires large debt, graduates in worst economy since Great Depression.
Society: I can’t believe you went to college! You are morally failing for not paying your loans.
No college will give an undergrad $30,000 without parents’ co-signing. So essentially, these kids – and let’s face it at 18 they’re still kids, few have a clue what $30K debt means – have their parents’ permission to borrow this money. The parents’ message is, essentially, it’ll be OK.So I’m not at all shocked that these kids are dismayed and bitter after reality rears its ugly head. I’m not condoning, but also not condemning. There is a lot of blame to go around in this situation, and it includes everyone, from the kiddo, to his family, the school and the way higher education is set up in this country.
Also, overall economic trends in the US are moving in unfavorable directions for today’s high school graduates compared to their parents’ generation.
Career jobs are demanding more education and training (paid for by the job seeker, as opposed to on the job training), while the cost of such education and training is higher now, and therefore less accessible or riskier (due to debt needed) for those without wealthy parents.
People here often post about the value of college education that is not the job or career value. But the cost is so high for many families that job and career value is paramount in college decisions to avoid scenarios like in the article examples. Liberal arts are therefore often (not always accurately) perceived as luxuries for the scions of wealth, compared to preprofessional subjects (though these have pitfalls as well).
Except, some of their examples don’t fit that narrative. One person interviewed, graduated in 2007, before the recession hit. Two people interviewed, graduated in 2013, well after the recovery was underway.
@roethlisburger: In that case, I guess we should disregard my general point?
@Demosthenes49 - The general point that you made doesn’t fit with the reality of tens of thousands of students who go to community college, go part time to school while working, commute to their closest campus, or make different choices that fit within their budget. We read it every day here on CC. What can you afford? Society does say “go to college” to acquire the skills needed to compete in the world. Society does NOT say go away to a residential 4 year institution across the country where you will find the tallest climbing wall, a lazy river, 4 rec. centers, unlimited food options, and luxury dorms with private baths.
Society also says to buy/lease an expensive new car every 3 years, live in a McMansion with a private bath for every family member plus guests, wear designer clothes and accessories, visit Disney World to celebrate every milestone, and travel the world. This is not reasonable and people realize that while all of these things might be nice, the reality is that we just can’t afford these things. Just like college, lenders would be more than happy to “help us” live the dream.
These students are adults. Young adults, but adults. They entered into a contract, received the education, and have an obligation to pay back the loans. Yes, these adults are morally failing for not paying their loans by hiding away. Tens of thousands of their peers also graduated during the recession and are honoring their obligations by paying what they owe. I just don’t see what society owes them.
Society: Go to college!
Teenager: Ok, which one?
Society: You must choose between outrageously expensive schools that provide job prospects and cheaper schools that do not!
Teenager: They both sound like bad choices. Is there a third option like in most other developed countries?
Society: No; you must choose!
Teenager: Chooses cc college, has hard time finding job, complains.
Society: Why are you complaining? You had a choice.
@Demosthenes49 - You are looking at this as absolutes as outrageously expensive schools providing job prospects and cheaper schools that do not.
The reality is there are thousands on institutions in between. Plenty of state directional graduates are gainfully employed in fulfilling careers providing a living. Plenty of community college to state school graduates successfully navigating the world. Plenty of adults who went part time, took time off to work, or transferred to a school so they could live at home who are now successfully adulting and paying their bills. Plenty of families who scrimped, saved, and went without whatever it is society said they needed to have to pay for college for their children. This is not a winner takes all race. There are thousands of paths that all lead to happy, healthy, responsible adults who live within their means and honor their commitments. This doesn’t fit the narrative for those who are status chasing or those who want something for nothing, but this is the reality of most of the population. College is a means to an end, not the destination.
Also, having a “hard time finding a job” is not only an issue for those recent community college graduates in your narrative or the end of the line damning them to a life of poverty. Plenty of top tier graduates have trouble finding jobs, as well as downsized mid career managers, those that have watched their industries flooded with new graduates, those in industries that have collapsed in the new economy, and those that have aged and priced themselves above the market. Somehow people adapt, reskill, and move on. They are not all out blaming society for making them follow the path that they traveled and they are not expecting society to pick up and erase the debts incurred for their choices.
@bamamom2021: Some people succeed, therefore the system is fine? I’ll note I don’t see much complaining about society extorting massive tuition out of teenagers. I’ll assume this is one of those “do as I say and not as I do” scenarios.
Our GC’s require every college-ready senior to apply to the local Cal State, even those applying to the Ancient Eight. (you can only refuse to apply to Cal State with a parental note from home.) Plenty of grads from the Cal States are readily employable, and reasonbly cheap, and you can live at home, so ‘Society’ in this case, does not match your theory.
EVERY college will give a student almost that much or more in direct loans, no parent signature necessary. A student can take $27k in Stafford loans, but some of that each year will be unsubsidized, so at graduation the student will owe more than that, very close to $30k. Some schools also have their own loans, some states have extra loan money, and until about 3 years ago, there were Perkins loans that could bring the student’s max to over $30k.
I have one kid who borrowed $15k and she could, if she wanted to, repay half of it before it is even due (starts next month). She has a nice job, a nice apartment, a new car. She took a job in a location that wasn’t her first choice but she went for the money. She likes the job, just wishes it were somewhere else.
My other daughter will be more like the students in the article. She’s a history major and won’t have a high paying job right out of college. She also won’t have a car because she can’t afford one. She’s taking a low paying job that she wants for 6-9 months (against my recommendation). After that she’s going to look into doing Americorps - if she wants to live ‘rustic’ she can do it right here in America and retire some of that student loan debt while she does it!
@twoinanddone – OMG, that’s even worse! An 18 year old with no life experience and less financial experience can get themselves into hock for 30 grand without their parents’ knowledge???
Wow this is messed up! 
And entirely the fault of the adults in charge!
I’m not sure what your general point is? Are you claiming kids need to be more worried about the 1-2% probability they graduate during a once in 80 year recession? Or do you think $30k in debt is a bad idea in general?
I have limited funds. Where should I go to college?
A. An in-state public
B. Community college
C. An out of state public
I’m borrowing money to go to college. What should I major in?
A. Economics
B. Nursing
C. Philosophy
I’m having trouble paying my bills. What should I do?
A. Take a second or third job
B. Send out resumes to everyone in my field in the nation, relocate and live with a bunch of roommates
C. Go back to school to get a graduate degree in comparative lit
I want to work as a comparative lit prof. but I can’t get a position. What should I do?
A. Take a job as a private school teacher
B. Take a job in an unrelated field
C. Work part-time as an adjunct professor
I have student loans I can’t pay back. What should I do?
A. Renegotiate my loans. Pay what I can until my work stabilizes
B. Leave the country for work. Keep paying my loans
C. Leave the country. Skip out on my loans.
Chad Haag chose option C every time.
@Sue22, Did we read the same artcile?
Chad Haag went to an inexpensive public as an instate student. Then got a Master’s, again at the instate flag ship. He DID work in an unrelated field, and could not afford rent and his student loans in an area where rents are by far outpacing earnings.
Chad Haag made some choices that might have been unfortunate. The most obvious were his choices in majors. However, he was a kid. Kids make mistakes sometimes.
There is a quote from the story:
“Something has gone horribly awry with this lending system.”
I think that this is correct. Encouraging kids to take on even $20,000 in debt for a degree that does not lead to a job is irresponsible. The government is subsidizing these loans (up to I think $28,000 for four years if I remember the number correctly). If any politician were to advocate ending student loans they would be torn apart for cruelty to students. However, the real cruelty is encouraging irresponsible behavior.
Taking on excessive debt is not a good idea. We should not be encouraging it.