<p>poetgrl,</p>
<p>Once again, I think you are ignoring the facts and creating theatre, so to speak.</p>
<p>The unemployment rate for college grads is about 4%. Again, what is the crisis you want to avert?</p>
<p>Wouldn’t things change if the college were on the hook for defaulted loans? They would think twice about their costs and some of the programs they offered. </p>
<p>“Uh, you want to borrow $100,000 to get a Poetry degree?” </p>
<p>Another thing being overlooked in this discussion is that there is (practically) free college in the form of community colleges. Why should the taxpayers subsidize loans for those who bought expensive private college degrees that they couldn’t afford and for which they had no plan to pay back, when taxpayers are already paying for community colleges that cost very little?</p>
<p>I generally “like” Bay’s posts, as well.</p>
<p>But, one must not forget the lessons of history. One must listen when this many disaffected youth begin to mass around one single issue. Particularly if you want to keep your social security and medicare benefits as the years go on. Gen Y is almost as big as the boomers. Gen X? We are just exhausted and squeezed between you guys. But, we have learned how to listen when they start to set up the guillotine in the middle of zuccoti park.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Bay, ignore the theater going on at your own expense.</p>
<p>The unemployment rate for ALL college grads is only 4%. The unemployment rate for those recently graduated is @ or around 9-13% if you are caucaison, 24% if you are a recent african american graduate. Those stats are misleading.</p>
<p>Also, Bay, please cite, if you want to be cited back to.</p>
<p>Thanks, YooperScooper. :)</p>
<p>“You don’t think a COLLEGE-AGED STUDENT should be dedicated and responsible???”</p>
<p>Of course I do. I simply do not see how that has anything to do with college being a privilege. </p>
<p>My son got money from his school and we are paying the rest. Does that make them less dedicated and responsible than a student who has to pay for their education themselves? Am I babying him because we are picking up the difference between what the college is giving him and the COA?</p>
<p>Are students in countries where the gov’t pays for their university education less responsible and less dedicated than Americans who pay for their education? They certainly seem to me to turn into productive citizens, with good jobs without starting out being buried under a mountain of debt.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I do think medicare and ss are serious issues. Not student loans.</p>
<p>I actually feel some guilt and responsibility towards the “Occupiers.” Not because of their ostensible sacrifices, but because I think they are acting like spoiled children, and I bear some guilt for raising a generation who feels so entitled and lazy to lie around and hold up signs rather than go out and fix/change things.</p>
<p>No one is twisting anyone’s arm to take out a “mountain of debt”. As has been pointed out, there are many AFFORDABLE means to continue one’s education. And, yes, I do think some people baby their adult children. It’s not going to kill a college-educated person to put off the new car, swanky apartment, and expensive wardrobe to pay back their loans. If he/she has NO job, then, yes----restructure the debt.</p>
<p>Amen, Bay!</p>
<p>well, that’s the thing, Bay. medicare, social security, the cost of debt to recent graduates, these are all very intertwined. They are simply not stand alone issues.</p>
<p>when historians study this era in a hundred or so years, they will write about it as one of the most corrupt eras ever.</p>
<p>Poetgirl +100 for your posts on this thread. </p>
<p>Wait a few years and the bankers will get the congress to allow people to not pay into SS or get rid of it all together, They will use the old “you should be able to do what you want with your own money” tripe. The bankers are chomping at the bit to get your money, now that the mortgage gravy train is over. They’ve already managed to get the money you need to grow for retirement - which, when there were defined pension plans one didn’t need to have to do. They have also maneuvered the int. rate so low your money loses value if you just save it. And so into the market with everything you can spare will go. And that’s work out really swell for most Americans 401ks so far, not. </p>
<p>Mark my words.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Maybe. I prefer to think they will look back at it as another challenge that Americans rose up to and conquered. It is not insurmountable, it will just take some guts, and that is what we used to be known for.</p>
<p>Re post #77: An undergraduate could not possibly borrow $212K. The Obama initiative re student loans applies only to federally guaranteed loans, not the private industry. (Stafford loans, Perkins loans, etc.). The maximum that students can currently borrow under the Stafford program is roughly $22K. </p>
<p>(I find that that the article quoted is abysmal in its level of ignorance and inability to distinguish between private and government supported loans. I find it only slightly less appalling that a poster on CC doesn’t know the difference).</p>
<p>Bay–crony capitalism, or corporate welfare, are the most challenging types of corruption to fight. The elected officials are in bed with the bankers and the corporations offshoring the jobs. I hope you are right.</p>
<p>But, the laws aren’t in favor of the independent businessperson anymore, and the debt is being foisted onto the backs of our youth, and I expect the class warfare will turn to generational warfare if the kids are continued to be expected to pay for the entitlements of their elders, having recieved none of the benefits of a solid mostly debt free beginning that the boomers were given by their parents.</p>
<p>The housing bubble was created by unwise lending and now tuition has soared due to the same thing. </p>
<p>Students and lenders need to view a student loan as if they were giving a business loan. What is the market for the degree you seek? What are your chances, based on your GPA and test scores, that you are likely to succeed in getting that degree? What sort of salary can you expect when you graduate? In other words, is the student a good risk?</p>
<p>poetgrl,
Our condition can be spun any number of ways (check out Drew Houston in Forbes this month to refute your assertion against the independent businessman). Yes, we need to come to grips with taking care of our parents, but supposedly we will also be the recipients of the largest inheritance largess ever. We boomers will retire soon, and that will free up new jobs. We will figure it all out, but I’d prefer to do it without letting smart people off the hook for paying $24K loans. Pssh.</p>
<p>The maximum that students can currently borrow under the Stafford program is roughly $22K. </p>
<p>Not so. A dependent undergrad can borrow up to $31k; an independent undergrad can borrow up to $57,500. Grad students can borrow up to $138,500. If the student borrows Perkins loans, this adds to the maximum debt level.</p>
<p>This is just the start, in my opinion. I think the taxpayers will be left holding the bag for a lot more student loan money than this … it’s the tip of the iceberg. Sometimes I wonder why I bother being frugal & living within my means. It’s depressing.</p>
<p>If people want a free education they can join the Military, serve 4 years, and get the new GiBill which makes an in-state education free (private schools up to $37,500 with the yellow ribbon program). I will graduate with <10k in loans and those are because I choose not to work while I am in school. There are ways to go to college without breaking the bank if the student wants to.</p>
<p>kelsmom–</p>
<p>given your involvement in and knowledge of financial aid, I always find your opinions on this matter to be very enlightening. </p>
<p>when you say this is the tip of the iceberg? Do you mean you think many will refuse to repay or be unable to repay these loans? Are you seeing kids take on more and more, now? Or are they getting smarter about it then they were four or five years ago?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Then it is a fait accompli that you exempt from this weak thinking large, for profit, financial businesses. </p>
<p>That’s a BIG Tea Hat you’re sporting!</p>
<p>I’m certainly not in favor or any bailouts or loan forgiveness, but my sister (who has two college graduates with fairly large loans…one of 80K for undergrad/graduate school) told me that her daughters pay 7% interest on these loans. That the govt is really slow to adjust them to what current interest rates are. That when they passed the health care law and added the student loan stuff to it, that they took away the ability of private lenders to do student loans. And now that the govt has a lock on it, they can pretty much charge these kids whatever they want (don’t know if this is accurate, it’s what she told me). Maybe 7% was a good rate many years ago, but a pretty high rate now. That ought to be brought way down to be in line with current interest rates. If this is true, that is crazy…and these kids ought to be protesting DC on this one, not the banks.</p>
<p>Any truth to this? I can’t validate it, it’s just what she told me.</p>