Will federal student loan debt be the next big bailout?

[MatadorMedia]

There are currently a few ways in which to slim down your student loans. I think there will definitely be a bigger push toward more federal financial aid grants (and less loans) or new plans. I'm on a 10 year forgiveness plan right now so as long as I pay my loans for 10 years then the rest is absolved which is a good deal.

[Mayhem]

snip.

Alright, the problem herein lies that you don´t pay more for better degrees right? So the uncapped demand falls flat on it´s face, because the degrees that aren´t sought after aren´t cheaper than the ones that are. Supply and demand explains the unemployment, but not the tuition fees.

[I Push Buttons]

Its not a problem right now, but it will be a problem in a couple years.

Reading a lot of stuff recently about a so-called "lost generation" we are creating currently. No jobs for millennials, coupled with college debt, coupled with the lack of jobs meaning no experience/foundation to build upon...

In a few years there will just be a sizable population of 30 somethings, with no work experience, still paying down their college debt... And it only gets worse from there as more and more is automated because there will be even fewer jobs making the market that much more competitive.

But the fault lies with the millennials because they are all lazy and entitled, so its k.

[Mayhem]

An interesting read: https://hbr.org/2014/06/the-capitalists-dilemma

[Tinykong]

In a few years there will just be a sizable population of 30 somethings, with no work experience, still paying down their college debt..

There already is a sizable population of these people, called boomerang children.

[vindicatorx]

Would be nice of they would I could handle not owing $45k

[Stormdash]

They wouldn't, which would be the point. Any person willing to go receive education or change careers which would require re-education, it shouldn't be a financial risk. Students shouldn't be seen as a profit center, but rather an investment into the future of a country, an economy.

Why shouldn't it be a financial risk to change careers? What kind of candyland nonsense is that?

EDIT: To be clear, it IS a financial risk for someone to change careers and reeducate; that is an objective fact. So why shouldn't it be their risk? Why is that everybody else's be the guarantor of the risk associated with that personal life choice? Or should society just get to make the choice for them since society is bearing the risk?

[Tinykong]

THE GOOD NEWS is that AI may come along soon enough to totally flip-flop the power structure/economic reality of the world.

At some point we're going to have to change to a universal basic income. There will come a time when there are not enough jobs, and people will be killing one another just to get in line to work for 8 hours cleaning shit out of toilet pipes for $10.

[Beazy]

There is a student loan bubble.
It will pop.

When will it pop? Who knows, just hope you're dead by then because another great recession is going to suck.

[Grapemask]

The only "bailout" that should occur is that tuition needs to stop skyrocketing.

I'm familiar with Georgia's school system, so I can comment on the schools here. Tuition is going up every year at several times the rate of inflation, but the services offered are not increasing. In fact, schools are leaning more and more towards incentivizing students toward hybrid or fully online courses, which cost the school substantially less to operate. USG schools are notoriously bad when it comes to pay increases for faculty and staff, too - with fewer and lower raises and promotions than many other employees see in a yearly period.

So where is this money going?

Straight into the USG's pocket as pure profit. They don't even hide the fact. Specifically at UGA, in the same year that UGA's faculty and staff were noted for receiving some of the lowest salaries of any school in the state, the president of UGA received a 500% raise (with a 7 digit salary, no less). Every president of every USG school in the state received a raise averaging around 500%, in fact. In Georgia, your wallet is getting bent over the back of the couch not to increase the quality of education, but so that some multi-millionaires can add more "multi"s to that title.

As far as I know, this is pretty much how it's working across the entire country. I have no idea why we don't riot against our state school systems with pitchforks.

[Piglord]

Can those of us that didn't pick a worthless degree and paid off our loans get our money back?

[Daethz]

Nope the idea is to make college cost more than what you will ever make from the degree times ten.

[Orlong]

So a rising problem in the united states is student loans. I've read it's up in the billions right now. Will student loans be the next big bailout in america now that the banks have been bailed out?

Its the borrowers fault if they dont pay it back. Perhaps they should live within their means and not run up credit cards, rent apartments that cost too much instead of a smaller one with a roommate. We shouldnt be bailing them out. I paid my student loans and they can pay theirs. If they dont pay their loans, then garnish their wages, sell their possessions, put a lien on their home if they own, confiscate any tax refunds etc... until the debt is paid. Nobody forced them to go to college and it isnt my fault if they chose to go to Harvard instead of the local community college

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It's just sad that the banks can get a bailout. Auto industry can get a bailout. But Americans can't.

If they bailed out students with loans, then I want refunded every penny I paid for my education too

[Orlong]

Why am I not surprised Orlong wrote this?

His loans were probably taken when college education cost 1-2k tops per semester.

Garnishing wages, selling possessions, leining their home (hint, Orlong: nobody with student loans under the age of 35 owns a house), confiscate tax refunds.

Lol. You are positively medieval in your thinking. I wish we could look through a viewscreen and see the country that your positively asinine, draconian thinking would lead to.

I went to college from 1992 to 1996 and had $20k in loans I paid back over 15 years

[Mayhem]

If they bailed out students with loans, then I want refunded every penny I paid for my education too

Going by your post history, you should get every penny paid for your education refunded anyway.

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I went to college from 1992 to 1996 and had $20k in loans I paid back over 15 years

That´s about $110 a month. Wtf?

[Cyberowl]

Going by your post history, you should get every penny paid for your education refunded anyway.

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That´s about $110 a month. Wtf?

Paying 20k back in 15 years is super low though, isn't it? Any half decent job you hopefully land after college should make you able to pay that amount of in 2-3 years, unless you immediately get out of college, get a house and 5 kids.

[Spectral]

The thing is, degrees that are not worthless often are far more costly for universities. Your degree was financed by their worthless degree.

And now my company employs them as diversity coordinators and sexual harassment trainers! It all comes full circle in the end.

[Daerio]

What I'd like to see if I was a US citizen would be for federal loans to only be given for those pursuing fields of study with clear employment prospects and those loans be capped to an amount in proportion to expected salaries. In return I would expect the interest rates to be significantly lower.

You do understand that tuition investment is a financial gain for the federal government, right? The government loans money to a bank, who loans it to you, and they BOTH generate positive income from it. (interest) The bank actually makes more off it than the government does, because capitalism works so well.

Not only does the federal government benefit in the mid-term from the interest you have to pay them back, it doubly benefits from the fact that you got educated and you're making more money, and subsequently paying more taxes, and receiving less welfare. Enabling people to be economically successful is a GOOD THING for the federal government.

As far as bail-outs, I don't know. First of all, calling it a bail-out is completely disingenuous. Other countries have free higher education. They don't call that a student bail-out, or consider it evil welfare; just a normal part of joining an advanced society.

Lastly, bailing out student tuition would be infinitely more beneficial to our society than the bail-outs we are still paying every year to the largest financial institutions on Earth. People who should have been decapitated or imprisoned are instead getting a government check every month that nobody is talking about; made all the more ridiculous by this current discussion.

[Daerio]

Also, can anyone tell me why the thread calls it 'Federal' student loan debt?

Is it meant to indicate that these students somehow owe the federal government, even though that isn't how it works?

[Cthulhu 2020]

The real problem is that young adults in their 20s and 30s are unable to be rabid consumers like people 20 years ago were because they must pay down massive college debts. Unfortunately for millennials, when people enter their 40s and 50s, their spending drops. That means, it makes more sense to totally write off the millennial generation. Instead of bailing millennials out, they will probably just let them suffer for the rest of their lives under debt, and focus on cutting the cost of college education for future generations of young adults.

It didn't have to be this way, but, millennials voted for Obama who was key to the massive bank bailouts that set all of this up. They asked for it and got it.

One solution would be to have "public college" in the same sense that we have "public high school". Public high school is free and government run, an option to private colleges. Just create a viable college version of a 4 year degree.

Republican governor of Texas Rick Perry pushed for universities to offer some 4-year degrees for $10,000 total.
http://www.politifact.com/texas/stat...-have-announc/

Republican governor of Florida Rick Scott did the same.
http://www.politifact.com/florida/st...offer-10k-deg/

These are not the best degrees you can get. But the point is these are stepping stones to bigger solutions. Proof-of-concept models. First, get universities to show they can offer a 4 year degree for $10k. Then get them to expand the program to more desirable degrees.

Just another example of republicans helping the little guy (which doesn't get reported by the whackjob left media outlets like CNN or MSNBC).

Your posts are always entertaining. It's like some fantasy novel where fascists rule with an iron fist over dirty libruhls.