what can the US do about the student debt problem?

[Finear]

It's not free, it just ends up making other people have to pay more in tax to finance a generation of idiots doing Gender studies courses.

less than 1% is a generation in your book? (and if you count the number of people who actually finish 5-year course it goes even lower)
not to mention that uni would have to actually offer gender studies in the 1st place

[Mormolyce]

Our system isn't great, but the way it works is that you don't have to pay it back unless you earn over a certain threshold. The more you earn the higher the % of your income they deduct to pay off your loan.

I think when I was still paying mine off, it was at about 8% of my salary or something. I had a reasonably high income compared to the country's average though.

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It's not free, it just ends up making other people have to pay more in tax to finance a generation of idiots doing Gender studies courses.

You're referring to our parents' generation?

Or possibly grandparents', depends how old you are.

[Talon8669]

Great, lets make that happen.

Side note, I do not feel entitled and expect others to pay my debts? However as an adult who went back to school at a local tech college it was still expensive and that is a drop in the bucket to 4 year d1 schools. Stuff like the price of books, which are then bought back at a fraction of the cost, the price of classes etc..etc.. are all out of control. So like I said why does the US never seem to want to look at what other countries do better then us and why do we not want to improve?

I'm glad you liked the part you highlighted but the follow up to that is critical and essentially I'm talking about what is already in place. It shouldn't be enough to send you to an ivy league school but enough to cover 2 years at a community college and then 2 years at a lower end to kid tier university. If you wanted to go to a better school the additional cost would be on the individual.

[Zython]

Idk WTF that even means. The very notion that you think a just punishment would be execution under such extreme conditions is disturbing. The topic is about student loan debt. My argument in this thread has been that individuals need to pay the debt they incur and not seek bail outs or ask that the rest of us be taxed to pay for their debts. I would never expect anyone else to pay my debts and it's ridiculous to think the government or a tax on the rich and corporations should be an option. I assume your disturbing comment has something to do with national debt? If you want to fix that the government needs to control its spending and seriously cut social programs.

So do you believe being a bootlicker will convince rich assholes to spare you/pay you, or do you actually own stock in these corporations? What’s your angle here?

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Obama and Clinton were centrists. They would not have won running on a platform of free education. Clinton once referred to himself as an "Eisenhower Republican", half in jest, when talking about how far to the right our country had shifted, and how his policies were not really that liberal on an absolute scale. I think both he and Obama would have liked to have made more sweeping changes but neither was able to - remember, both decisively lost their majorities during the first midterm - in 2010 the Democrats went from a 70 person majority to a 50 person minority, and in 1994 they went from a 70 seat majority to a 30 seat minority.

So yes, politics has to do with it. Liberal policies have been broadly unpopular since Reagan.

Do you have any polls supporting this claim? And if you don’t, what will you give up for lying?

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It's the student's debt. They get themselves out. If they bail out student debt, why not bail out all debt. Let's all have no consequence!

This, but unironically.

[Zalen]

Why shouldnt it be free ?
Having en enlightened society is a benefit to everyone.

There is this thing called the public library. Lots of nice old books there for everyone to enlighten themselves to their hearts content.

College is a scam, and this is from someone with a bachelor's in accounting and mechanical engineering.

I tell everyone I meet now who is in high school to really consider what they want to do, and to highly consider a trade instead and starting their own business, or start one after an apprenticeship to learn the ropes of the business and trade.

[cubby]

It wasn't any less of an issue when Obama had a democratic majority in congress, but nothing got fixed then either.

This issue has nothing to do with political parties and everything to do with $$.

You couldn't be more wrong.

Devos started rolling back Obama programs that would help remove some of the student debt burden. Devos just lost a court case about this. Please don't argue the ridiculous "both sides" when you don't know what you're talking about.

Obama was moving forward with a test case for free Comm College and Bernie Sanders had put together a plan as well.

Could you please list all the GOP members who had student loan plans ready to go or drawn up?

[The Stormbringer]

Force colleges and universities to stop bloating their budgets with unnecessary positions and fluff. They exist to teach students useful skills and knowledge, not be the coolest place around. Get them to be more competitive and push prices down. Offer tax breaks to colleges that lower tuitions and costs for dorms and the like, etc.

Or, y'know, restructure higher education like the bulk of the world where it's all paid by taxes.

[ghotihook]

The one thing I wish I knew is that the school that you go to does not matter in most cases. I only got a 2 yr degree, but I could have easily saved $15K.

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Except a minimum wage job doesn't pay for the cost of a year of college...

If someone is making minimum wage after college they have more problems than anyone could help them with.

[Talon8669]

So do you believe being a bootlicker will convince rich assholes to spare you/pay you, or do you actually own stock in these corporations? What’s your angle here?

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Do you have any polls supporting this claim? And if you don’t, what will you give up for lying?

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This, but unironically.

I have no angle and I do not own stock. I already stated my angle and that is individuals need to be held accountable for their debt. If it is not abundantly clear I do not support socialism. I do not support the taxation of the many, of the rich, of corporations or any other party to pay for the debt of any individual regardless of how many there are. Each individual needs to be held accountable for the commitments they made to pay for their debts. It is clear your agenda is the redistribution of wealth which I find hard to believe people actually feel so entitled as to think this is an acceptable approach. If you want a better life for yourself you need to earn it.

[the game]

It's the student's debt. They get themselves out. If they bail out student debt, why not bail out all debt. Let's all have no consequence!

We do bailout debt. It's called bankruptcy.

[Stormspellz]

nothing should be done about it, if the students took out the loan they should pay it back. Ignorance is no defense if they didn't know how it works that's their problem.

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You are correct because we don't support giving deadbeats free handouts

you just like exploiting them, but how the hell is addressing collage debt anything about "deadbeats"

[Realitytrembles]

All public universities and trade schools should be tuition free. Raise taxes on the wealthy to pay for it.

[Zython]

I have no angle and I do not own stock. I already stated my angle and that is individuals need to be held accountable for their debt. If it is not abundantly clear I do not support socialism. I do not support the taxation of the many, of the rich, of corporations or any other party to pay for the debt of any individual regardless of how many there are. Each individual needs to be held accountable for the commitments they made to pay for their debts. It is clear your agenda is the redistribution of wealth which I find hard to believe people actually feel so entitled as to think this is an acceptable approach. If you want a better life for yourself you need to earn it.

You say that as though the rich earned their station in life.

[Vantheus]

you just like exploiting them, but how the hell is addressing collage debt anything about "deadbeats"

all debt is about deadbeats, if you're not responsible enough to pay it back don't take it on...a good rule of thumb for the successful is if you can't pay for it today you don't need it... When I hire people at Intel, I run credit checks and people with bad credit are irresponsible and do not get interviews.

[Stormspellz]

all debt is about deadbeats, if you're not responsible enough to pay it back don't take it on...a good rule of thumb for the successful is if you can't pay for it today you don't need it... When I hire people at Intel, I run credit checks and people with bad credit are irresponsible and do not get interviews.

how typically republican lacking any level of basic empathy

[Airlick]

What some of you Americans advocating free education don't realize, is that it doesn't come without its own costs and risks. What is the most popular measure by which money is donated to universities in countries with free high-level education? Number of students, and then there are dotations based on the university's students and teaching staff accomplishments. This inevitably leads to universities bloating their course portfolios with useless courses like the meme Gender Studies degree that was mentioned here a couple of times. Eventually they are transformed into "master's factories" that, of course, still have some great students, but a great portion of them are people that picked up a course simply because they could do it for free and wanted to delay their entry into real life. They don't learn anything and are just pushed forward in many cases, because the university wants money they get from keeping them, and even if they do study, they only learn useless things.

Now, let's say you make it so that only the "useful" degrees are free. What is the metric you use? Sociology or philosophy may not be as profittable as engineer/medical degrees, but are they automatically useless?
Let's say you review which students can get free tuition. There is a lot of paperwork required there, so bureacracy grows. Also, you can rest assured that it won't just be "the rich" paying taxes to cover those tuitions. It will be all of you.

So, on one hand you have idiots drowning themselves and noone else, except maybe for their families, in debt to study Gender Studies. On the other hand, you would all be paying for their 3-5 years of leisure studying such a "degree", until they end up flipping burgers and start whining that they wasted all this time. Which would you rather have? I'm sure US universities, just like everywhere else in the world, also have many types of scholarships for good students, so you only need to study well enough to at least reduce, if not remove the costs. Maybe the scholarships are just not good enough, though. I'm not familiar with them at all.

My point isn't that US education system is perfect, only that the general principle of paid higher education is good. In principle, it should mean that only those determined enough or those well-off enough will be getting it, and while it may exclude some people that would have been good students but are put off by the costs, it is still better than the twisted system we have in many countries (if not all) in Europe. US system may require reviewing, the universities may be scamming people with inflated tuition fees and useless courses, but that is what you should be reforming, not turning to the other extreme.
If there is a simple cure for it, it is expanding scholarships for good students, those who display actual results and can be considered worthy of putting money into, regardless of the degree they are studying (to an extent, of course. There is a huge difference between, say, philosophy, and, I hate to call it all the time, but I will - Gender Studies). What can be considered actual results? I can tell you an example I am more familiar with, that is studying in China as a foreigner. If you want to do a master's degree here, you have to blow probably some 20k dollars on tuition alone, and then you also have to cover the other costs - and you're not allowed to work, at least legally. But then the scholarships are very generous, as well - but the requirements are also very high. Not only you need a very high score on HSK exam (basically a language exam), but you need to score over 90% points on all exams, have almost perfect attendance, and there are also HSK exams every year that they use to evaluate your progress. In return, you get free tuition, room and a living allowance that you can easily get by without worrying at all and still save some. I'm sure US/state government could easily afford to fund this kind of scholarships for the best students.
It is definitely better than having higher education open to everyone. Let's face facts here, a good portion of people is only good enough for flipping burgers. It is more fair to have them pick up a vocational school, for example, than pool wool over their eyes by letting them study at a university, for which they are not predestined, be it because of low intelligence or because they simply don't like to study, and have them realise 5 years (at most) later that they are not meant for this and they can't find a decent job with their Gender Studies degree.

[Vantheus]

how typically republican lacking any level of basic empathy

How typically Democrat/lazy wanting everything given to you.. my obligations are to my family not yours

[AkundaMrdal]

Why people become debt slaves by graduating with some stupid degree, which doesn't even earn them money?

[Stormspellz]

How typically Democrat/lazy wanting everything given to you.. my obligations are to my family not yours

Oh more strawman, no is asking to be handed everything, people are asking not to be thrown under a bus of debt for college, not have the government actively support financial exploration, let alone scam colleges (thanks Devos).

[VanishingAct]

Problem with that is that its an individual decision that affects the individual.
My thoughts on university is that the government should subsidise degrees that are needed in the nation, namely STEM courses.

In the end, if you're going to university it is your responsibility to be smart and take courses that you know will get you employed in a field that you both enjoy and can obtain a realistic lifestyle that you want.
But being the freemarket that America is, colleges rather sell courses of any sorts without much consideration to the student. Should colleges be regulated? Should colleges be mandated to provide education on student loan debts, so that the consumers/students are aware of the consequences of student debt?
Should colleges be restricted on the amount of applicants for courses like social sciences where the employment opportunity's in the field is extremely low?