Student loan debts crush an entire generation

[marmar]

from Salon.com:



Student loan debts crush an entire generation
Hyped like subprime mortgages, school loans now run to hundreds of billions with no relief in sight





By Alex Pareene


USA Today says that at some point this year, student loan debt will exceed $1 trillion, surpassing even credit card debt. Felix Salmon says the number is closer to $550 billion. Either way total student loan debt is rising as other debts have tailed off. Delinquency has increased, too, since the height of the financial crisis.

It’s a huge mess.

Some people have noticed that “student loan debt” comes up a lot among the Wall Street Occupiers and the members of the 99 percent movement. Often, older people, who either attended school when tuition was reasonable, or who didn’t attend college at all in an era when a high school diploma was enough of a qualification for a stable, middle-class career, tend to think this is all the entitled whining of spoiled kids. They don’t understand that these kids accepted a home mortgage worth of debt before they ever even had a regular income, based on phony promises, and that the debt is inescapable, regardless of life circumstances or ability to pay.

Thanks to the horrific 2005 bankruptcy bill, one of the most nakedly venal modern examples of Congress serving the interests of the rentiers and creditors over the vast majority, debtors cannot discharge student loans through bankruptcy. The government is shielded from the risk, and creditors are licensed to collect by almost any means they deem necessary, giving no one in charge any real incentive (beyond basic human decency) to fix the situation. ..............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.salon.com/2011/10/20/student_loan_debts_crush_an_entire_generation/

[Warpy]

1. Most of them had to take on debt that should have bought them houses

so don't expect the housing market to improve at all until the student loan crisis is addressed and many loans forgiven, outright, and others modified.

The average new doc has a quarter of a million in debt and some go up to half a million if they spent an additional 10 years getting qualified in a specialty. The whole thing has just gotten totally insane. If you want to know why it's a hundred bucks just to go through the door, that's why.

[TBF]

2. K&R nt

[madrchsod]

3. don`t forget the parents of these students.

my wife and i signed a student loan to help out our son`s college tuition. if he can`t pay us back it comes out of our estate when we die.

[Magoo48]

4. Fogive all student debt-- extract funds from defense--let go the empire!!

[razorman]

5. Why don't we ever hear of any protests against Big Education? College tuitions are a huge racket,

and the textbook industry is a scam. We rightfully rail against the abuses of Big Oil, Big Pharma, and the corporate culture, but no one calls the education system to account. Why?

[BeyondGeography]

6. Great quote re. for-proft education

"Of course, you know an industry is generally bad for the world as a whole once Goldman Sachs gets into it."

[They_Live]

7. One of my questions is this:

If student loans are forgiven, does this mean I am allowed to go back to school and get my degree for free?

[Fuddnik]

8. If we rejoin the civilized world, yes.

Education should be free. It not only benefits the student, but the nation as a whole.

Two words that should never be used in the same sentence. "Student" and Loan".

[eppur_se_muova]

9. How's that compare to total student loan debt in Europe?

Just rubbing it in.