Quote:
Originally Posted by dewilson58
- Outstanding student loan debt reached an all-time high of $1.41 trillion in 2019.
- Soaring college costs are a big factor in student loan debt, with out-of-state tuition and fees averaging $26,290 per year for a four-year public university and $35,830 for a private college.
- The average student loan balance per borrower hit a record high in 2018: $35,359.
- Borrowers who don't complete their degree have a harder time paying off their loans.
The averages are not devastating. The extreme borrowers (who are the minority) are the problem.
11% of student loans are +90 days delinquent.
37% of people who took out student loans never finished college and earned a degree.
People who get more advanced degrees tend to accumulate more debt, but they are also likely to make payments on their student loans on time. These people knew what they were doing. It was not greedy bankers. |
Just to demonstrate the magnitude of this issue, I did the math, based on your figures. 1.41 trillion divided by 35,359 equals about 40 million. So, we have 40 million people who went to school and now they each owe about $35,000 in student loans. That is about 12 percent of the entire U.S. population. But, about 15 million of those 40 million people never even got a college degree. I would question the real value of continuing the student loan program as it currently exists.