1 - As a result of this, many universities are talking students into useless degrees that do not pay enough to both live and make their student loan payments at the same time.
2 - The government guaranteed the student loans, so universities saw dollar signs and went on a hiring binge so many have more administrative staff than teachers. All on the backs of students getting loans that they knew would not be defaulted on.
3 - To maintain the gravy train, students were talked into going to college instead of a vocational or technical school where many would have thrived.
I don't like loan forgiveness, but this is not a good situation. Predatory lending to teenagers is a lot of what is going on.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MartinSE
The government created the problem by making student loans available and NOT regulating the universities so they could not raise tuition in response. With the rise in tuition came the rise in salaries, and more. Universities became a profit center. And they devolved into the mess we have today - sort of like healthcare. Education and healthcare in my not so humble opinion have no business being businesses. They are investments in our country but improve productivity and competition with the rest of the world.
So, we screwed up, and we need to fix it. $2T of debt is a serious burden that students are carrying because our government screwed up. They were told over and over growing up - "YOU HAVE TO HAVE A COLLEGE DEGREE TO SUCCEED". Then they looked into it and found that would cost them $10's of thousands per semester, no way you can work you way through college anymore unless you are a politician or an investment banker, and if you ware you don't need a college degree.
I love the comparisons to the 1960's - LOL! Seriously? You could go to college in the state you were a resident and most of the time it was free or a few hundred to a thousand per semester. Yup, you could flip burgers and pay that.
I personally think we should regulate state universities so any resident can go to college (or community college) for free. Anyone wanting to go to a private or ivy league university can pay the price for it.
And I personally would rather the government spend $2T of my tax dollars forgiving ALL the student debt and canceling the program, than they did throwing away $4T fighting a war for 20 years in Afghanistan without telling the military how they were supposed to win it. Or another $5T throwing money at COVID and having 1/2 of it stolen.
Let's see help our children or fight an endless war with can't win? Hmm. hard choices.
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