Overeducated Writer Explains Why He Defaulted On His Student Loans, Asks "Am I a Deadbeat?"

...where I once had a nice stable job selling shoes after dropping out of the state college because I thought I deserved better...

Hey, the first extremely stupid thing you did. Not because you did a cost-benefit analysis, but because you feel you're too good for it.

The accrued interest, combined with the collection agencies’ opulent fees, is now several times the principal.

Well, I'll give him this, he's a writing major, not a math major. However, his elementary school failed him if he didn't think 30-40 years of interest and non-payment wouldn't greatly increase your balance...

The government would get out of the loan-making and the loan-enforcement business. Congress might even explore a special, universal education tax that would make higher education affordable.

He starts off with a good idea, then forgets that a loan is a contract, and one of the few areas the government should be getting involved in enforcing. Also, can't someone else just pay for my college I'm too stupid to think about paying for before going?

As to who pays, it is a zero-sum game between the borrowers and the taxpayers. If the borrower does not pay, the taxpayers will. How do you justify borrowing for a process which enhances personal capital, then offload the cost to taxpayers in general, the majority of whom never attended college? Is this not the quintessence of “privatizing profit and socializing cost?”

His mother cosigned - and all the years before her death she would be the one getting the calls from collectors. Not him. Not a nice way to treat a mother... can we assume she was a widow or divorced?

It's the colleges that are ripping off the young... On that he's quiet... A college education today is the equivalent of a high school degree from 40 years ago. And it costs a hundred times more. College as scammer... I can see how this guy got so far within the system.

Oh - and this is a duplicate thread. Subtle because the intro is different - but it's still a duplicate.

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