Posted on 02/09/2012 12:29:04 PM PST by Oldeconomybuyer
(MoneyWatch) Student loan debt is pushing a growing number of Americans into bankruptcy and an organization of bankruptcy lawyers predicted this week that the college debt problem could become as big a catastrophe as the home mortgage crisis.
"Take it from those of us on the frontlines of economic distress in America, this could very well be the next debt bomb for the U.S. economy," warned William E. Brewer Jr., president of the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys.
The association just released a survey of 860 bankruptcy attorneys that revealed some disturbing trends. Here are some of the most troubling ones:
More than four out of five bankruptcy lawyers say that the number of potential clients they are seeing with student loan debt has increased in the recent years.
Twenty-three percent of bankruptcy lawyers have witnessed cases involving student loan problems jump from 50 percent to 100 percent in the past three to four years. Another 39 percent of the attorneys have seen their potential client cases increase 25 percent to 50 percent in the same period.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
Mine is almost paid off, yeahhhhhhhhh
This has been going on for some time now, yet largely ignored. The sad part is that most of those with student debt would pay it off if they could, but they graduate from over-priced colleges and in the 0bama Depression can't find jobs, or have to settle for much lower paying jobs.
So... we should bankrupt the whole country instead?
How about this idea...
don’t borrow money you cannot afford to pay back.
Would you loan someone $250,000 so they could get a minimum wage position? Of course not. Not if reality plays a part in the transaction, but if the government guarantees it..... dang
It’s not the student loan debt; it’s the fact that a student loan produces a worthless diploma unless the graduate specializes in medicine or science. There are so few opportunities for graduates otherwise that a stint in college is almost a waste of time. It would be wiser to wait to see where the opportunity is and target the education to that opportunity. Graduating from college today doesn’t produce enough income to ever pay off the loan.
It’s not the student loan debt; it’s the fact that a student loan produces a worthless diploma unless the graduate specializes in medicine or science. There are so few opportunities for graduates otherwise that a stint in college is almost a waste of time. It would be wiser to wait to see where the opportunity is and target the education to that opportunity. Graduating from college today doesn’t produce enough income to ever pay off the loan.
We also have millions of young fools, who having failed to grasp the basics of economics in High School; spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on a career path that pays minimum wage.
Consider a BS or Masters in Performing Arts. For a mere $150,000 you can learn to use theater makeup, run lighting and play “Let’s Pretend” for a couple of years. Maybe you can get a job at your local theater, volunteering to contribute your skills there. The odds of getting a professional position, are next to zero.
Meanwhile, that student loan will ensure you live at poverty levels a large portion of your adult life.
Or you could apprentice as a plumber, electrician or auto mechanic, among other trades. But then you’d have those icky dirty hands and the elites would call you stupid.
Never mind. /s
$80,000.00 dollars for a four year bachelors degree in Urban studies. Got a job making $24,000.00 dollars a year at the civil rights institute museum. $2400.00 a year, or 10% of what I make to pay off the loan. It will take over 33 years to pay it off. Oh’ there is more, I didn’t add interest to the $80,000.00 dollars. Moral to the story. Colleges make a lot of money off people getting worthless degrees.
All student loans did was allow the colleges to charge tuitions above what the average student could afford by working or his parents could save
Tuitions have far outpaced inflation
“$80,000.00 dollars for a four year bachelors degree in Urban studies. Got a job making $24,000.00 dollars a year at the civil rights institute museum. $2400.00 a year, or 10% of what I make to pay off the loan. It will take over 33 years to pay it off. Oh’ there is more, I didn’t add interest to the $80,000.00 dollars. Moral to the story. Colleges make a lot of money off people getting worthless degrees”
So who put a gun to your head?
Don't get me wrong - I'm not saying that everyone should get a free ride. However, the colleges and universities in this country have gotten away with price gouging for far too long. This is an issue that could be a winner for the Republicans. Insisting on congressional hearings on the cost of a college education would force the Democrats to defend their allies in the academic world, while driving students out of the Democratic fold.
It will only be a financial disaster if it is handled as badly as the underwater mortgages were. Obama is pushing to let mortgage deadbeats, many of whom signed false applications as to ability to pay, off the hook. These deadbeats should have gone through bankruptcy and foreclosure, instead of getting a sweet deal that shifted their debt to the US government deficit.
If a student accepts a loan, he or she should pay it off, the terms of payment are already low rates and long on times to pay. To let the dead beats off the hook makes honest folks into suckers.
Those same kids could still take those lower paying jobs, live at home for a couple of years and throw everything they make into their debt and be relatively debt free in a couple of years.
Even a 9 buck an hour job, they can pay off about 25 grand in those couple of years.
Yeah, no car and no life, but so what?
IIRC he’s pushing for the equivalent: if your career doesn’t duly match your student loans for a few years, you’re off the hook.
We better force the lenders to allow the poor students off the hook and ad that money to the tax bill. It’s the only fair thing to do.
Twenty five grand, sure, but a lot are graduating with much more debt - in the $100+ range. I’d like to see figures on just how much debt is being incurred. Many probably never really thought about how the debt would be repaid, just like the housing crisis, only there I strongly suspect a lot of the “under qualified” never had any intention of paying.
Economics 101: Supply And Demand
A thing is worth exactly what another pays for it. If a customer is willing to pay a high price, that is what it is worth. "Price gouging" is just a matter of recognizing that something worth one price under normal circumstances may be worth far more under abnormal circumstances; that the customer doesn't "like" the price is irrelevant if he is nonetheless willing to pay it.
So long as would-be students are willing to pay high prices for an education, so long as banks make it easy to go deep in debt for that education (because on the whole the loans DO get paid off), and so long as Congress makes it ever easier for students to foist those costs onto otherwise uninvolved taxpayers, prices WILL RISE.
Demanding the university Presidents explain themselves to Congress is pointless - both are doing everything they can to ensure those prices go up.
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