Posted on 06/08/2015 5:27:26 AM PDT by Sir_Humphrey
Years later, I found myself confronted with a choice that too many people have had to and will have to face. I could give up what had become my vocation (in my case, being a writer) and take a job that I didn’t want in order to repay the huge debt I had accumulated in college and graduate school.
Or I could take what I had been led to believe was both the morally and legally reprehensible step of defaulting on my student loans, which was the only way I could survive without wasting my life in a job that had nothing to do with my particular usefulness to society.I chose life. That is to say, I defaulted on my student loans.
As difficult as it has been, I’ve never looked back. The millions of young people today, who collectively owe over $1 trillion in loans, may want to consider my example.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
This is an argument for debtors prison and, in this case, forced labor.
“This loser should never be able to borrow another dime for the rest of their life.”
This loser is in his late 50s. He still took his “free” degrees from Columbia and wrote 5 books. I thought it was some kid at first myself, but I blew a head gasket after I learned that this was an ADULT writing this article.
The irony is that he is writing a book on money next ...
“For this precise reason....I think all college loans ought to be limited to $30,000.”
That isn’t a bad idea at all. It would force universities to lower tuition if they’d want to compete ... that would mean cutting the useless “fist in the air” programs found in the cesspools of universities all across the nation.
Depends on how, and if, it's reported by the debt-holder.
Student loans are one of the few that take a portion of Social Secutity. A disabled borrower can even have 25% witheld for student loans. Computers have long memories. This guy will pay when he tries to collect his SS. No statute of limitations on this debt.
“Pay it, kid.”
This “kid” is a Columbia graduate and is 57 years old. I was shocked after I learned that. He’s had a lifetime to pay down his debts.
Read it a bit.
The author chose his own selfish desires over his incurred obligations and responsibilities.
Oh...how romantic. However, let's be honest about what you did: you chose to be a deadbeat burden to the taxpayers who supported your bad choice from the outset. This is just another example of how the gov't is in a business where it shouldn't be. It's also another example of how the "Me Generation" could care less about its responsibilities. Stories like this make me want to grab a switch from a tree and thrash people who are parasites on society, from those who default on student loans to people who get free cell phones to the fifth generation of deadbeats on welfare. Something's gotta change...soon.
To me, the biggest issue is government intervention in a contractual relationship that distorts the risk profile for the borrower, the lender, or both. This would be the case whether we're dealing with student loans, "guaranteed" mortgages, etc. If this moron had defaulted on a tuition payment to a university, I don't think anyone would really care all that much. It would be the university's problem, and they'd deal with it as they see fit.
"my particular usefulness to society." These liberals and their freakin' mindsets.
Meet Lee Siegel who apparently is not very good at his chosen profession
What kind of man defaults on a loan he took out with his mother as a co-signer?
He insured that last years of her life were difficult with serious credit issues. Worse than that, she must have realized she bore a selfish loser.
“The next GOP president (Scott Walker, IMHO) will be busy for months undoing all the fascist in the WH has done to the country. “
I hate to say this but I won’t hold my breath waiting for the next president to give up a tiny fraction of the power he’ll inherit.
Reminds me of the old saw..
Q: What is the most frequently repeated phrase you hear a liberal arts major say?
A: Do you want fries with that?
Boy, does that snarmy mini mind fit the NYT.
A dying little liberal for a dying little “news” paper.
I was in the same boat as the author, took on more debt than I intended to. I was stupid for doing so, but I wanted to go to a smaller private school, rather than the much cheaper state school.
It was my choice. I signed the notes. I had no co-signers. I'm almost done paying them off. We've had some hiccups in our lives, but we pay our bills. I made a promise to pay that note, it will be paid. I've deferred a few times, just to get past some rough spots, but it's been worth it. The debt, and interest paid on it, has paid off in spades. Even though my wife could work to help pay off the debt earlier, we've been able to have her be a stay-at-home mom, and now she's homeschooling the kids.
So, I'll take that extra bit of burden over her working and the kids in daycare/public school.
And I am sure this guy will report it as taxable income (NOT)!
“Now, legal plunder can be committed in an infinite number of ways. Thus we have an infinite number of plans for organizing it: tariffs, protection, benefits, subsidies, encouragements, progressive taxation, public schools, guaranteed jobs, guaranteed profits, minimum wages, a right to relief, a right to the tools of labor, free credit, and so on, and so on. All these plans as a whole — with their common aim of legal plunder — constitute socialism.
— Frederic Bastiat, the Law, 1850
That is exactly my point!
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