Your case illustrates needed reforms in the student loan business. Obviously, you pursued—and completed—a demanding degree with high value in the marketplace. Yet, you paid the same interest rates as future barristas earning worthless degrees in gender studies, sociology, and art history.
My proposal is to cut—or even eliminate—interest on student loans being used to fund degrees in high-demand fields, assuming the student maintains at least a 3.0 GPA (I’d be willing to go a bit lower for fields like Double-E). And, I’d also be willing to forgive the balance after a specified number of years for engineers working for firms that hold government contractors, or those employed with federal agencies.
At the other end of the spectrum, I’d charge interest (at used car loan/bad credit score rates) to students using loans to finance worthless degrees. Yes, you can still get that diploma in women’s studies, but you’ll be paying 15-25% interest. So, you can keep paying for your mistake for years to come after graduation. And who knows? Living in mom and dad’s basement into your 50s might inspire you to go back to school and learn a new skill like plumbing, HVAC repair or being an electrician, something that will help you get a real job and actually contribute to society—other than that scintillating thesis on “Queer Traditions in Sub-Saharan Africa.”
Can you say looooser! I paid my loans off...
Tallini has my sympathy, in a way. He is hooked by a system which exploits human misery and desperation to gain government money, at his expense.
Here's how it works - register on an online job search site, and you will immediately be bombarded with e-mails and phone calls requesting information from you. No jobs are offered, they really want to know how much student debt you have. Their objective is to sign you up for "classes which will improve your resume".
Many "Loooosers" will sign up, they need a job and think this might get them one.
In the end, the looooser is no closer to employment, but the college gets a pile of money from Uncle Sugar which he is responsible for paying back. The job search site gets money too, from sale of his info to the college I suppose.
Sad thing is that at 61, Mr. Tallini probably still won't get a job offer, the debt will get tacked on his coffin, and the taxpayers will have to cover it.