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The Lasting Consequences of Student Debt

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Re: The Lasting Consequences of Student Debt

#71
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For a company it seems beneficial to draw from a bigger pool of potential workers by having their headquarters in a big city.

For a society, it seems beneficial to spread the wealth out a bit so there's development throughout the country. IMO, our government should be focusing on improving society instead of corporations.

Why is that beneficial for the society? I don't think that's as clear cut as you make it to be. Cities are pretty efficient things.

Re: The Lasting Consequences of Student Debt

#72

The thing that irks me about this the most is how it's the people who were doing exactly what they were told that got hurt the most. The good kids who went to the best school they could get in to, studied whatever they were interested in, and if that thing happened to be literature or women's studies or a wide number of other things you might just spend the next 20 years figuring out how to live with debt you can't p…

> The thing that irks me about this the most is how it's the people who were doing exactly what they were told that got hurt the most. The good kids who went to the best school they could get in to, studied whatever they were interested in, and if that thing happened to be literature or women's studies or a wide number of other things you might just spend the next 20 years figuring out how to live with debt you can't…

I graduated high school in 2008 and dropped out of college a few years later. I can honestly say not one person (other than my parents) ever recommended considering cost until after my Freshman year of college. The message that was pounded in again and again and again was "The best college at all costs."

I'm pretty sure that's no longer the case - at least I hope so.

Re: The Lasting Consequences of Student Debt

#73
peep these stats: https://trends.collegeboard.org/student-aid/figures-tables/f...

this is what system failure in the making looks like. look at those percentages who are still in default. even if people aren't in default, the cost of paying off their loans is stifling their economic livelihood.

here is the lasting consequence of student debt: poverty

poverty precludes home ownership, marriage, reinvestment into the economy, and casual consumption. the US has dug its own grave by rejecting its obligation to provide education to its citizenry.

loan forgiveness would solve these problems somewhat, but honestly the ship has sailed. millenials will continue to be poorer indefinitely.

Re: The Lasting Consequences of Student Debt

#74

The thing that irks me about this the most is how it's the people who were doing exactly what they were told that got hurt the most. The good kids who went to the best school they could get in to, studied whatever they were interested in, and if that thing happened to be literature or women's studies or a wide number of other things you might just spend the next 20 years figuring out how to live with debt you can't p…

Around the time my older sibling got into college, I remember that my parents attitude shifted from "enjoy high school, it's your youth" to "good grades = free money" (ie free tuition)...

So I got lucky, but there's definitely an attitude that needs to be battled.

Re: The Lasting Consequences of Student Debt

#75

The thing that irks me about this the most is how it's the people who were doing exactly what they were told that got hurt the most. The good kids who went to the best school they could get in to, studied whatever they were interested in, and if that thing happened to be literature or women's studies or a wide number of other things you might just spend the next 20 years figuring out how to live with debt you can't p…

Beautifully said.

As a follow-up question to your last sentence, do you have any thoughts on collateralization? Not so easy when the asset grown to pay back the debt is social/intellectual capital, but I think we could come up with creative solutions for certain degrees and borrower profiles.

Re: The Lasting Consequences of Student Debt

#76
post #17

The thing that irks me about this the most is how it's the people who were doing exactly what they were told that got hurt the most. The good kids who went to the best school they could get in to, studied whatever they were interested in, and if that thing happened to be literature or women's studies or a wide number of other things you might just spend the next 20 years figuring out how to live with debt you can't p…

How is "did exactly what they were told" different from "did not think for themselves" ? Any kind of large decision demands a cost-benefit analysis, including opportunity costs, time value of money, etc. The labour market does not change that much in 4-5 years (barring something like the 08-09 financial meltdown). It should be straightforward to check whether a degree is necessary in order to land a decent job - appl…

We need the state to do all that hard thinking for us. That is why we (millennials) were so enthusiastic for Sanders. We were duped when it came to education but, let me tell you, our political intuition is right on target.

Re: The Lasting Consequences of Student Debt

#77
post #14

The thing that irks me about this the most is how it's the people who were doing exactly what they were told that got hurt the most. The good kids who went to the best school they could get in to, studied whatever they were interested in, and if that thing happened to be literature or women's studies or a wide number of other things you might just spend the next 20 years figuring out how to live with debt you can't p…

I'm part of that generation and made that mistake for sure. > The thing that irks me about this the most is how it's the people who were doing exactly what they were told that got hurt the most. The takeaway here is, in part: don't do something just because you're told to. If our generation stops doing what we're told (which seems to be the case), then this will be a small price.

Didn't people try placing the blame on that during the last housing bubble?

"You're throwing money away renting, buy a house! The value will only go up!"

Re: The Lasting Consequences of Student Debt

#78

The thing that irks me about this the most is how it's the people who were doing exactly what they were told that got hurt the most. The good kids who went to the best school they could get in to, studied whatever they were interested in, and if that thing happened to be literature or women's studies or a wide number of other things you might just spend the next 20 years figuring out how to live with debt you can't p…

> The thing that irks me about this the most is how it's the people who were doing exactly what they were told that got hurt the most. The good kids who went to the best school they could get in to, studied whatever they were interested in, and if that thing happened to be literature or women's studies or a wide number of other things you might just spend the next 20 years figuring out how to live with debt you can't…

I looked at college statistics once and overwhelming majority of students went for practicaly sounding degrees. Most students wanted study business in various forms. Antropologi and such had small number of students.

Re: The Lasting Consequences of Student Debt

#79

> debt significantly hurts your chances of buying a home 60k in the hole still from undergrad loans. The thought of taking out a mortage after this debt is finished is not appealing. "hurts my chances"? Sure, that's one way to put it.

it's just boomer re-framing of the issue to make it less clear.

buying a home isn't something that is up to chance. it's not like you are cruising one day, and BANG!, you buy a home. you save up for fucking years, then you put the down payment.

having student loans precludes saving as much each year, making home ownership extremely distant for most.

Re: The Lasting Consequences of Student Debt

#80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Assuming that 18 year olds should be capable of calculating cost-benefit analyses and execute long-term planning en masse is entirely too optimistic. Our schooling is way too bad to expect that, and our brains aren't even fully developed until the age of 25. The fact that so many young people feel the need to go to college to get a career in the first place is a sign that our economy is highly imbalanced right now. P…

Just a side note: I always take issue with the "brains aren't fully developed until 25" factoid. What does "fully developed" even mean? We certainly learn things after the age of 25...isn't learning brain development?

I've put a link down below, and you can find many more if you google "brain development 25". Basically, in adolescence people go through a phase of synaptic pruning, where the brain rewires and gets rid of a lot of unnecessary connections. During this time, certain parts of the brain involved in long-term planning, repercussion prediction, impulse control, social status, and a lot more don't function nearly as well as normal. This process continues up until about age 25 and ends with the prefrontal cortex, which handles some of the more complex computations like planning and long-term goal attainment. Many consider this the reason why people in their late teens and early twenties are goobers who are more worried about social status and having fun than meeting long-term goals.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1411647...

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