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US Household Debt Surpasses 2008 High

nytimes.com

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Re: US Household Debt Surpasses 2008 High

#331

Post by aedron »

axaxs wrote: post #254
prawn wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What incentive is there for a politician to do the right thing on the whole? They need a broad professional support base (party) to succeed in the American voting system, which means they toe the line or go nowhere. And there are lobbyists (at best) pressuring or forcing their hand on decisions where so much money is at stake (private prisons, healthcare, education, etc). You could say that a real character or charis…

Wow, thanks for sharing that link...I was enthralled. What a fascinating person...time shall tell what life has in store.

Agreed, that is a great article. Interesting and really well-written.

Re: US Household Debt Surpasses 2008 High

#332

Post by ctw »

majewsky wrote: post #309
zxcmx wrote: post #291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah but I bet your sports facilities are nowhere near as good, and the admin departments are way understaffed /s

I never understood why universities need competitive sports facilities in the first place (except when it's required for the curriculum, e.g. where sports medicine is offered). I suppose it's something to do either with tradition ("our sports team has been the best for over a century") or income from sponsorship and merch sales, but not sure.

This is just one example, but my university recently revamped their football stadium due to a huge donation from an either an alumni or coach (I can't remember exactly) who donated specifically for this cause. If money comes from a donation, sometimes it's not the school's decision how money should be spent.

Re: US Household Debt Surpasses 2008 High

#333

Post by muninn_ »

sangnoir wrote: post #323
WillPostForFood wrote: post #292

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It gets more complicated in a non homogenous country with 56 times the population. But for sure, Denmark is a nice, well run country.

> It gets more complicated in a non homogenous country Can you please give me a simple, non-racist explanation why this matters? Please explicitly spell-out what is/is not homogeneous (I always assume race), and explain why that complicates things.

Well I can: it's a lot easier to get things done when everybody agrees on doing it. People with a shared culture are more likely to agree on things.

Re: US Household Debt Surpasses 2008 High

#334

Post by roenxi »

sangnoir wrote: post #323
WillPostForFood wrote: post #292

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It gets more complicated in a non homogenous country with 56 times the population. But for sure, Denmark is a nice, well run country.

> It gets more complicated in a non homogenous country Can you please give me a simple, non-racist explanation why this matters? Please explicitly spell-out what is/is not homogeneous (I always assume race), and explain why that complicates things.

Here is an argument for your consideration:

Consider the concept of a business cluster, note that the city as a cluster is a reasonable idea [1].

Note that the population of Denmark does not break top 30 in a list of global cities [2].

Conclude that the country of Denmark, with its small geographic and demographic attributes, could specialise entirely in one high-margin economic area and further specialise their laws and social systems to that.

Basically, 5 million people can be sustained by the excess wealth of a strong local cluster. 50 million people cannot be sustained by one strong cluster, and the different clusters may have different needs.

I have no idea about Denmark, but if they /are/ clustered as a country around some high-tech industry, maybe the economically rational equilibrium to give out scholarships to support the local cluster? Maybe they are just nice people? A country with many clusters needs a one-size-fits-all legal and social system that works with all the clusters. The economic equilibriums may be different to a single cluster.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_cluster#By_type_of_co... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_cities

Re: US Household Debt Surpasses 2008 High

#335

Post by tobltobs »

WillPostForFood wrote: post #307
onion2k wrote: post #304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And as everyone benefits from a better educated society that's how it should be.

That doesn't make it free. It does mean the poor, the hardworking, non-college educated working class pay for the more wealthy, more educated kids to go to college for free, while their own kids get to sit another generation out.

> while their own kids get to sit another generation out.

I don't understand that part. In the EU poorer kids have better chances to change their situation due to easier access to higher education.

Re: US Household Debt Surpasses 2008 High

#336

Post by dx034 »

Why not go to Germany, get a degree there (many universities offer english speaking courses) for free? You end up with much less debt (if any) and have some additional experience.

I studied in Germany in English and there were a lot of people from all over the world in my course (only 20% from Germany) but there wasn't a single person from the US. Maybe the Uni wasn't as good as Harvard but certainly better than many colleges you'd find in the US.

What keeps US students from coming to Germany and study there? It shouldn't be a visa problem nor language.

Re: US Household Debt Surpasses 2008 High

#337

Post by dx034 »

sjg007 wrote: post #185
jjawssd wrote: post #12

Germany provides excellent educational opportunities in many fields for American citizens at close to zero out of pocket expense for the student. Google "Germany Erasmus".

True... If you are a qualified American applicant you should definitely consider getting your degree in Europe/England. It's a different system, perspective but worthwhile in the end. Certainly cheaper.

England isn't much cheaper. If you're not from UK or EU you'll pay >$20k per year. Not as much as in the US but certainly not free.

Re: US Household Debt Surpasses 2008 High

#338

Post by ygfvvhygvn »

manacit wrote: post #10

I don't know if it's a "bubble" (I am not qualified to say that), but I can't imagine that the current trend with student loans will continue. Looking at the numbers for someone entering college in 2017, it feels nearly predatory what a good portion of private and out of state colleges are charging. Even with financial aid, $30-40k a year for 4-5 years is insane. I was fortunate enough to have parents who made saving…

Too many people go to college these days and too many people choose majors that don't benefit them. We don't need millions of waiters/waitresses with psychology degrees from bottom of the barrel universities. There is a higher education bubble and hopefully it will pop so we can go back to a time where you don't need a master's degree just to get an interview

Re: US Household Debt Surpasses 2008 High

#339

Post by abalashov »

cobookman wrote: post #186
manacit wrote: post #10

I don't know if it's a "bubble" (I am not qualified to say that), but I can't imagine that the current trend with student loans will continue. Looking at the numbers for someone entering college in 2017, it feels nearly predatory what a good portion of private and out of state colleges are charging. Even with financial aid, $30-40k a year for 4-5 years is insane. I was fortunate enough to have parents who made saving…

I've been curious if you could pay off student loans using a credit card. Then declare bankruptcy.

I am not sure what the upper bound on consumer credit card limits is, particularly on credit cards issued to college kids or recent graduates. However, I gather anecdotally that it's somewhere in the low-mid five figures, which isn't the kind of stratospheric, crippling student loan debt that this discussion implicitly has in mind.

Moreover, to get something like a $20k-$30k credit limit as an 18-24 year-old, you almost certainly need a parent to cosign, as you yourself would not have sufficiently long credit or positive income history. That in turn means they'd be on the hook for the debt in the event of your bankruptcy, and/or your bankruptcy would impact them as well.

If there were an easy way to transfer large non-dischargeable balances into dischargeable form, everyone would be doing it. :-)

Re: US Household Debt Surpasses 2008 High

#340

Post by matheweis »

ylem wrote: post #215
pmiller2 wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except the taxpayers don't really lose out on student loans unless the borrower gets the loans discharged. They have immense power to levy bank accounts, garnish wages, seize tax refunds, and even garnish Social Security payments. Practically speaking, unless the borrower dies or becomes totally and permanently disabled, the government will get theirs. Bankruptcy discharges are very rare, and with all those ways of c…

I think that the government actually is making a profit at this point

According to this, undergrad loans are a loss leader for grad loans, which cause the system as a whole to be profitable: http://money.cnn.com/2016/08/04/pf/college/federal-student-l...
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