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Half of the US government's financial assets are student loans

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Re: Half of the US government's financial assets are student loans

#81
post #11

Recent reports from the Treasury Department show that the US government owns nearly $1.5 trillion in student loans. That’s pretty sad when you think about it: the US government’s #1 financial asset is debt owed by tens of millions of its young people for university education that didn’t even necessarily qualify them for a real career. Millennials are the most educated generation in history. Yet there are record numbe…

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Re: Half of the US government's financial assets are student loans

#82
post #11

Recent reports from the Treasury Department show that the US government owns nearly $1.5 trillion in student loans. That’s pretty sad when you think about it: the US government’s #1 financial asset is debt owed by tens of millions of its young people for university education that didn’t even necessarily qualify them for a real career. Millennials are the most educated generation in history. Yet there are record numbe…

> the company will make a payment to a buyer’s student loans of as much as 3% of the purchase price, up to $13,000.

How does this make economic sense? It reminds me of the deals home sellers would make to prop up their numbers in '06/'07.

Re: Half of the US government's financial assets are student loans

#83
post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Millennial here, thanks for the daily reminder of the future I have to deal with. Failing government systems, check. Unaffordable educational system, check. Limited housing and land, check. Degrading climate, check. Some days I believe I just may find a way out of it. But, for every day I participate in the rat race is just another lost when I should be working on building a better future for my family.

There's still a chance for you if you can get adopted by someone rich!

But that's the last thing I want. I want to work hard and I'm willing to make sacrifices to reach my goals.

Re: Half of the US government's financial assets are student loans

#84
post #11

Recent reports from the Treasury Department show that the US government owns nearly $1.5 trillion in student loans. That’s pretty sad when you think about it: the US government’s #1 financial asset is debt owed by tens of millions of its young people for university education that didn’t even necessarily qualify them for a real career. Millennials are the most educated generation in history. Yet there are record numbe…

Millennial here, thanks for the daily reminder of the future I have to deal with. Failing government systems, check. Unaffordable educational system, check. Limited housing and land, check. Degrading climate, check. Some days I believe I just may find a way out of it. But, for every day I participate in the rat race is just another lost when I should be working on building a better future for my family.

"limited housing and land"?

I don't agree. The Midwest is very affordable. Plenty of land. Remote work is a definite possibility.

Re: Half of the US government's financial assets are student loans

#85
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Let’s be clear, students will NEVER be allowed to default these loans, nor should they. Why not?

Because that was the deal.

I agreed to this deal and I feel like I do need to pay off the debt, but I'm lucky in that I have a job that will allow me to do it the normal way if the crypto market crashes (heaven forbid, plz). What about the 18 year olds whose helicopter parents never allowed them to imagine a filthy reality like failing to go to college?

Regardless of whether that kid should have been free-thinking enough to see outside their existence's bubble, it's irresponsible to exploit their ignorance for profit. Most of these kids haven't ever seen a debt-ridden life like they're signing up for. I grew up with parents who ranted and raged about debt, and I still did it. Are you sure the problem lies with the kids signing the papers (I guess clicking the "Get your loan here!" button these days)?

Re: Half of the US government's financial assets are student loans

#86
post #74
post #11

Recent reports from the Treasury Department show that the US government owns nearly $1.5 trillion in student loans. That’s pretty sad when you think about it: the US government’s #1 financial asset is debt owed by tens of millions of its young people for university education that didn’t even necessarily qualify them for a real career. Millennials are the most educated generation in history. Yet there are record numbe…

> The Board of Trustees of Social Security tells us that the program is going to completely run out of money within the next 15 years Can you cite any sources on this? Im fairly certain it will not be completely out of money, but will be to a point where more money is going out than coming in.

The Social Security Trust Fund does exhaust it's surplus (if no additional changes are made to the system), but that reduces benefits to ~3/4 of those promised; benefit payments do not disappear entirely.

"In the annual Trustees Report, projections are made under three alternative sets of economic and demographic assumptions. Under one of these sets (labeled "Low Cost") the trust funds remain solvent for the next 75 years. Under the other two sets (the "Intermediate" and "High Cost"), the trust funds become depleted within the next 20 years. The intermediate assumptions reflect the Trustees' best estimate of future experience.

Some benefits could be paid even if the trust funds are depleted. For example, under the intermediate assumptions, annual income to the trust funds is projected to equal about seventy-nine percent of program cost once the trust funds become depleted. If no legislation has been enacted to restore long-term solvency by that time, about three-quarters of scheduled benefits could be paid in each year."

As long as the government continues to exist and has the ability to tax, Social Security will be around.

https://www.ssa.gov/oact/progdata/fundFAQ.html

https://www.ssa.gov/oact/solvency/index.html

Re: Half of the US government's financial assets are student loans

#87
post #11

Recent reports from the Treasury Department show that the US government owns nearly $1.5 trillion in student loans. That’s pretty sad when you think about it: the US government’s #1 financial asset is debt owed by tens of millions of its young people for university education that didn’t even necessarily qualify them for a real career. Millennials are the most educated generation in history. Yet there are record numbe…

> The Board of Trustees of Social Security tells us that the program is going to completely run out of money within the next 15 years. Millennials’ retirement horizon is far beyond that.

That’s not how Social Security works. For practical purposes, it’s pay-as-you-go system: http://www.heritage.org/social-security/report/misleading-th.... As boomers retire, taxes will need to go up to account for the higher ratio of retirees to workers. But when the millenials retire, unless they end up having a substantially smaller generation after them, that strain will not be there.

Re: Half of the US government's financial assets are student loans

#88
post #61

Anytime the US wants the world to be a certain way but just can't quite get reality to conform debt is our answer. Everyone should be a homeowner but for some reason isn't? Simple, just give them cheap loans for houses. Everyone should be educated but it doesn't seem to be happening? Debt time. Why do we do this? Because it allows us to pretend that complicated long-term structural problems are simple short-term capi…

Well, it does actually solve the problem in the sense that it actually causes houses to be built and students to go to college. Probably this indicates the real problem is more about bad monetary policy and bad tax policy, not a fundamental shortage of resources. Of course, it would be better to improve monetary policy rather than just making a bunch of dumb, risky loans leading to a dramatic boom and bust. But that…

Is that really solving the problem though, or does it just give us houses no one wants to own and college graduates no one wants to employ? That's what it looks like to me at least. I don't think it's bad monetary or tax policy per-say, although those are bad, but just bad policy in general. But the badness of the policy comes from a fundamental over estimation of what the government is capable of doing for a society.

Re: Half of the US government's financial assets are student loans

#89
post #11

Recent reports from the Treasury Department show that the US government owns nearly $1.5 trillion in student loans. That’s pretty sad when you think about it: the US government’s #1 financial asset is debt owed by tens of millions of its young people for university education that didn’t even necessarily qualify them for a real career. Millennials are the most educated generation in history. Yet there are record numbe…

Millennial here, thanks for the daily reminder of the future I have to deal with. Failing government systems, check. Unaffordable educational system, check. Limited housing and land, check. Degrading climate, check. Some days I believe I just may find a way out of it. But, for every day I participate in the rat race is just another lost when I should be working on building a better future for my family.

If you want to be serious about saving our future, you need to stop standing on the sidelines and echoing the defeatist attitude that the situation we're in cannot be fixed. We need to stop worrying about offending a minority of people who have power and focus on ending their political power, because a lot of the fixes will be political and must be.

EDIT: being a little presumptive here, see below.

Re: Half of the US government's financial assets are student loans

#90
post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Millennial here, thanks for the daily reminder of the future I have to deal with. Failing government systems, check. Unaffordable educational system, check. Limited housing and land, check. Degrading climate, check. Some days I believe I just may find a way out of it. But, for every day I participate in the rat race is just another lost when I should be working on building a better future for my family.

"limited housing and land"? I don't agree. The Midwest is very affordable. Plenty of land. Remote work is a definite possibility.

Earning arbitrage through working remotely is something many folks have done for the last 15-20 years.

It provide a healthy ability to save and access lasting economic mobility if that's the goal.

At the end of the day what you make doesn't matter, it's what you're able to keep and move forward (or stabilize with).

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