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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

#191

Post by lickedydiff »

MollyR wrote: post #37

US government backed student loans were a huge mistake. We needed something like rent control enforced on public universities, for government backed loans. But we didn't. So it created a situation that caused an enormous amount of millennials to be taken advantage of by universities and colleges. Those universities and colleges pumped full of government loan cash became increasingly predatory. They increased their ad…

To be fair to universities, at the same time that happened, states have been decreasing funding. Also, topheavy administration is everywhere, not just education, part of the unnecessary MBA-ification of everything. And there would be no demand for loans if corporations weren't trying to offload all their employee financial responsibilities in every way possible: just as companies are reclassifying everyone as consultants and freelancers, and decreasing everything to part-time, they stopped seeing themselves as providing career training to anyone, expecting people to do that themselves at universities and through unpaid internships.

So I wouldn't blame much on US backed government loans. The US government could offer free loans for people wanting to get Justin Bieber tattoos, and it would increase tattooing I'm sure, but wouldn't cause a generational economic crisis.

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

#192

Post by sangnoir »

johnchristopher wrote: post #111
SheepSlapper wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Millennials are the most educated generation in history. Yet there are record numbers of them working off student debts as waiters and bartenders, and supplementing their income on the side with ‘gigs’ (like being an Uber driver) We're the most educated in history, but many people decided to use that education to learn topics that aren't lucrative/in demand. Personal responsibility plays in a ton here, and some peo…

What's SS ?

Social Security

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

#193

Post by godelski »

adreamingsoul wrote: post #143
godelski wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because 80% of people (at least Americans) live tldr: There's more to the equation than finance.

I'm considering moving to the east-coast near a mentor of mine. Land is cheaper (when compared to the Northwest) and it's in Zone 5/6 which is pretty good for growing.

From my experience, having some sort of a support structure to move into greatly lessens some of the problems. One of the biggest challenges in moving is finding that new support structure. And I guess this also is highly dependent on how social you are to begin with.

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

#194

Post by Density »

chatmasta wrote: post #128
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“Interesting time” as in jail time for money laundering and wilful tax fraud?

If 80% of millennials collectively decided not to repay their student loans, there would not be enough space in prison for all of them.

Well then the cops will be told to shoot them.

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

#195

Post by 111_1_111 »

jfaat wrote: post #123
SheepSlapper wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Millennials are the most educated generation in history. Yet there are record numbers of them working off student debts as waiters and bartenders, and supplementing their income on the side with ‘gigs’ (like being an Uber driver) We're the most educated in history, but many people decided to use that education to learn topics that aren't lucrative/in demand. Personal responsibility plays in a ton here, and some peo…

So you call a millennial getting a degree not ‘personally responsible’? Disclaimer: anecdotes ahead, but I know many, many millennials who grew up hearing ‘Just get a college degree and you’ll be in good shape’ who did and aren’t, respectively. Not everyone is geared toward being an engineer or mathematician or scientist. For those who aren’t, and followed the resounding conventional wisdom to get a degree, largely g…

Depends what degree they get. If you're pursuing a degree in English, Art History, Political Science, Women's Studies, etc without a clear plan for a career after your degree, that is irresponsible.

> I know many, many millennials who grew up hearing ‘Just get a college degree and you’ll be in good shape’ who did and aren’t, respectively.

Getting a useless degree because other people told you to and then blaming it on society seems like the very definition of not being personally responsible.

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

#196

Post by georgeecollins »

gesman wrote: 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. " Is very misleading. Social Security is not a bank account, it is an insurance (you can get it at any time, and you get it simply because you paid in) where people are constantly paying in and out.

In 17 years* the Social Security system will probably have to cut benefits by 23% unless we either raise the retirement rate or raise the maximum salary at which you have to pay social security tax. The latter is a pretty painless thing to the average tax payer, who already has all their salary subject to social security tax.

The social security system was in much greater danger in the Reagan era, when they decided to make benefits taxable, which was ultimately a progressive way to reduce benefits.

*http://money.cnn.com/2017/07/13/news/economy/social-security...

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

#197

Post by georgeecollins »

jdoliner wrote: post #32

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…

This isn't a moral fault of Americans as much as it is effective lobbying and marketing by the financial industry. The government subsidies student debt and mortgages, which the financial industry trades and collects fees for servicing.

Corporate debt is tax deductible, for terrible economic reasons. Why should raising money through debt be tax deductible, but not through selling equity? My finance prof. told me these were ultimately the same thing. One kind of transaction has a strong lobby behind it. This causes all kinds of problems of excessive leverage in our system.

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

#198

Post by pascalxus »

mylons wrote: post #14

how does this bubble pop? isn't this debt something you can't default on?

Assuming people have to repay it, it'll be a huge drag on the economy, for the entire lifetime of those millenials. Just think, for the next 70 or so years, those millenials will be spending what 10 to 20% or more of their paycheck on those loans. So, it won't pop, it's more like a big slow deflation. It's the same for the gov't debt too.

Even if they millenials can get out of paying for it, it'll still be passed on to tax payers, so the effect will be the same, a very long period of reduced consumer spending, leading to less economic growth.

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

#199

Post by SheepSlapper »

jfaat wrote: post #123
SheepSlapper wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Millennials are the most educated generation in history. Yet there are record numbers of them working off student debts as waiters and bartenders, and supplementing their income on the side with ‘gigs’ (like being an Uber driver) We're the most educated in history, but many people decided to use that education to learn topics that aren't lucrative/in demand. Personal responsibility plays in a ton here, and some peo…

So you call a millennial getting a degree not ‘personally responsible’? Disclaimer: anecdotes ahead, but I know many, many millennials who grew up hearing ‘Just get a college degree and you’ll be in good shape’ who did and aren’t, respectively. Not everyone is geared toward being an engineer or mathematician or scientist. For those who aren’t, and followed the resounding conventional wisdom to get a degree, largely g…

It depends on the degree. I'm a Millennial and got my CS degree for $15k, which was a smart investment (and make no mistakes, degrees ARE investments). At the same time I have a friend who is going into a few hundred thousand dollars worth of debt to get a PHD in History. That's not a good investment, when you look at time + money vs return.

"Just get a degree" is bad advice. I know electricians that make more money than me, and work shorter hours. "Get a skill" is good advice, and college is only one way of doing that. But you can't dismiss personal responsibility when it comes to decision making, both good and bad.

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

#200

Post by TheSpiceIsLife »

georgeecollins wrote: post #196
gesman wrote: 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. " Is very misleading. Social Security is not a bank account, it is an insurance (you can get it at any time, and you get it simply because you paid in) where people are constantly paying in and out. In 17 years* the Social Security system will probably have to cut benefits by 23% unle…

I don't understand why there is a max income threshold for social security tax.

Can anyone explain this to me?

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