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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

#221

Post by adamson »

MollyR wrote: post #214
bluntfang wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>worthless degrees like gender studies Worthless eh? I bet if companies Uber hired some of these gender studies majors they might not have fucked up?

I can't tell if you are joking, so I'm taking it seriously. Uber's human resources and or lawyers should have caught many of its missteps. Common undergrad degrees for HR being in management, business administration, and related business degrees. Lawyers are well lawyers. Gender Studies doesn't prepare you for business as well as an actual business related degree, it prepares you for a mostly academic career which ha…

I feel like you're missing their point. You can make the case that a gender studies degree prepares you for a mostly academic career only insofar as companies aren't creative enough to find a way to use the unique skills that someone with a gender studies degree has developed.

Maybe Uber wouldn't have had the toxic culture they ended up with if they had hired conscientious people who have spent time studying things like how gender power dynamics play out in the small - and empowered them to speak - instead of relying solely on business graduates.

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

#222

Post by outworlder »

godelski wrote: post #190
ytwySXpMbS wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What stuff has led to culture shock? What's stood out to you?

There's a lot. But to sum up a few: - The overwhelming political nature of everything here. It is "free-market is the solution to everything or you're a socialist" mentality. The Moore race is a good example of this. The only thing worse than a Dem is a pedo. I'm moderate right, for reference. (maybe some of this is just the political climate of the times) - Bible belt and churches around every corner. Religion is mu…

You feel like a foreigner in your own country, speaking the same language, growing up with the same TV programs as everyone else. Now imagine how would it be if you moved to another country entirely.

If the former is cultural shock, the latter is a multi-story Tesla Coil to the face :)

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

#223

Post by [deleted] »

outworlder wrote: post #222
godelski wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a lot. But to sum up a few: - The overwhelming political nature of everything here. It is "free-market is the solution to everything or you're a socialist" mentality. The Moore race is a good example of this. The only thing worse than a Dem is a pedo. I'm moderate right, for reference. (maybe some of this is just the political climate of the times) - Bible belt and churches around every corner. Religion is mu…

You feel like a foreigner in your own country, speaking the same language, growing up with the same TV programs as everyone else. Now imagine how would it be if you moved to another country entirely. If the former is cultural shock, the latter is a multi-story Tesla Coil to the face :)

[deleted]

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

#225

Post by meritt »

prepend wrote: post #139
adreamingsoul wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't have to agree, but that fact is still true. I also have hesitations with buying land in the Midwest, mostly due to climate change factors.

That’s an interesting perspective. What climate change factors worry you? The Midwest is one of the few regions in the US that stand to benefit from climate change. Easy/West will be worst hit.

If you think the midwest is safe, I think you should spend a bit of time reading about the Ogalla aquifer.

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

#226

Post by lotsofpulp »

fineng123 wrote: post #208
marshray wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe the only way to quantify 'moral hazard' at the present time is to count the occurrences of 'Lehman Brothers' in the investment media.

Moral hazard is just a price you pay for stability. It's impossible to avoid. You need a middle ground where if you do something really stupid you're still punished but if you're "still dancing" like everyone else (Chuck Prince, 2007) then you aren't completely hosed. When I used to be a banker, I remember plenty of times where others would make bids on a deal that we couldn't come close to as a small player without…

I don't see why financial organizations need a middle ground. It doesn't seem like our society (USA) wants to give individuals a middle ground so that they're not completely hosed, why should the rich have one?

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

#227

Post by lotsofpulp »

tunesmith wrote: post #218
mobilefriendly wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since 2014 Social Security has run out of money, and the shortfall is being financed by general federal borrowing. It just isn't in the headlines these days.

Another right wing frame... Social Security was in surplus for several years, and it will be several more years before the surplus is exhausted, if ever. The right wing frame is that the surplus "doesn't exist" or is full of "IOUs" or something. It's hogwash. Here's how it really works. When Social Security is in surplus, more money comes in from payroll taxes than is paid out in benefits. Payroll taxes come from peo…

It doesn't matter whether or not Social Security has a nominal surplus or deficit, the important part is what that dollar of Social Security benefit will buy you. Unless there is a secular shift in the tax base such as much more immigration, much higher incomes, or many more children, demographics suggest a smaller portion of the country working to pay for a larger portion of the non working country.

Other countries are already seeing this, but there is no escape from raising the retirement age, and the best way to slash benefits, which is to keep them behind real inflation. Also, medicare is an even bigger problem as it has no upper limit on spend, which will also have to be cut somehow.

Bottom line is, the more resources you spend on the past, such as aging people and infrastructure, the less you can on the future, such as for you and your kids. That is unavoidable.

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

#228

Post by georgeecollins »

0xffff2 wrote: post #201
georgeecollins wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

" 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 assume you actually mean "raise the retirement age"? Raising the retirement rate would mean paying out more money, not less.

Right sorry, raise the retirement age. Which is not good for people, but fits with the idea that people are living and working longer in general.

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

#229

Post by lewis500 »

Turing_Machine wrote: post #177
lewis500 wrote: post #122

Would it be better if banks owned all the debt? I think the really bad statistic is just how much student debt there is. Progressives in Oakland want the city to create a municipal bank. If they do, maybe progressives will then complain "Y% of Oakland's assets are mortgages and small business loans." For any level of student debt, I think it is obviously better that the government own a lot of it, as the payments the…

>In fact, given the government can borrow money at 2% while student loan rates are like 4-8%, it might not even be a bad idea to have the government issue treasuries and buy more student loans. If 40% of the loans are in default and/or the borrowers aren't making payments for some other reason (which is the actual case) it would be a very bad idea.

It is possible to choose the loans. The default rate for for profit colleges is high, but you don’t need to buy those loans. https://www.brookings.edu/research/the-looming-student-loan-...

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

#230

Post by jdoliner »

brianjoseff wrote: post #151
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…

> Why do we do this? Also an issue of framing. Wrong metrics. With your framing above, it was "everyone should be a homeowner" and "everyone should be educated"... well we did that. Reality conformed. Just at tremendous cost and risk. The issues are of course way more complex than "# of ppl who own a home" and "# of ppl with a degree" So the question, then, is how do we use instruments of governance to move complex s…

If reality had conformed the rate of homeownership in The US wouldn't have been declining since 2008: https://imgur.com/a/O2uF8
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