The Student Debt Problem Is Worse Than We Imagined • Hacker News Board

Re: The Student Debt Problem Is Worse Than We Imagined

#41

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Aug 25, 2018, 11:42 PM UTC

drcode wrote: post #34

acjohnson55 wrote: post #18

It's a damn shame we've let this crisis reach this scale. Along with healthcare, climate change, the debt, our inauguration, and so on, we've been essentially frozen for most of my life as politicians concern themselves more so with existential power struggle. The right wants to bring us back to the gilded age, the left makes headlines but is barely relevant, and the center is trying to squeeze bandaid solutions whil…

I must say, as someone who made quite a few sacrifices to pay off my school debt, I'll be pretty miffed if less responsible people from my same generation get a break on their loans.

[deleted]

Re: The Student Debt Problem Is Worse Than We Imagined

#42

Post by barrkel » Sat, Aug 25, 2018, 11:43 PM UTC

drcode wrote: post #34

acjohnson55 wrote: post #18

It's a damn shame we've let this crisis reach this scale. Along with healthcare, climate change, the debt, our inauguration, and so on, we've been essentially frozen for most of my life as politicians concern themselves more so with existential power struggle. The right wants to bring us back to the gilded age, the left makes headlines but is barely relevant, and the center is trying to squeeze bandaid solutions whil…

I must say, as someone who made quite a few sacrifices to pay off my school debt, I'll be pretty miffed if less responsible people from my same generation get a break on their loans.

The best is the enemy of the good.

You'll find that in most peace deals, bad people get excused of crimes, but it's necessary for the greater good.

There's certainly a moral hazard, but that's part of the deal - if we do things right, the bad situation won't be repeated.

Re: The Student Debt Problem Is Worse Than We Imagined

#43

Post by cagenut » Sat, Aug 25, 2018, 11:43 PM UTC

drcode wrote: post #34

acjohnson55 wrote: post #18

It's a damn shame we've let this crisis reach this scale. Along with healthcare, climate change, the debt, our inauguration, and so on, we've been essentially frozen for most of my life as politicians concern themselves more so with existential power struggle. The right wants to bring us back to the gilded age, the left makes headlines but is barely relevant, and the center is trying to squeeze bandaid solutions whil…

I must say, as someone who made quite a few sacrifices to pay off my school debt, I'll be pretty miffed if less responsible people from my same generation get a break on their loans.

that's called being a spiteful jerk

Re: The Student Debt Problem Is Worse Than We Imagined

#44

Post by pwned1 » Sat, Aug 25, 2018, 11:43 PM UTC

thatjsguy wrote: post #40

lend000 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I often wonder how many problems would be fixed by adding a 2 term limit to the House and Senate.

We did this in Michigan. It doesn’t work. It’s an attractive platform item, but what ends up happening is lots of turnover means it’s easier for lobbyists to sway candidates. You also just lose institutional knowledge. And guess what? We have term limits and an entirely new governor still poisoned an entire town full of kids. Term limits don’t work.

I'm from Michigan. I think they've worked well.

Re: The Student Debt Problem Is Worse Than We Imagined

#45

Post by walshemj » Sat, Aug 25, 2018, 11:44 PM UTC

lend000 wrote: post #33

acjohnson55 wrote: post #18

It's a damn shame we've let this crisis reach this scale. Along with healthcare, climate change, the debt, our inauguration, and so on, we've been essentially frozen for most of my life as politicians concern themselves more so with existential power struggle. The right wants to bring us back to the gilded age, the left makes headlines but is barely relevant, and the center is trying to squeeze bandaid solutions whil…

I often wonder how many problems would be fixed by adding a 2 term limit to the House and Senate.

Not that many (from experience on parliamentary based bodies) it probably takes a couple of years or one full election cycle to know how the system works so you will continually have a poorly trained set of senators/congressmen.

Having a max age limit make more sense or remove the seniority rules used to appoint key committee chairs.

They key thing would be strict maximum $ limits for elections and give candidates free time on the tv networks.

Re: The Student Debt Problem Is Worse Than We Imagined

#46

Post by woodruffw » Sat, Aug 25, 2018, 11:44 PM UTC

lend000 wrote: post #33

acjohnson55 wrote: post #18

It's a damn shame we've let this crisis reach this scale. Along with healthcare, climate change, the debt, our inauguration, and so on, we've been essentially frozen for most of my life as politicians concern themselves more so with existential power struggle. The right wants to bring us back to the gilded age, the left makes headlines but is barely relevant, and the center is trying to squeeze bandaid solutions whil…

I often wonder how many problems would be fixed by adding a 2 term limit to the House and Senate.

Probably not many -- Congress benefits immensely from the massive institutional knowledge of its older members, and corruption probably doesn't correlate all that closely with age anyways (my recollection is that the congresspeople caught in recent scandals have all been relatively young).

In setting a fixed term limit, we would risk weakening the check that the legislative represents against the executive.

Re: The Student Debt Problem Is Worse Than We Imagined

#47

Post by thatjsguy » Sat, Aug 25, 2018, 11:45 PM UTC

drcode wrote: post #34

acjohnson55 wrote: post #18

It's a damn shame we've let this crisis reach this scale. Along with healthcare, climate change, the debt, our inauguration, and so on, we've been essentially frozen for most of my life as politicians concern themselves more so with existential power struggle. The right wants to bring us back to the gilded age, the left makes headlines but is barely relevant, and the center is trying to squeeze bandaid solutions whil…

I must say, as someone who made quite a few sacrifices to pay off my school debt, I'll be pretty miffed if less responsible people from my same generation get a break on their loans.

Somebody getting a break doesn’t bring you down, it just brings them up. I’m sorry you had to pay off your loans. I’m paying about $100,000 myself. But even if I didn’t get amnesty, I’d rather not have one more graduate who, like me, has sincerely considered whether simply being dead would be easier to deal with. And there are a lot of people like that. I’d rather be in debt forever if it means that subsequent multitudes can be free of the burden I carry. At least someone gets some relief.

Re: The Student Debt Problem Is Worse Than We Imagined

#48

Post by ejstronge » Sat, Aug 25, 2018, 11:45 PM UTC

lend000 wrote: post #33

acjohnson55 wrote: post #18

It's a damn shame we've let this crisis reach this scale. Along with healthcare, climate change, the debt, our inauguration, and so on, we've been essentially frozen for most of my life as politicians concern themselves more so with existential power struggle. The right wants to bring us back to the gilded age, the left makes headlines but is barely relevant, and the center is trying to squeeze bandaid solutions whil…

I often wonder how many problems would be fixed by adding a 2 term limit to the House and Senate.

I suspect that very few would be solved - new congresspeople would likely depend more on senior staff to understand complex issues. It’s possible we’d end up with a series of unelected experts who direct policy for relatively inexperienced congress members.

Re: The Student Debt Problem Is Worse Than We Imagined

#49

Post by mynameishere » Sat, Aug 25, 2018, 11:45 PM UTC

wpdev_63 wrote: post #2

Reminder: Your future employers care more about side projects and experience than some writing on a piece of paper. You don't need to go to college to be a kick ass programmer.

No idea where this guy is coming from. Most companies absolutely require a degree, and most companies absolutely won't bother look at your side projects.

....

On the original topic, I went to an extremely cheap school and could not figure out where the money was going. It seemed like they must have been paying the professors $800/hour or something, with all the money involved. Of course they weren't. They were just pissing it away. With what college costs, a student should be able to have a private set of teachers in the manner of royalty--but then you wouldn't have those lovely dormitories they tear down and rebuild every few years.

Re: The Student Debt Problem Is Worse Than We Imagined

#50

Post by pwned1 » Sat, Aug 25, 2018, 11:45 PM UTC

pmarreck wrote: post #26

dev_dull wrote: post #19

There really needs to be some “free market” ideology injected into the way loans are dispersed. First of all students need a way to declare bankruptcy. Second, we must take into consideration future earnings potential when deciding how much and at what rate.

Permitting bankruptcy would instantly add more risk to the lender and thus instantly boost the interest rate on the loan, potentially pricing it out of the range of the student.

Precisely. Then we'd get true price discovery.