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Student-Loan Debt Is Crushing Millennials

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11–20 of 116 posts

Re: Student-Loan Debt Is Crushing Millennials

#11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. I feel like most of the problem would be solved by allowing student debt to be erased by declaring bankruptcy. It's absurd that isn't the case.

What's absurd about that? The bank has no salvageable assets to claim. They can't claim 4 years of European Literature from your mind.

Same thing happens w8tg a bankrupt business...

Re: Student-Loan Debt Is Crushing Millennials

#12
As someone who worked his way through college almost 100%, I have very little sympathy for people who take on huge debts in order to pay for their so-called education. Be smart with taking on any debt, understand how it ties your hands! You only have yourself to blame. And I'm not saying don't do it necessarily, but at least try, try to understand how loans work, what you're getting yourself into, and if you can't articulate how it serves your long-term plans, then for the love of Jesus (or whoever) DON'T DO IT!!!!!

Re: Student-Loan Debt Is Crushing Millennials

#13

Why do we encourage a group to vote who remind us daily about their inability to survey their options and make good decisions?

I am so tired of the "Millennials are lazy and make bad decisions" narrative. You can't make blanket statements about an entire generation. Please stop.

Re: Student-Loan Debt Is Crushing Millennials

#14
Student loans always did feel kind of predatory to me. We're asking 17 or 18 year olds whose brains haven't fully developed the ability to prioritize long term consequences to take on 10s or 100s of thousands of dollars in debt when in many cases, they don't even know their path through college (major etc).

Now don't get me wrong, I don't have some sort of magic plan to fix this (maybe allow them to declare bankruptcy would be a start?) but the whole industry just felt a little predatory to me.

Re: Student-Loan Debt Is Crushing Millennials

#16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. I feel like most of the problem would be solved by allowing student debt to be erased by declaring bankruptcy. It's absurd that isn't the case.

What's absurd about that? The bank has no salvageable assets to claim. They can't claim 4 years of European Literature from your mind.

Fortunately most of the debt is held by the US department of Education, and could easily be written off. (Minor inflationary effects asside).

Re: Student-Loan Debt Is Crushing Millennials

#17
post #13

Why do we encourage a group to vote who remind us daily about their inability to survey their options and make good decisions?

I am so tired of the "Millennials are lazy and make bad decisions" narrative. You can't make blanket statements about an entire generation. Please stop.

Yea that's a crazy sentiment considering who encourages these young people to go to college (their parents, primarily) and without considering the absolutely unbelieavable increases in college tuition costs with no discernible benefit to the attendees (while Professors become adjunct and paid less).

Re: Student-Loan Debt Is Crushing Millennials

#18
The normalisation of lending is a huge issue in general.

There's a pervasive idea that being able to actually afford things is abnormal. That everyone should just take a loan out for education. For a car. For a house. For a cellphone.

Yes, there are benefits to being able to get things 'earlier' than otherwise would be possible. And if everything goes right, the situation a borrower is in at the end of a loan may be better than had they not taken it.

But the actual result of this seems to be that, for example, ~everyone in Britain is tied into full-time employment to pay off various creditors.

It's commonly posted on here that the average American has savings amounting to effectively a bag of crisps.

That's the obvious result if you use every available bit of income, even if it's "investing" for a future that never comes.

Re: Student-Loan Debt Is Crushing Millennials

#19
There an interesting argument to be made around non-guaranteed loans with rates dependent on course of study. Want a degree in medicine? Enjoy your 3% loan since you'll probably be able to pay it back. Social Sciences? Get ready for 20% interest to compensate for a high default rate. Interest rates are an important signalling mechanism and could help stear students into educational fields with greater economic demand.

Re: Student-Loan Debt Is Crushing Millennials

#20
post #9

Why do we encourage a group to vote who remind us daily about their inability to survey their options and make good decisions?

To be fair, most people make the decision about where they go to school (and along with that, how much it costs) when they are barely adults and don't have a good grasp on finance. At least part of the blame falls on parents, and teachers who point them to expensive schools, and our culture which has praised expensive schools as a positive thing for a long time. I'm hoping the next generation will get better guidance…

The only part I disagree with is that it is ALL the parents’ fault.

My point wasn’t necessarily that millennials are uniquely stupid, rather that the voting age should be at least 25.

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