81–90 of 113 posts
She's from Colorado and decided to go to an out of state university (Oregon) and pay full out of state tuition for a degree in "historic preservation"? Yeah no shit you just signed up for a lifetime of debt. Reminds me of another story of some lady that got saddled with a couple hundred thousand in debt because she really wanted to go to Duke for a theater management degree. And then fled with her Russian fiance to M…
Get a tech degree, or be a loser forever!
People in The Netherlands have done this. They go to S/E Asian countries to skip out on a €30,000 debt. After a while your passport becomes invalid which makes travel very difficult. And with the outstanding debt you are not able to get a new passport. Which is dumb, because you only have to pay off the debt if you are able to, interest rate is very low, you can pause it for a few years and after 35 years the loan is…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Passport Blocks: Arrears exceeding €5,000 can result in registration in the passport alert system, making it impossible to receive a new passport, I would say that is pretty serious violation of human rights, for relatively small infraction. Soviet countries used similar system to prevent people from leaving their communist paradise. How are you supposed to pay your debt, if you are not allowed to find new job abro…
> that is pretty serious violation of human rights I don’t think it’s that hyperbolic. But I agree that the existence of debts shouldn’t invalidate one’s right to a passport. (The counter argument is that passports are a privilege and citizenship a bundle of privileges and duties. Why should the country have the burden of passporting someone abroad who as abandoned it.)
"Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country."
Passports shouldn't be a privilege, and violation of the universal declaration of human rights is pretty serious.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
In my opinion, if you make a $50,000+ bet on an 18 year old's future career, whether or not that bet works out for you is entirely your problem. Investments don't always work out, tough luck. That's obviously not the same as buying a sandwich.
My comment was specifically about the question of morality, not about whether it's a wise business decision.
If you are in a casual agreement with a friend and don't keep up your end then it's immoral.
If you have a contract that specifies expectations and consequences, then it's just a business deal.
The (predatory) school loan business works from contracts and they are obligated to keep up their side only as much as you are yours.
The real immorality is not accepting the consequences embedded in the contract to which you both agree to, it is that the United States has such a business in the first place.
Well actually second place I guess. When the student loan business started it was not predatory. But it got horribly abused, by the borrowers who would declare bankruptcy gaming that system, schools who raised rates because they knew loans were available, and the lenders who astroTurfed children into believing that it was a good bargain to exchange $200,000 at high interest for a Art History degree
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In the US, student loan interest rates tend to be close to market (which I find despicable) and there is no automatic forgiveness. In fact, student loan debt has extra rules in the US making it difficult to get discharged in bankruptcy, so even that route doesn't work for a lot of people.
Yeah, I find this deeply frustrating. Interest rates are supposed to reflect the level of risk, and student loans are deeply low-risk to the lender.
Risk premium is on top of the other bits.
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Same reason I can't easily start an AT&T/Verizon competitor. Doesn't mean their pricing is that reasonable, or that funding education should be run this way in the first place. It just means there are big barriers to entry, often established by the existing players to protect their margins. The Fed rate for student loans should be lower.
> there are big barriers to entry What are the barriers? Can I make non-dischargeable student loans at 5%?
I know I’d be completely uninterested in such an investment pitch. It would work better as a charity ask for me.
People in The Netherlands have done this. They go to S/E Asian countries to skip out on a €30,000 debt. After a while your passport becomes invalid which makes travel very difficult. And with the outstanding debt you are not able to get a new passport. Which is dumb, because you only have to pay off the debt if you are able to, interest rate is very low, you can pause it for a few years and after 35 years the loan is…
I mean, my monthly student loan payments in the US for a degree in healthcare is $1300 USD per month. It comes out to about 40% of each paycheck. That’s a significant amount. I’d honestly consider moving abroad to avoid paying it. It’s debilitating and I can barely survive while making payments.
The average medical student is around €50,000 to €60,000 in debt.
Say what? $60 per month is not that much!
Earlier quoted context omitted.
In the US, student loan interest rates tend to be close to market (which I find despicable) and there is no automatic forgiveness. In fact, student loan debt has extra rules in the US making it difficult to get discharged in bankruptcy, so even that route doesn't work for a lot of people.
Had to look it up, it is 2.3% for 2026 which is a bit below the Euribor 1 year rate. Between 2017 and 2022 it was 0%. Loan forgiveness happens after 35 years so for most academics that is about 10 years before retirement. Forgiveness also happens upon death. Bankruptcy is a bit different here. We have a program where someone manages your finances for about three years, and after that most remaining debt is forgiven.…
Comforting I'm sure. But it wasn't always that way:
"Six years after the death of Christopher Bryski, a 23-year-old student at Rutgers University, Key Bank has agreed to forgive his student loan. But Bryski's family is not stopping there: It's now fighting to change the laws in the hope of sparing others the trauma it endured as lenders continued to hound it for payment on its dead son's debts."
And it might not be mandatory:
"But it is guidance, not law, and it does not cover creditors collecting their own debts, as they are not covered by the FDCPA (Fair Debt Collection Practices Act)," she said.
https://abcnews.com/Business/bank-forgives-dead-students-loa...