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The Student Loan Bubble is Starting To Burst

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Re: The Student Loan Bubble is Starting To Burst

#212
post #183
post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I assume a bank cannot reposes my liver either. What happens if I go into debt from medical expenses? Is there an exemption for medical debt as well?

From what I've read about the US health system, I thought you don't get much in the way of medical treatment unless you have medical insurance. In other word the insurance covers the cost. If that is the case, where is the debt?

[deleted]

Re: The Student Loan Bubble is Starting To Burst

#213
post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From what I've read about the US health system, I thought you don't get much in the way of medical treatment unless you have medical insurance. In other word the insurance covers the cost. If that is the case, where is the debt?

All I know is that many people go bankrupt from medical expenses. I don't know the specifics of how they get into that sort of situation. Perhaps it happens when hospitals first treat people, then bill them afterwards.

They go broke for many reasons:

1. US Healthcare is too expensive. Two weeks after I first came to the states, my wisdom teeth (all 4) started growing. I had to pull them out. That was a $2,000 bill and a good lesson to get insurance asap. If you get into a car accident and you don't have insurance, your bill might be about $25K. More if you need continuous care and more surgeries.

2. Doctors are doing unnecessary tests and operations. Sometimes, I feel like they just want you to test for every single disease with a similar symptom. What a joke.

3. Some patients are stupid. Why on earth do some people need to call ambulance for flu. Even if they don't have a ride, just find it, use a cab, or use a bus if you are that broke.

Common sense is like deodorant. People who need it most, never use it.

Re: The Student Loan Bubble is Starting To Burst

#214

Thank god my country has tax-funded tuition (upper education is provided free for all citizens), this sounds like a nightmare.

they even paid us a stipend - something at the level of a minimum wage - and we were such a lazy "lowest part of the back" students, it's a shame.

In the community college here (i went for ESL) i saw a bunch of youngsters who go to the college and work simultaneously, and some workers at the local Starbucks go to the state school. My respect to them.

Re: The Student Loan Bubble is Starting To Burst

#216
post #181
post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't save the taxpayers any money if the government makes foolish loans that can't be repaid that nobody would have ever lent out if their own money was on the hook instead, nor does it save the taxpayers any money if the government provides easy, free money that causes unnaturally skyrocketing tuition followed by an unnatural higher ed crash. An awfully expensive $70B over ten years, I think.

You are not contradicting my post. The savings of $70B comes from eliminating a profit layer that was enjoyed by the banks. The government insured the loans before and after the change in 2010. So the taxpayer was on the hook for losses. Now it is still on the hook for losses, but also benefits from profits. The $70B is simply from cutting out the middleman.

A profit layer that also prevented those other things from happening. These things can not be considered in isolation. People are more careful with their own money than the free money the government provides. We prevented the eeeeeviiil profit mongering bank bastards from making money, at the cost of encumbering millions upon millions with debt, and who knows what damage we're going to witness to the higher ed system over the next few years.

Will it have been worth all this damage to prevent the eeeeeeviiiiil profiters? It really already wasn't, and the accounting for the evil of our current policy is only going to get worse.

Re: The Student Loan Bubble is Starting To Burst

#217
post #190
post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It also means that the government is now 1) the one making the laws 2) the organisation that would suffer if the assumptions ("guaranteed repayment") turn out less than perfect So now we have : debt slavery where your debtor is actually the one making laws. This could be really good or really bad. Really good if it is decided that transferring the education debt to all taxpayers is deemed acceptable, really bad if th…

Government now makes laws? Stop the presses! ... No one is ever forced to borrow any kind of student loan. Using language like "debt slavery" is really over the top

You do realize that the vast majority of slaves in, for example, the Roman republic were slaves by choice, right ?

Maybe there was a lack of alternatives available to them, or at the very least they didn't themselves believed other good alternatives existed (the same as with student loans), but it still required them to agree to it.

Re: The Student Loan Bubble is Starting To Burst

#218
post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>This excess demand and fixed supply means that colleges can raise prices. If colleges raise prices, won't this make it more attractive/affordable for new colleges to open, thus increasing supply?

It would be if you assumed the purpose of college was to impart information. It's not. All that stuff about "teaching students to think" is just bullshit, frankly. The real reason you have to go to college to get a good job is the school you went to gives employers an indication of how smart you are. Prior to Griggs v Duke Power employers could just give you an IQ test, and all the big ones did. If you wanted to work…

I think this is a big part of it. I think of it as a signalling tax on the young extracted by the old. "Ah ya think you're smart eh? You want a job eh? Promise me $100k+ your future earnings and we'll talk".

Re: The Student Loan Bubble is Starting To Burst

#219

MOOC couldn't have come at a better time.

There is a fixed number of existing jobs. Mooc, for-profit and state schools all produce people who have to compete for the same jobs. The only solution to debt and employment is to make certain processes/jobs more efficient so that the extra time can be used to create new and better products/services/companies.

Re: The Student Loan Bubble is Starting To Burst

#220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those cards generate lots of fees. How can the CC have confidence in the credit report when they issue cards to people with virtually no credit. They are wildcatting. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wildcatter

Right, but just imagine the fees you'd need to establish on student loans to wildcat them! Late billing fee: $10,000 Processing fee: $1,500 (Etc)

Are you assuming that every college student who is issued a $600 credit limit is a deadbeat? I don't think that's the case.

edit: My point in the post above was simply that _if_ it is possible on average for an 18 year old to have a 'good' credit rating, _then_ credit ratings are practically without meaning.

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