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Student Loans Are A Drag On The Economy

business.time.com

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Re: Student Loans Are A Drag On The Economy

#2
The issue is even worse than this article suggests. The article focuses on graduates. But students who fail to graduate, for whatever reason, are even worse off. They usually can't payoff their debt, so they go into default and have their credit destroyed for the rest of their lives. They can't try to go back to school later because they can't get new loans, and, with the latest laws, can't even transfer the credits they had. It becomes a catch-22 and downward spiral.

Re: Student Loans Are A Drag On The Economy

#3
It blows my mind that it costs $400k to become a quality dentist in the USA these days.

No wonder I see people train overseas and then just get a license here.

How is health care ever going to be affordable in this country if the doctors and dentists have to carry so much debt?

Re: Student Loans Are A Drag On The Economy

#4

The issue is even worse than this article suggests. The article focuses on graduates. But students who fail to graduate, for whatever reason, are even worse off. They usually can't payoff their debt, so they go into default and have their credit destroyed for the rest of their lives. They can't try to go back to school later because they can't get new loans, and, with the latest laws, can't even transfer the credits…

its even worse than that..

Currently, if you have no income you are harassed to get into the payment by income program but that program requires you to make payments on previous loan payment program to become fully qualified for that lower payment plan.

So guess what happens? Congress in their wisdom limited said plan to one try. That is right most of the people on that default list could have been avoided if the limit income plan was implemented properly.

Re: Student Loans Are A Drag On The Economy

#6
post #3

It blows my mind that it costs $400k to become a quality dentist in the USA these days. No wonder I see people train overseas and then just get a license here. How is health care ever going to be affordable in this country if the doctors and dentists have to carry so much debt?

It boggles the mind. By the time I graduate I will owe about 1 year's projected income (about $70k) and I think that's a pretty good return.

If a dentist can make back nearly half a million then something needs to be done about the cost of dentristry, something doesn't add up.

Re: Student Loans Are A Drag On The Economy

#9
College tuition is the perfect alignment of the stars, economically speaking. There's no new supply of public universities. Reputations are extremely sticky. A college degree is often a job requirement. The highest paying jobs mostly recruit out of the top universities, so students are extremely price inelastic at certain levels. The government subsidizes student loans at artificially low rates. More and more foreign students want to attend US universities. Etc.

Hell, it's almost a surprise that college tuition hasn't grown at an even faster pace. In ten years this is going to become a serious national issue and I think you'll see the federal government step in to cap the tuition increases. It's gonna happen.

Re: Student Loans Are A Drag On The Economy

#10
At what point do these students realize the cost indicates they should stay from that school? Like, "Oh wait, even though X is a better school than Y, it will cost 5x more, and my starting salary will only be 5% less." Is that happening? It just seems some of these people are naive. Another example is ones that are unaware of the economy of the city they aspire to live in, and get a degree with little value in that city. And then they're unemployed...

Now that doesn't mean the college system isn't flawed or unfair. I think that it is. But some of the discussion should be on how we tell young adults to best navigate their way through the system, as it exists at present. Picking your dream school, a "good" school, whatever, should not be independent of some analysis on what the return on investment is. For students that can do that, there are still opportunities out there... I say that because I've made decisions where I got in but didn't go to my dream school. It sucks. But the extra value from the quality of the education didn't seem worth $100k in debt once I get on the job market.

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