Why I Defaulted on My Student Loans
nytimes.com
Why I Defaulted on My Student Loans
1–10 of 32 posts
Re: Why I Defaulted on My Student Loans
#2Why do people like this absolve themselves of all responsibility. You made the choice to take out all those loans and attend a liberal arts college, good for you and now it is time for you to pay up.
While you got to party in College on someone else's dime, I worked 80 hours per week and built my career. I'm sorry your choice didn't pan out the way you thought it would but I'm really getting tired of the idea that people should just be able to walk away from student loan debt because they believe it is "unfair."
Re: Why I Defaulted on My Student Loans
#3I don't understand how people can be so sure that they've made the right choice: If society isn't willing to give you anything for it, how are you sure it's your 'usefulness in life'? Usefulness to whom?
How is this person supposed to be a sympathetic character, when he paid none of the investment towards higher education, reaped a number of the benefits, and then lumps people who played by the rules/lived within their means as sad?
The sheer level of entitlement and narcissism displayed by acknowledging "I could give up what had become my vocation (in my case, being a writer) and take a job that I didn’t want in order to repay the huge debt I had accumulated in college and graduate school" but then going on to shirk the debt for your own personal benefit is disgusting.
Re: Why I Defaulted on My Student Loans
#4I think tuition trends are appalling and it's a real problem that so many students leave college saddled with debt that will drag them down for a decade or more. (It's also a little insane that even bankruptcy can't shed student loan debt.) However, it's really hard to sympathize with someone who went to Columbia to get not just one but three degrees rather than attend a state university because he "deserved better". Ten years of loans to attend a school that costs over $50K/year (today) and then playing the victim?
This seems a lot like buying a Ferrari because you need a car, instead of doing the sensible thing and getting a Civic. Sure, you've got crippling debt. But it seems entirely self-inflicted.
Re: Why I Defaulted on My Student Loans
#5I'm sorry, but if you want to go to college, it's all a business. The experience you get, the paper you receive guarantees you nothing. You make college what you will. Banks and loan companies offer to lend you money with the intentions of running their own business. I graduated with $40,000 of debt. I got a job making $12 an hour as a programmer, way underpaid, and knew there was no way I was going to be debt-free ever, or so I thought. For a year, I did my best, got one raise, but I couldn't take it anymore, and decided to apply for new jobs, considering I had a college education, I had an advantage above many others. I applied and got 2 jobs. I worked about 18 hours a day for almost a year, and after all was said and done, it took me about 2 1/2 years to pay it back. After that, the IRS decided to come after me with a slap in the face asking for $6,000. I eventually paid off my student loans AND the IRS, and the next year after that, I ended up owing the IRS $3,000 more, but that is life and reality. I paid it off, changed my w4 so they take everything from me up front in hopes that I owe nothing anymore, and I am comfortably working in a job I love debt-free. Welcome to life. Defaulting does make you delinquent in the eyes of the law, or the loan companies, as well you should be. If I lent you $10,000 and told you I was charging you 6% interest, I'd expect to be paid back the original $10,000 I lent you and all the interest you accrued for each year you couldn't afford to pay me back. Welcome to the real world, my friend. Welcome to owning up to your responsibilities. Oh wait... you didn't do that.
I do agree with you that education is overpriced and the value for your buck is insane, but people are paying it, and those who do, especially those who are studying the right fields of science, mathematics, medical, engineering, and computer science are coming out on top and making great money. With the exception of several degrees in which a further education is necessary, those who study anything else tend to find it harder and rougher to get jobs. Truth about the workforce is: YOU NEED SKILLS. YOU NEED TO FIND SOMETHING THAT MAKES YOU IN DEMAND! Unfortunately, the college degree helps you get into the door, but it's what you truly have to offer that brings you much further in life. In my case, I am extremely good at picking up new computer languages, from computer programming to web design. Add value to yourself by acquiring new skills and selling them to companies.
Re: Why I Defaulted on My Student Loans
#6It's interesting that what we consider to be barbaric and primitive was a poor lower class of people who were uneducated while their lives were indentured. Now we have educated people who's lives are indentured.
Re: Why I Defaulted on My Student Loans
#7These kinds of op ed pieces are always shocking in the way they drip with entitlement. He quit his job as a shoe salesman, where he would be a district manager if he stayed he'll have you know, because he was just too good for that kind of job.
Why does he think that? Why does he think himself somehow above the other people selling shoes, and indeed the district managers of shoe-selling operations? Does he really think other people selling shoes couldn't have gotten a liberal arts degree from Columbia if they were willing to take on foolish amounts of debt?
Re: Why I Defaulted on My Student Loans
#8tldr; too bad that the majority of student loans are issued by the US government and filing bankruptcy doesn't clear them from your credit history...
Re: Why I Defaulted on My Student Loans
#9Sociopath Explains Why He’s Above Paying Off His Debts: http://freebeacon.com/blog/sociopath-explains-why-hes-above-...
Re: Why I Defaulted on My Student Loans
#10It all went to hell in 2005 because of this little gem:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bankruptcy_Abuse_Prevention_and...
See, there are two primary forms of financing for higher education: The heavily regulated federal market, where the federal government guarantees the loans, but also maintains rules that ensure that repayment is affordable by way of myriad flexibility in repayment (including a very reasonable $50k total cap in principal lended), and the private market which is very much similar to other forms of consumer financing.
The BAPCPA changed the rules and handed out protection to private lenders outside of the federal system that made private student loans special in that they became nondischargable in bankruptcy.
Now take a room, throw in some profit hungry lenders drunk on an elixir or reduced risk prepared by the federal government, a bunch of kids that aren't old enough to drink, some old school notions about the value of expensive college degrees, more old school notions about the value of liberal arts degrees and a pile of overzealous university administrators looking to expand by pushing overpriced preparation for vaporcareers and guess what you get, this mess.