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Half of the US government's financial assets are student loans

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Re: Half of the US government's financial assets are student loans

#111

Post by johnchristopher »

SheepSlapper wrote: post #96
gesman wrote: post #11

Recent reports from the Treasury Department show that the US government owns nearly $1.5 trillion in student loans. That’s pretty sad when you think about it: the US government’s #1 financial asset is debt owed by tens of millions of its young people for university education that didn’t even necessarily qualify them for a real career. Millennials are the most educated generation in history. Yet there are record numbe…

> Millennials are the most educated generation in history. Yet there are record numbers of them working off student debts as waiters and bartenders, and supplementing their income on the side with ‘gigs’ (like being an Uber driver) We're the most educated in history, but many people decided to use that education to learn topics that aren't lucrative/in demand. Personal responsibility plays in a ton here, and some peo…

What's SS ?

Re: Half of the US government's financial assets are student loans

#112

Post by IncRnd »

matte_black wrote: post #13
jjoonathan wrote: post #3

Oof. What happens when a huge chunk of these default because educating everyone doesn't magically create jobs for everyone?

The banks that loaned out all that money will need massive bailouts or else shut down. Let’s be clear, students will NEVER be allowed to default these loans, nor should they. They must either pay it or take their debt to the grave and pass it down to their heirs.

1) The loans that are being discussed are not owned by private banks, so even if 100% were defaulted there would be no bailout of banks needed.

2) There are no blood debts in the US. Debts are NOT passed on to heirs like property.

Re: Half of the US government's financial assets are student loans

#113

Post by marcelluspye »

dorchadas wrote: post #99
adreamingsoul wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Millennial here, thanks for the daily reminder of the future I have to deal with. Failing government systems, check. Unaffordable educational system, check. Limited housing and land, check. Degrading climate, check. Some days I believe I just may find a way out of it. But, for every day I participate in the rat race is just another lost when I should be working on building a better future for my family.

And that's _exactly_ why I will likely never have kids. I'm a millennial myself, caught up in all that (doubly so, if they remove the student loan forgiveness for public workers), and I don't want to make any child of mine grow up in the world it seems we're heading to (especially degrading climate).

I have a similar position on child creation, but I've decided that if I do want kids (don't at the moment, but seems likely) and can afford to, that I'll look strongly into adoption. Seems like a pretty good solution all-around to me.

Re: Half of the US government's financial assets are student loans

#114

Post by michaelchisari »

SheepSlapper wrote: post #96
gesman wrote: post #11

Recent reports from the Treasury Department show that the US government owns nearly $1.5 trillion in student loans. That’s pretty sad when you think about it: the US government’s #1 financial asset is debt owed by tens of millions of its young people for university education that didn’t even necessarily qualify them for a real career. Millennials are the most educated generation in history. Yet there are record numbe…

> Millennials are the most educated generation in history. Yet there are record numbers of them working off student debts as waiters and bartenders, and supplementing their income on the side with ‘gigs’ (like being an Uber driver) We're the most educated in history, but many people decided to use that education to learn topics that aren't lucrative/in demand. Personal responsibility plays in a ton here, and some peo…

Law degrees used to be in demand. Then everyone went to law school. Now it's not in demand, because there are too many people with law degrees. Now you have people with massive law school debt making peanuts and all fighting for very limited amount of positions.

If everyone studied computer science, every single one of our salaries (save for maybe the top 5% of us, in terms of skills and experience) would drop significantly.

I know the absurd stereotype is that millennials are going to college and studying feminist underwater basket weaving, but there are many, many students who are chasing the "hot" new fields, only to find that they weren't the only ones who had that brilliant idea at 18 years old.

Re: Half of the US government's financial assets are student loans

#115

Post by cozzyd »

johnchristopher wrote: post #111
SheepSlapper wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Millennials are the most educated generation in history. Yet there are record numbers of them working off student debts as waiters and bartenders, and supplementing their income on the side with ‘gigs’ (like being an Uber driver) We're the most educated in history, but many people decided to use that education to learn topics that aren't lucrative/in demand. Personal responsibility plays in a ton here, and some peo…

What's SS ?

social security

Re: Half of the US government's financial assets are student loans

#116

Post by nickysielicki »

This is such a huge problem and it's so easy to see the collapse over the horizon.

There are just a few small differences between education today and education 30 years ago. Off the top of my head, you can go online today and see lectures for upper level MIT courses for free... Literally, the best university in the world has lectures available for free. And instead of learning the dewey decmial system and taking 10 books and flipping through looking for a specific answer, you can google any specific topic and immediately get relevant information. And you can go on reddit.com/r/askscience and ask questions to experts in any field. Just a few small differences.

What the hell are people paying for, then? The "college experience"? Does it really cost tens of thousands of dollars to validate that someone has adequately learned from consuming educational material? Schools today have dorms that look like luxury hotels and the best gyms in the country; what the fuck is going on?

Meanwhile, primary education hasn't fundamentally changed in 100 years, outside of a select few schoolboards adding iPads to the classroom and thinking to themselves, "Yes, now we're modern." Nevermind that we still exclusively group children by their age group rather than their educational progress until they're 18. Nevermind that we have never questioned the idea of teaching children 7 different topics every single day, wasting extraordinary amounts of time with context switching, instead of focusing on a topic for longer periods (as it works in the real world.)

I just do not understand how this debt is going to be managed when (not "if") the education system is fundamentally disrupted. Economists more or less universally agree that federally guaranteed student loans are unsustainable and make education more expensive. So what's taking so long?

Re: Half of the US government's financial assets are student loans

#117

Post by noobermin »

adreamingsoul wrote: post #102
noobermin wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you want to be serious about saving our future, you need to stop standing on the sidelines and echoing the defeatist attitude that the situation we're in cannot be fixed. We need to stop worrying about offending a minority of people who have power and focus on ending their political power, because a lot of the fixes will be political and must be. EDIT: being a little presumptive here, see below.

Currently, I serve on two committees with my local City government. I work-trade with local farmers and volunteer with numerous non-profit organizations. I've converted my backyard into an urban farm and have started a composting program with my neighbors. I regularly meet with the Mayor to discuss ideas that could benefit the local community. All of this is in addition to my 9-5. What else should I be doing? Also, I…

You're definitely doing a lot more than a lot of people are doing. I read your last line as defeatist, and probably misjudged you.

I will say however that a lot of the issues you talk about are systemic and larger than what can be affected by local politics. Compositing programs won't address there are still large corporate farms out there that contribute the most to climate change. The same is true of recycling, being vegan or eating local, etc. A lot of change that needs to occur involves regulating large corporations.

It sounds like you're aware of this, but that's how you address the future. I think you agree.

EDIT: leaving my presumptive comment above unchanged so people reading won't be confused.

Re: Half of the US government's financial assets are student loans

#118

Post by golem14 »

johnchristopher wrote: post #111
SheepSlapper wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Millennials are the most educated generation in history. Yet there are record numbers of them working off student debts as waiters and bartenders, and supplementing their income on the side with ‘gigs’ (like being an Uber driver) We're the most educated in history, but many people decided to use that education to learn topics that aren't lucrative/in demand. Personal responsibility plays in a ton here, and some peo…

What's SS ?

Social Security ?

Re: Half of the US government's financial assets are student loans

#119

Post by prostoalex »

d--b wrote: post #79
thinkloop wrote: post #44

One thing to keep in mind is that "assets" are far from "spending". Governments generally do not accumulate assets, everything they collect is reserved for spending (besides some operational accounts and things like foreign reserves). The student loan program is an exception and so figures heavily in this stat.

Yes, the title makes it sound like the US government is in a dire situation because it has its solvency tied to students paying back their loans... But mostly the government is a borrower of cash and not a lender. Here the government is indirectly financing people's education by offering cheaper loans than the market would give. There is not much to talk about...

The rate that the government can borrow at is determined by the quality of underlying assets.

US 10-year note is 2.58% at the moment, but Argentina's is 7%.

Re: Half of the US government's financial assets are student loans

#120

Post by jpapon »

SheepSlapper wrote: post #96
gesman wrote: post #11

Recent reports from the Treasury Department show that the US government owns nearly $1.5 trillion in student loans. That’s pretty sad when you think about it: the US government’s #1 financial asset is debt owed by tens of millions of its young people for university education that didn’t even necessarily qualify them for a real career. Millennials are the most educated generation in history. Yet there are record numbe…

> Millennials are the most educated generation in history. Yet there are record numbers of them working off student debts as waiters and bartenders, and supplementing their income on the side with ‘gigs’ (like being an Uber driver) We're the most educated in history, but many people decided to use that education to learn topics that aren't lucrative/in demand. Personal responsibility plays in a ton here, and some peo…

> As far as SS goes, I'd be happy to see it fail

I wouldn't. If SS fails, there will be riots, if not armed uprisings in the streets.

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