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Student Loan Debt Is Now as Big as the U.S. Junk Bond Market

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Re: Student Loan Debt Is Now as Big as the U.S. Junk Bond Market

#131

Post by martin_bech »

jedberg wrote: post #22

There is definitely an education bubble. It's way too easy to get money for college. You hear a lot of stories about the increasing costs of college and crushing debt on graduation, but you don't hear a lot of stories of "I wanted to go to college but couldn't get a loan". Almost everyone gets approved, regardless of their future ability to pay it back. We need a fundamental shift in the way college is paid for. Some…

We have a system like that. Its called taxes and free education. Everyone is offered free college education, including basic living expenses. In return everyone pays a litle more in taxes. And those who choose college, often earn more, and then pay more in taxes. (Im from Denmark)

Re: Student Loan Debt Is Now as Big as the U.S. Junk Bond Market

#132

Post by learc83 »

jedberg wrote: post #22

There is definitely an education bubble. It's way too easy to get money for college. You hear a lot of stories about the increasing costs of college and crushing debt on graduation, but you don't hear a lot of stories of "I wanted to go to college but couldn't get a loan". Almost everyone gets approved, regardless of their future ability to pay it back. We need a fundamental shift in the way college is paid for. Some…

>Another solution is to let you go to school for free and then pay a percent of all your future earnings back to your college, or at least in to a pool that pays for the next generation's college.

We basically already have that system. If you get federal loans (which most people who take out loans do--90% of all loan disbursements) you can sign up for an income based repayment plan.

You pay back 10% of your disposable income (income over 1.5x the federal poverty limit), for 20 years.

If you make less than 1.5x the poverty limit, you pay nothing.

Re: Student Loan Debt Is Now as Big as the U.S. Junk Bond Market

#133

Post by gknoy »

dweekly wrote: post #119
crocal wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nah, let’s find some flashy Valley name for the concept and disrupt the market.

Personalized Education ICOs. Everyone gets their own token redeemable for a portion of lifetime earnings and tradable on an exchange. Traders can go long on an investment or short you if they forsee the market digesting an event decreasing your likely lifetime earnings.

You might enjoy (or have already read ;)) "The Incorporated Man", a fiction novel which has this basic premise: Everyone's a minority shareholder in their own personal corporation. (except the main character). It's pretty well written, and both the main character and the antagonist have points of view which make sense, IMO.

Re: Student Loan Debt Is Now as Big as the U.S. Junk Bond Market

#134

Post by 0xfeba »

smallnamespace wrote: post #84
cloakandswagger wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We have too many people thinking it's okay to discredit scientists and scholars because they don't understand how research works. And a similar number of people who elevate science to the level of religion, marching in its name and developing a brand of hero worship for scientists when they too know nothing at all about the scientific process. Both are forms of anti-intellectualism that are growing in our polarized…

I've seen this form of scientism playing out frequently on Reddit and other Internet forums lately. Discussion will be about some piece of controversial research, e.g. GMOs or vaccines. People who want to discuss the merits of the research are shouted down by what I can only describe as 'science fanbois' -- anything that is 'against science' must be wrong. They're missing the inherent tension in science between a rec…

> Some piece of controversial research, e.g. GMOs or vaccines

Who or what determines what is controversial?

To me, vaccines are not controversial at all. You can pick and choose specific ones to argue about, but the concept of vaccines is literally proven, beyond a doubt.

As for GMOs, there's a lot more room but even still, the fundamentals are nothing controversial. This is also proven in pretty much anything you can buy in a grocery store today.

Re: Student Loan Debt Is Now as Big as the U.S. Junk Bond Market

#135

Post by berbec »

workthrowaway27 wrote: post #104
JonFish85 wrote: post #79

To me, this is another implementation of the housing bubble: - People see college graduates making a lot of money - Politicians make it a priority to make it easier for people to get loans to go to college - More people take out loans to go to college - Colleges realize there is no downward pressure on price and raise tuition. - Politicians continue to make it easy for people to go to college - People take bigger loa…

But as far as I know student loans aren't securitized and leveraged in the same way as mortgages were, so I'm not sure that the fall out will be as bad. The root problem (as others have noted) is too many people are encouraged to go to college and even though most majors don't make economic sense students (rightly) feel that they need a college degree to be a competitive applicant for good jobs. Maybe I'm just in an…

They aren't securitized the way mortgages were, but you also can't walk away. Student loans are immune to bankruptcy so it follows you forever.

Re: Student Loan Debt Is Now as Big as the U.S. Junk Bond Market

#136

Post by orchard1931 »

The bottom line is the college loan system needs an overhaul.

As just one example, the founders of Collegeloan.com made close to a billion dollars each prior to new laws passed in 2008. The founders have since left daily roles but themselves and current execs are still raking in money off student load debt.

This is just one of the founders houses that has been on market for 4+ years. This house was paid for off the false hopes and high interest payment loans the schlepped to kids who have long since graduated and still paying off debt.

https://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2013/feb/20/unreal-casa-...

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/14385-Cypress-Pt-Poway-CA...

Another house he sold in Vegas.

https://www.realtor.com/news/unique-homes/ceo-and-poker-pro-...

He also likes million dollar buy in poker. How many interest payments did kids make for him to afford this?

http://www.pokerlistings.com/cary-katz-wsop-big-one-for-one-...

Do some research... this is just one company that was in the upper top 10 prior to 2008 shake up. Many more made far more of the backs of kids in this country. After the shake up the companies adjusted and went back to lobbying to gain back the insane profits they once saw. Obviously by the headline we are back to all time highs.

Re: Student Loan Debt Is Now as Big as the U.S. Junk Bond Market

#137

Post by [deleted] »

jedberg wrote: post #22

There is definitely an education bubble. It's way too easy to get money for college. You hear a lot of stories about the increasing costs of college and crushing debt on graduation, but you don't hear a lot of stories of "I wanted to go to college but couldn't get a loan". Almost everyone gets approved, regardless of their future ability to pay it back. We need a fundamental shift in the way college is paid for. Some…

[deleted]

Re: Student Loan Debt Is Now as Big as the U.S. Junk Bond Market

#138

Post by grandalf »

There are two relevant things to realize about this:

1) Student debt is much different than normal consumer debt in that it is not dischargeable if the holder declares bankruptcy.

2) For years, many politicians have been calling for the massive increases in the issuance of student loans, presenting the issue as though the only hope for many people to obtain education is to take on massive amounts of debt.

If there weren't lots of bankers, politicians, and lobbyists getting rich off of this bubble, it might be possible to believe that they genuinely think that saddling teenagers with massive amounts of non-dischargeable debt was a good thing for society.

Student loans are the biggest handout to the financial services industry in decades, and both parties are reaping the spoils of these deals.

Re: Student Loan Debt Is Now as Big as the U.S. Junk Bond Market

#139

Post by khawkins »

kakaorka wrote: post #128
bluGill wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm working with an idea that you can go bankrupt on student loans, but in doing so you lose the degree - including all rights to a job that might use the degree. There are a ton of things I haven't figure out (follow my post history for more detail on what I have)

How would you forbid someone from using their knowledge?

More importantly, how would you forbid someone from using their contacts?

Re: Student Loan Debt Is Now as Big as the U.S. Junk Bond Market

#140

Post by mywittyname »

chriskanan wrote: post #100
umbrellathorn wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> for a useless degree they'll never use I went to school for such a degree. While I don't use it in my day to day now, I still consider it priceless. There's some inherent value added to a person who pursues to study a bit of humanities, history, philosophy and art in college apart from their major. Scholarly work really helps shape the way you look at life for the better. Part of this is that you really understand…

While I agree that one can gain a great deal of enrichment from studying non-lucrative majors, I think people should highly consider double majoring in this case. I majored in computer science AND philosophy as an undergraduate. Doing both took under 5 years. I think a lot of people don't realize how little they will earn with their degrees compared to how high their debt load will be. That's not including people who…

Isn't a philosophy/CS double major kind of like a math/CS double major? In that it expands your knowledge in the same domain, rather than a completely new one would (like, for example, studying German literature or biology would).

I remember helping my sister with her philosophy home work, and being surprised by the amount of elementary logic and set theory being taught.

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