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Student Loans a Lot Like the Subprime Mortgage Debacle, Watchdog Says

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Re: Student Loans a Lot Like the Subprime Mortgage Debacle, Watchdog Says

#131

Post by lotsofpulp »

tehjoker wrote: post #11
chiefalchemist wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Silly question: is there any legal way to default on a student loan? Can that be exploited? En mass? Perhaps?

Here's the thing... when you do it en mass, it doesn't matter if it's illegal because nobody can do anything to stop you. It's called a strike. Apparently the people that started http://rollingjubilee.org/ were originally working on a student debt strike project. Not sure exactly why they switched to a medical debt project, but it's certainly a worthy one.

What happens when the government starts garnishing wages from the debtors direct deposit payments?

Re: Student Loans a Lot Like the Subprime Mortgage Debacle, Watchdog Says

#132

Post by the-dude »

adventskalender wrote: post #114
sykick wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When making comparisons with Sweden or other countries the cost of healthcare, housing, food, and transportation should be taken into account. Healthcare and transportation costs are much higher in the U.S. I think too we also have a higher per capita income and I don't know how things balance out. One thing for sure though. I'd rather be poor in Sweden than in the U.S. There is also the fact that many students who s…

But taxes are much lower in the US. Is healthcare even cheaper in Sweden, if you figure in taxes?

Could you define 'much'? I have seen figures once, and it wasn't all that much.

Re: Student Loans a Lot Like the Subprime Mortgage Debacle, Watchdog Says

#133

Post by lotsofpulp »

sintaxi wrote: post #81
anfilt wrote: post #68

Biggest problem it's almost impossible to discharge student loans in bankruptcy.

The reason for this is simple, a lender cannot repossess someones education to mitigate the damage.

The reason is because politicians wanted to advertise that they “help” students while also telling taxpayers they can have lower taxes. There was no other reason the government needed to get involved in student loans.

So instead of paying for education directly and accounting for it as an expense, the politicians can claim they helped, taxpayers can feel like they helped and save money, and future generations get shafted.

Re: Student Loans a Lot Like the Subprime Mortgage Debacle, Watchdog Says

#134

Post by smcl »

zdragnar wrote: post #60
runako wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious on the timeframe here. Depending on when you graduated, a couple of things changed: - college pricing increased (duh), so a loan balance for a comparably situated student will just be higher for recent grads - median incomes for college graduates have risen a lot slower than the increase in college costs, so repayment will be more difficult at the median. (Even in engineering, this is true. Starting softw…

Currently, average BA graduates have $28k in debt. $400 a month will pay that off in roughly 7 years, depending on the interest rate on the loan. Frugal living (aka sharing a studio apartment with a spouse, not eating out or making luxury purchases) makes that entirely doable, probably faster. OTOH, living above your means or lots of unexpected expenses (pet health care, personal health care, car maintenance, etc) ca…

Well the problem is that while $400/month may seem to you like a reasonable amount of cash to set aside, for many people it's not possible. It's quite funny you chose $400 actually - since there was a story recently about how a substantial amount of americans couldn't get their hands on $400 in a one-off emergency (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-23/almost-40...) let alone once a month for seven years.

Re: Student Loans a Lot Like the Subprime Mortgage Debacle, Watchdog Says

#136

Post by reallydontask »

treden wrote: post #95
sykick wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Public transportation is very bad in the U.S. Even in major cities. For the vast majority of people a car is a necessity in the U.S. Most Americans end up in debt to buy a car. Then there is insurance and the opportunity cost of the government having to spend a great deal of money on road maintenance that could otherwise be spent on things like education.

European cities have much higher population density, and the lower personal income (often via higher taxes and, ironically, worker protection laws) changes the tradeoff between driving and taking pub trans, so more people take the bus. The tradeoff is that a lot of people live in small boxes. And european governments have plenty of bs job creation engines like roadwork, too. Would be nice to have some data. One relat…

> And european governments have plenty of bs job creation engines like roadwork, too.

Do you really think that there isn't economic value in roadworks?

Re: Student Loans a Lot Like the Subprime Mortgage Debacle, Watchdog Says

#137

Post by adventskalender »

afarrell wrote: post #121
adventskalender wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But taxes are much lower in the US. Is healthcare even cheaper in Sweden, if you figure in taxes?

From data collected over 2014-2018, the US spent $10,586 USD/capita on healthcare and Sweden spent $5,447 USD/capita on healthcare. Source: https://data.oecd.org/healthres/health-spending.htm

That may be so, but doesn't necessarily imply that health care is more expensive in the US. It's possible that in the US they simply spend more money on useless things, or do more screenings with better technology, for example.

Many things can go wrong with interpreting such statistics, see also my comment here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21760725

Afaik, some of the best (and also most expensive) medical procedures are only available in the US.

Re: Student Loans a Lot Like the Subprime Mortgage Debacle, Watchdog Says

#138

Post by adventskalender »

the-dude wrote: post #132
adventskalender wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But taxes are much lower in the US. Is healthcare even cheaper in Sweden, if you figure in taxes?

Could you define 'much'? I have seen figures once, and it wasn't all that much.

I have to google for that later. Might also be difficult to compare because of different forms of taxes (income, wealth, VAT, energy...).

Re: Student Loans a Lot Like the Subprime Mortgage Debacle, Watchdog Says

#139

Post by thaumasiotes »

ponsin wrote: post #63
planetzero wrote: post #15

We need to get rid of student loans. The problem is that Universities don't ever need to worry about a student defaulting and can keep increasing the prices of tuition with impunity. If they default, they don't care, because the money is already in the bank. If universities had to worry about students defaulting, they would get rid of bullshit degrees that don't result in an actual job and the prices would come done…

Why? If I take out a loan in order to go on a cruise, the cruise company is not responsible if I default. In fact, with almost every purchase that involves a loan, the company offering the loan is different than the company offering the product / service. If responsibility fell on the university, then they could just refuse to accept people who take out loans. The result being that only rich people could go to colleg…

> In fact, with almost every purchase that involves a loan, the company offering the loan is different than the company offering the product / service.

I suspect this isn't true. Amazon puts up some pretty intrusive financing offers on all kinds of products. Jewelry is commonly purchased with vendor financing. Electronics are commonly purchased with vendor financing. Cars are usually purchased with vendor financing.

It's true that such vendor financing may be technically offered through a separate corporate form, but I don't think a company created by a retailer in order to offer financing specifically and exclusively on that retailer's products really counts as a "different company" in any real sense.

Re: Student Loans a Lot Like the Subprime Mortgage Debacle, Watchdog Says

#140

Post by maneesh »

the6threplicant wrote: post #91
rumanator wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At which point do US student loans start to resemble indentured servitude?

10 years ago?

At least indentured servants only had a 7 year time span before payback was complete. Kids are getting lifetime loans these days.
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