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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

#161

Post by tytytytytytytyt »

umbrellathorn wrote: post #51
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…

> 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…

You can't sell soap to a pig.

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

#162

Post by runako »

latencyloser wrote: post #46
lawlessone wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>as well as military service are all great options for young adults Getting shot at for an education doesn't seem that great. Better off just moving to a better country.

Anecdotal, but my mother was a mechanic, my uncle a cryptographer, another uncle was some type of police on base, my cousin is a drone pilot and just sits in an office like building despite technically being involved in combat I suppose. Several former colleagues mostly did admin-type work while enlisted. The last person I know to have actually seen combat was my grandfather in Korea--but he knew what he signed up fo…

>> my mother was a mechanic, my uncle a cryptographer, another uncle was some type of police on base, my cousin is a drone pilot

They have been fortunate. Obviously, in some conflicts, some people in all of those roles end up in postings where they are in hazardous areas. (Also: IIRC drone pilots stationed far from conflict still experience combat-induced PTSD.)

The other feature of the armed services is that in general, once you enlist you don't always get to choose your posting. It's great that some people get to choose plum jobs away from war zones, but (most?) others don't (and this can change for anyone in the military, at any time). A defining feature of a military is orders, and following them.

Military careers can be rewarding for some people. But just as it's wrong to say college is for everyone, it's not correct to suggest that one can embark on a military career without adding additional personal safety risk.

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

#163

Post by throwawayjava »

SamReidHughes wrote: post #150
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…

Maybe you could spend one year doing it instead of four.

Fortunately, our current education system is already set up to allow this. With a few AP credits, you can easily major in a STEM field and spend a year+ worth of time on courses outside of CS.

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

#164

Post by pkaye »

erikpukinskis wrote: post #77
kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Psychology is effectively today's basket weaving. There is an excess number of students receiving those degrees with no intent to work in the field. It's widely perceived as an "easy" degree which makes it worthless unless you continue on and make it into the limited space for a graduate program.

Psychology is a superb background for both marketing and design. Possibly better than a marketing or design undergrad. It’s also a great lead-in to an MBA. Heck, I think it’s put you in good stead to get finance jobs. Have you studied psych before? I got a minor with my CS undergrad and all my psych classes were invaluable.

I'm sure psychology might work great as a double major like you mention but as a pure major it is probably not beneficial to most in the job market.

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

#165

Post by fnovd »

etr-strike wrote: post #99

When the next recession strikes, interest rates have no place to go but into negative territory. The rates will be either explicitly negative, or effectively negative (inflation higher than interest rates). When that happens, bitcoin will be the only safe haven in the world to protect your wealth. The bubble people will be changing their tune very quick.

When the next recession strikes, people will attempt to liquidate their Bitcoin to pay their bills and find out that no one really wants to buy them.

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

#166

Post by tytytytytytytyt »

mywittyname wrote: post #140
chriskanan wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I wouldn't say either of those expand your knowledge in the same domain. Related, sure.

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

#167

Post by randomsearch »

ConceptJunkie wrote: post #155
jackweirdy wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 into a pool that pays for the next generation's college. We could call it income tax :)

The problem with subsidizing college in any way, including the current student loan system is that it encourages people to go to college whether it makes sense or not, and as several people have mentioned in this discussion, in a lot of cases, it doesn't make sense. Anyone who is properly motivated should be able to go to college, but when I hear cries for a free college education, I can imagine that that would stimu…

Perhaps you should start charging for individual high school classes, in case people learn things out of curiosity rather than if it makes them a more valuable member of your workforce.

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

#168

Post by jedberg »

umbrellathorn wrote: post #51
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…

> 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…

Apologies if I offended, I should have put "useless" in quotes. I meant degrees that society does not give as much value to as to what you paid to get them.

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

#169

Post by WkndTriathlete »

Top19 wrote: post #44
aloukissas wrote: post #18

One statistic that's commonly left out of these discussions & articles is how late parents save for college. According to Sallie Mae ( http://news.salliemae.com/publication/how-america-saves-coll... ), most families don't start saving before their oldest child reaches 7 years old. This effectively robs 1/3 of the investment period's growth potential. Another one (as perhaps a consequence of the previous fact) is that…

Your point is interesting. That being said, ughh anyone who pushes this smacks of neoliberalism. Wow now parents have to save from the birth of their child. When will it start being considered “responsible” to save 10 years before a child is born and if you don’t you’re irresponsible cuz you missed 10 years of growth. When will it start being considered “responsible” to save for your grandkids college?

I think the real point is how parents can help their children win the game according to its current rules, not what post-secondary education finance policy is or should be.

Personally, I think the economy would benefit from appropriate government-financed post-secondary education for those students that show an aptitude for it. However, I suspect that a test-based system similar to that employed in Europe or elsewhere is politically untenable here ("I should have the freedom to choose to go $336k* into debt at an elite photography school!")

(*NB: I wish I was making that number up but there was someone that actually made this choice a number of years back.)

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

#170

Post by jedberg »

ConceptJunkie wrote: post #158
VeronicaJJ123 wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most people do not go to college and still pay for income tax.

Income tax covers way more than education.

Exactly, which is why this would be a special additional tax that is just for college graduates and just goes back to the colleges.
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