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Soaring Student Debt Prompts Calls for Relief

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Re: Soaring Student Debt Prompts Calls for Relief

#531

Am I the only one who hates the notion of being forced to pay for other people's bad financial decisions? I made the choice to go to a slightly less prestigious school so I wouldn't have to go into debt for college. I also worked all through college to pay for my expenses. Should I now be punished for that decision? Why should we make people's financial mistakes consequence-free? I think the government should get out…

How would you exactly be paying for other people's decision? If you think your tax money is spent to fund the federal government, then you will be surprised to find out that the federal government doesn't use tax money for paying for anything.

Only downside would be more economic activity because well educated people can spend more of their money on things....oh wait, that isn't a downside.

Re: Soaring Student Debt Prompts Calls for Relief

#532

Having deliberately attended the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities rather than an expensive private college, and having paid for it with a combination of savings, work, and some loans which I paid off immediately after graduating, I find the idea of loan relief morally reprehensible. Some ideas to improve the "situation on the ground": - reduce the demand for college education - reduce the cost of attending colle…

I also went to the University of Minnesota...same story. That being said - do you remember those ads on daytime TV for ITT Technical Institute? Well it turns out that they shut that school down last month, for basically being a fraud school. The people who went to that school still owe federal debt. So, it's more complicated than that. Also, by saying, "dead average intellect and dead average work ethic," I think you…

I think you're absolutely right. I was trying to craft my suggestions in such a way that we discourage fraudulent lending and provide (publicly, not privately) insurance against not being able to pay future education debts because of circumstances outside our control.

I want to increase the odds that someone who is willing and able can work their way to where they want to be, and decrease the odds that fortune dictates who wins and who loses.

(I vehemently support leveling the funding playing field for primary and secondary public schools in Minnesota and dramatically increasing funding for schools in poorer neighborhoods; also providing credits for child care, preschool, public transportation, and safer streets. What I object to is the idea that someone should go to Macalester College, get a degree in Psychology with a C+ average, then complain because they aren't handed a job with a wage high enough to cover $100k in student loans).

Re: Soaring Student Debt Prompts Calls for Relief

#533

I'm reminded of the U of C's Aims of Education Address when this discussion comes up. EG: https://aims.uchicago.edu/node/83 I tend to think that many things that are now in college degree programs are actually things that should be in trade programs - we've turned everything into a degree, and in the process, stopped realizing what the value of a degree is and/or what the purpose of a theory driven/liberal arts educa…

Was there in person for that address (was that 10 years ago...). In my view if you go to college today and don't get a real liberal education (distribution requirements!) then you have waisted your time and probably your money.

you're lucky. My year didn't have nearly as entertaining a speech.

I still think his points hold (as do many of the speeches points, most of which in some ways are similar).

However, attaching liberal education to everything may or may not be a good idea - and with the trade-ism of college, liberal education is sort of conceptually odd

Re: Soaring Student Debt Prompts Calls for Relief

#534

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It has a Wikipedia page, a Wiktionary page, and copious references to it by well known publications.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neosocialism Clearly the two "well known" publications (the most preeminent Marxist journals) listed in that wikipedia article and the fact that the wikipedia article's definition of neo socialism has absolutely nothing to do with Norways economic model point to the fact that the parent comment definitely didn't make up that word out of thin air. Norway is not socialist, neosocialist, or…

Disagreeing with Norway being socialist doesn't make neosocialism not a thing. Not wanting something to be a term doesn't stop it from being one.

Re: Soaring Student Debt Prompts Calls for Relief

#535
post #513

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, let's see, if you were a black person in 1863 who'd been enslaved but bought your freedom prior to the Emacipation Proclamation, you'd resent the Emancipation Proclamation since from then on other wouldn't have to buy their freedom?

Wow, did you seriously just compare your student loan debts that you entered into freely and of your own will to slavery?

Nope!
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