More Americans Are Falling Behind on Student Loans, and Nobody Quite Knows Why • Hacker News Board

Re: More Americans Are Falling Behind on Student Loans, and Nobody Quite Knows Why

#61

Post by gbacon » Thu, Sep 28, 2017, 2:58 PM UTC

KekDemaga wrote: post #57

gbacon wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The key is a marketable college degree. In fields such as aerospace and defense where the credential is the key to open the door, get the credential as cheaply as possible. Do a couple of years at a community college and then finish at a state school. Name-brand degrees bring no extra value. Oh yeah, and get your master’s while you’re still in the zone. The idea that trade school somehow is lower tier or oppressive i…

Not only what you said, trades can also lead you down a path of owning your own business. If that is the direction you go often you can exceed the incomes of the college educated quite handily.

Great point, but for some reason union-protected professional educators who hold degrees from accredited institutions and who control state education monopolies are hostile to this worldview and deride it as “demeaning.”

Re: More Americans Are Falling Behind on Student Loans, and Nobody Quite Knows Why

#62

Post by alistairSH » Thu, Sep 28, 2017, 2:58 PM UTC

H1Supreme wrote: post #14

quuquuquu wrote: post #2

>unemployment is low Yes, but many people have been designsted as "having stopped looking for work", which means the statistic doesn't count them. Additionally, those who are employed perhaps are underemployed, working as an Uber driver or bartender or chipotle or etc. >the economy has improved For the top 6% of Americans that are millionaires, it absolutely has improved. Most of their income is from capital gains, d…

The amount of people I know with degrees who work in retail, or something completely unrelated is staggering. From my observations, I'd guess "underemployment" is the biggest contributor to the late payments. This is just another example of why I urge any young people I know (high school age) to think long and hard before choosing to go to a 4 year college. When I graduated high school in 99', we were primed to think…

think long and hard before choosing to go to a 4 year college

A college degree is still worth a considerable bump in lifetime earnings.[1] Perhaps you should revise your advice to "think long and hard before choosing to go to an expensive 4 year college" or "consider spending the first two years of college at a local community college."

1 - https://trends.collegeboard.org/education-pays/figures-table...

Re: More Americans Are Falling Behind on Student Loans, and Nobody Quite Knows Why

#63

Post by frgtpsswrdlame » Thu, Sep 28, 2017, 2:59 PM UTC

KekDemaga wrote: post #40

frgtpsswrdlame wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or we could make public college free, just like we did with high school.

And when public college becomes the new high school continue to add layers of education as needed.

Are you arguing against public high schools? I don't understand.

Re: More Americans Are Falling Behind on Student Loans, and Nobody Quite Knows Why

#64

Post by curun1r » Thu, Sep 28, 2017, 2:59 PM UTC

A couple of question with answers we'll never get:

- What is the breakdown across for-profit vs traditional school graduates? Are University of Phoenix grads defaulting at the same rate as ivy league grads? (obviously no, but the disparity would be good to know)

- What are the statistics if you include SoFi (and other similar refinancers that cherry-pick borrowers most likely to repay) borrowers that get removed from the public numbers?

Re: More Americans Are Falling Behind on Student Loans, and Nobody Quite Knows Why

#65

Post by godelski » Thu, Sep 28, 2017, 3:00 PM UTC

tbirrell wrote: post #36

Serious question: Who loses out if all the student debt got canceled? Not the colleges, I assume, because they already got the tuition. And not the students. So would it be loan companies and the US government? Would such an action be catastrophic?

Someone still has to pay the debt. Though many times the (defaulted) debt can be bought for pretty cheap. It's complicated, but in the end somebody pays it.

Re: More Americans Are Falling Behind on Student Loans, and Nobody Quite Knows Why

#66

Post by frgtpsswrdlame » Thu, Sep 28, 2017, 3:01 PM UTC

binarymax wrote: post #54

frgtpsswrdlame wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or we could make public college free, just like we did with high school.

"Free" is covered by taxes already paid. So making university "free" would be an additional tax. But instead of the attendees paying for them directly, the pay would be spread out. Also, it would change the dynamic of which school you could attend. High School is covered based on taxes in the town paid for by property owners. Some university programs are subsidized by state taxes (like SUNY for New York) and are disc…

We just spent $80bil on the military. Free college is estimated at $65-75bil, so we just take that money, and move it over here and blammo. Free public university for everyone. (:

Re: More Americans Are Falling Behind on Student Loans, and Nobody Quite Knows Why

#67

Post by bpicolo » Thu, Sep 28, 2017, 3:04 PM UTC

gbacon wrote: post #28

H1Supreme wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The amount of people I know with degrees who work in retail, or something completely unrelated is staggering. From my observations, I'd guess "underemployment" is the biggest contributor to the late payments. This is just another example of why I urge any young people I know (high school age) to think long and hard before choosing to go to a 4 year college. When I graduated high school in 99', we were primed to think…

The key is a marketable college degree. In fields such as aerospace and defense where the credential is the key to open the door, get the credential as cheaply as possible. Do a couple of years at a community college and then finish at a state school. Name-brand degrees bring no extra value. Oh yeah, and get your master’s while you’re still in the zone. The idea that trade school somehow is lower tier or oppressive i…

There are plenty of fields where name-brand degrees mean a crap ton starting out, e.g. finance, law.

Re: More Americans Are Falling Behind on Student Loans, and Nobody Quite Knows Why

#68

Post by frgtpsswrdlame » Thu, Sep 28, 2017, 3:05 PM UTC

13of40 wrote: post #59

frgtpsswrdlame wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or we could make public college free, just like we did with high school.

Maybe the real problem is that we've developed this caste system over the last 50 years where people who don't get college degrees are excluded from careers that can sustain a middle class lifestyle. What if free college just moves the goal post and in a couple more decades nearly everyone has a Master's degree and you need a PhD to earn a decent living? What happens if the most talented segment of our work force end…

Interesting, if you think that education is a race to the bottom in credentialling though, what is your solution? If you were running a business wouldn't you prefer a PhD to a MS to a BS holding everything else equal?

Re: More Americans Are Falling Behind on Student Loans, and Nobody Quite Knows Why

#69

Post by fhood » Thu, Sep 28, 2017, 3:07 PM UTC

tyrw wrote: post #44

fhood wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Speaking of lessened "value" of degrees, University's need to be held accountable for some of the debt that they are encouraging students to take on. For example, at my public university, STEM students were charges several thousand dollars a year more than humanities students. STEM programs also did their best to discourage enrollment. Meanwhile the anthropology department is literally begging students to stay and ge…

Why should this be the case? They offer a service with hundreds of competing options (other schools), so it's hard to argue they're not offering market rate.

Do they though? Do public universities really have competition? Maryland has College Park and not much else. All the other public schools are much much smaller, and generally lower quality.

Re: More Americans Are Falling Behind on Student Loans, and Nobody Quite Knows Why

#70

Post by binarymax » Thu, Sep 28, 2017, 3:09 PM UTC

frgtpsswrdlame wrote: post #66

binarymax wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Free" is covered by taxes already paid. So making university "free" would be an additional tax. But instead of the attendees paying for them directly, the pay would be spread out. Also, it would change the dynamic of which school you could attend. High School is covered based on taxes in the town paid for by property owners. Some university programs are subsidized by state taxes (like SUNY for New York) and are disc…

We just spent $80bil on the military. Free college is estimated at $65-75bil, so we just take that money, and move it over here and blammo. Free public university for everyone. (:

One can only dream!