Iamsemisweet
Posts: 3651
Joined: 4/9/2011 From: The Great Northwest, USA Status: offline
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I have very mixed feelings about this, although I don't think there is much justification for just forgiving student loans out right. I can't imagine starting out life 60K in debt. I agree in concept that if you borrow it, you should pay it back. I also am a little dismayed about how the cost of tuition has accelerated (far more than the cost of living) and how difficult it is for people to go to school without incurring student loans. I also see little justification for school loans not being discharged in bankruptcy, just like other debts. When I graduated from graduate school., many people graduated with about 90K in debt. They undoubtedly incurred the debt, and it was their choice to go to school. Many of them, have dutifully made the payments, deferring home ownership, or starting a family in order to make the payments. At least my classmates had good job prospects that would allow their loans to be paid back. Others have found scams to keep the loans in deferral. I worked with someone for a while who just continually kept taking classes so that her loans would continue to be deferred and the repayment obligation would not start. Supposedly she was working on a doctorate in divinity. Someone else I know refinanced their house and paid their loans in full from the refinancing. When their house was later foreclosed on in a strategic default,. the loans essentially went away, along with the remainder of the obligation for the mortgage. In the absence of something like that, my classmates just keep paying their loans, sometimes for as long as 30 years. I think a better solution than outright forgiveness would be for people to carefully consider whether it makes sense financially to go to school. If the best you can hope for is a 40K per year job after a year of unemployment, than it probably doesn't make sense to incur big loans that will just be a source of misery. High school counselors and universities have a responsibility to tell their students this. I also think student loans should be dischargeable in bankruptcy, like other debts..
< Message edited by Iamsemisweet -- 10/17/2011 4:29:14 PM >
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