Forgive my student loan!

I think there are too many people just making blanket statements.
The cost of higher education has far out-paced the rate of inflation in this country. Students are getting out of college with massive amounts of debt. Now, I don't necessarily think that the loans should be forgiven, but something needs to be done. Maybe we could give students the same loan terms we gave the big banks - that would be 0%.
To make matters worse - employers are looking for people with higher educations in order to do jobs that didn't require that in the past. I know someone who was a great admin assistant, but couldn't move to another company to do the same job because she didn't have a 4-year degree.
Also, as zman said, wages and salaries have not kept up with the same inflation. People are making less now in relation to the cost of living than they were 30 or 40 years ago.
There's no simple solution and people that make it seem so black and white are not looking at the entire picture.

The most simple solution would be to make qualifying for a student loan more realistic. Make the loan qualification based on the likelihood of being able to repay said loan. Make the student declare their intentions before going to school. Want to borrow 10K a year to get a degree in molecular biology? Approved! Want to borrow 40K a year to get a degree in english? Denied!

Reducing the easy money supply for some of these worthless degrees would bring the rules of supply and demand into play and would reduce the costs of some of these degrees (which is the root of the problem). There is no supply and demand to control the cost of education because there is a virtually limitless supply of money to borrow, regardless of the ROI of the education.

I agree... same as the housing market. This is why student loans are out of control.

WOW! I'm sure i'm about to offend someone but that is really NOT my intention - I just want to put the info I know to be true out there for thought!

I work for a state university & what no one seems to be pointing out is that taxpayers are ALREADY paying for college tuitions. Do you have any idea how many medical students I hear everyday talk about the fact they are getting a free education & how the university paid for their transfers and/or visa to come here - but yet my step-sons girlfriend who is in the nursing school of the university I work for couldn't even get a student loan because her parents have bad credit from the economy and losing both of their jobs so she is working 2 jobs while going to school so she can pay almost $800 month in payments just to be able to go to school. I don't get how it's ok to pay for others to come here and learn for free when we don't take care of our own. And this state I live in is the worse! They pride theirselves on the fact that they give free educations to people who are not citizens - hello - what about the people who are born here, raised here, live here their whole life, and stay here AFTER they get their education to support the economy. But that's just one girls opinion.

My entire college education, four years of it, cost around $10K. And I have a very good job. Maybe people should consider their budgets when choosing a university to attend.

Just sayin'.

Another nail hit on the head. Too many people are borrowing too much money to get an education in a field that doesn't make much money, and then they complain about the cost of education.

I'll take my wife for an example, so I don't offend anyone else. She went to an expensive private school to get an education degree. She knew the exact job she wanted, and the exact school she wanted to teach at. Luckily for her, she got the job. Unfortunately for her, her salary was half of what one year at college cost her.

There are too many people making similarly poor fiscal decisions for me to give any real sympathy to the student loan forgiveness idea.

Even state schools are all hitting the $10K/year just for tuition alone. It was $4K/year for my school a decade ago and now its $10K/year. There is no avoiding it. You either get a 4-year degree and take on massive student loan debt, or you take a job with low wages. Or if you're the 1% you start a business but that's not going to work for most.

You do realize that one of the reasons college is so expensive is due to the gov don't you? See, the colleges know that they can charge whatever they want because so many people can get loans. They know that if they raise tuition, the gov will be forced to raise loan amounts. It one of the same reason healthcare is so expensive, but that's another topic for another time.

And what do you think will happen to tuition in the future if all student loan debt was erased?

Now I'm not saying I don't want people to have the opportunity to go to college. But college isn't for everyone, and people should choose a school that they can afford. You know there is such a thing as night classes and part-time programs that will allow people to get an education while working full-time.
And before you say "that's not fair", life isn't fair and sometimes we can't always get what we want-including a college education.

Actually, that's not true on any level. Government loans have a limit - just ask the for profit colleges. They get the most out of it. Student loans from the government are not going to pay your way to many of the private colleges and universities.
It's also not true about healthcare. The government sets the reimbursement levels and other insurance carriers use that. Doctors can charge whatever they want, but that doesn't mean that's what they'll get reimbursed. Much gets written off. I can show you the numbers for the medical group I work for it you'd like.

Actually it is trure, where do you think the hospitals make up the difference they get reimbursed for? From the people who have to pay their own insurance. It's all passed on, just like many other industries, just more so in the health field because of the gov intervention-but I really don't want to hijack this thread so that's where I'll leave it.

Of course gov loans don't pay all the tuition, but access to loans is easy and the universities don't have to compete on average because there are so many people that can go to college right out of high school. The pool is very large and these schools don't have to really compete price wise. Force students to put skin in the game right away and they will shop for what they can afford now, not what they think they can afford when they graduate.

WOW! I'm sure i'm about to offend someone but that is really NOT my intention - I just want to put the info I know to be true out there for thought!

I work for a state university & what no one seems to be pointing out is that taxpayers are ALREADY paying for college tuitions. Do you have any idea how many medical students I hear everyday talk about the fact they are getting a free education & how the university paid for their transfers and/or visa to come here - but yet my step-sons girlfriend who is in the nursing school of the university I work for couldn't even get a student loan because her parents have bad credit from the economy and losing both of their jobs so she is working 2 jobs while going to school so she can pay almost $800 month in payments just to be able to go to school. I don't get how it's ok to pay for others to come here and learn for free when we don't take care of our own. And this state I live in is the worse! They pride theirselves on the fact that they give free educations to people who are not citizens - hello - what about the people who are born here, raised here, live here their whole life, and stay here AFTER they get their education to support the economy. But that's just one girls opinion.

This is a great example -- when push comes to shove, you (or your step-son's gf) do what you have to do withOUT loans. People just don't want to effing work. Period. It can be done. Kudos to this girl ^.

I don't think anyone agrees that student loan debt should be forgiven, it should just be made easier to repay.
Someone making a $25,000 salary can not pay $1200 a month back to Sallie Mae. That's practically their entire salary after taxes.
But I bet this person would prefer an opportunity to make $45k somewhere else, but those jobs are limited right now.

I would need a very credible example of whose student loans could potentially be $1200/month and makes $25,000/year.

shut up

I don't think anyone agrees that student loan debt should be forgiven, it should just be made easier to repay.
Someone making a $25,000 salary can not pay $1200 a month back to Sallie Mae. That's practically their entire salary after taxes.
But I bet this person would prefer an opportunity to make $45k somewhere else, but those jobs are limited right now.

I would need a very credible example of whose student loans could potentially be $1200/month and makes $25,000/year.

shut up

*LOL* Cute

.

So how does a young person who is lucky to make $40K/year out of college (if they are lucky enough to find a job) supposed to pay down on their $50K student loan debt, pay their $1200/month apartment rent, while making payments on their $20K honda civic, while saving up for their $40K down payment, so they can buy their $200K townhouse before they turn 30, because heaven forbids one day they might want to actually start a family. See its almost impossible to start from scratch these days. Most of the young people cannot get out of debt without their parents' help.

Another example of entitlement. When you get out of college, you get an affordable apartment, car and live within your means until you get your loan paid off. Then you get whatever is next important..an expensive apartment/house or a new car and pay on that until you either get promoted and a big raise or you can AFFORD to buy the next item on your wish list. You don't automatically deserve EVERYTHING just because you finished school and found a job. Work for it! You will appreciate what you have much more if you do. Society isn't going to spoil you like your parents did. And the parents who still have children at home; please instill a work ethic in your children. Our society will go down in flames if something doesn't change. We have a free country, but we all have the responsibility to pay for the privilege. Work, pay taxes and enjoy having a choice in how/where you live.

The other factor that no one likes to touch on is the fact that higher education makes our society....
The more educated we all are, the better world we know how to make for us and the generations we hand it off to.

A good higher education should be attainable for all of us.

An English degree is worthless? Who gets to decide what is an acceptable area of knowledge to acquire? We'd be a pretty sad society if were all about "ROI". An education is for - well, an education, not just "job training".

I knew that would get jumped on as soon as I posted it. I didn't mean to offend anyone or declare one degree to be more "acceptable" than another degree.

However, my point is that taking out a loan for an education should be a fiscal decision, and too many times currently it is not treated as such. Borrowing large sums of money to get a degree that will not provide you with a return on the financial investment you made by borrowing the money does not make financial sense.

But I do agree, an education is not just job training. But those lessons you learn in college outside of the classroom don't require a huge financial bill. They can be had at colleges of all sizes.

shut up

Wow. You make a great case there, Champ.