All of a Sudden Students Have Stopped Paying Their Loans, Again—Why?

[Richard Wright]

Well the dirty little secret is all those "average college students" getting degrees in nonsense and the sports teams with their 22% graduation rate communications degrees are subsidizing the costs of labs / equipment / scholarships etc for the few who are getting a degree in something worthwhile. If there were no social sciences, liberal arts, etc the cost of an engineering degree would be hundreds of thousands of dollars. If you are above average and getting a degree in a hot field, you should not have to pay anything because of all the scholarships and grants you will get. I believe the colleges have a duty to make sure people are graduating in a field that is employable. But they dont care, and are recklessly signing impressionable young adults up to programs where the degree is worthless. If the degree doesnt directly correlate to a profession, it should not be offered. But higher education hasn't been about education for quite some time, it is a business.

Youre right on man. At my school you can pay as little as 24k for a degree which will guarantee a spot in the professional middle class. Americans are not equipped to deal with mental challenges out of high school though. When i tell kids that are worried about jobs to switch their major to electrical engineering they always say they could not do that. Anyone can learn anything.

If I didnt have to support my mom with my student loans I would be able to get my engineering degree and get paid for it. Until taxes are lowered employers are not just gonna magically pop up like people think happens in a supposed recovery. What the recovery has really been is an adjustment away from the 'overemployment' of the 2000s relative to available technology and the production of workers. Somehow we have millions fewer employed i this country, yet we are more productive than ever.

And its bigger than just a major too. I am doing a certificate program in data intensive computing and I tried to get ny business major friend to do the same, he would rather not make himself stand out for some reason. Computers are the future yet virtually everyone in my computing classes come from china or india.

 

[Robbie3000]

Well the dirty little secret is all those "average college students" getting degrees in nonsense and the sports teams with their 22% graduation rate communications degrees are subsidizing the costs of labs / equipment / scholarships etc for the few who are getting a degree in something worthwhile. If there were no social sciences, liberal arts, etc the cost of an engineering degree would be hundreds of thousands of dollars. If you are above average and getting a degree in a hot field, you should not have to pay anything because of all the scholarships and grants you will get. I believe the colleges have a duty to make sure people are graduating in a field that is employable. But they dont care, and are recklessly signing impressionable young adults up to programs where the degree is worthless. If the degree doesnt directly correlate to a profession, it should not be offered. But higher education hasn't been about education for quite some time, it is a business.

Colleges are not nor should they be training programs for corporations.

We have a structural problem here. The average worker is way more productive than they have been in the past so corporations don't need to hire as many people. That is the issue we should be addressing not telling everyone to major in STEM degrees because that is not the real solution.

 

[Uncle Kingpin]

Colleges are not nor should they be training programs for corporations.

We have a structural problem here. The average worker is way more productive than they have been in the past so corporations don't need to hire as many people. That is the issue we should be addressing not telling everyone to major in STEM degrees because that is not the real solution.

Whats the point of going to college and getting in debt outside of getting a piece of paper to qualify you for employment? Anybody can read the same books, learn the same things. Nobody is paying to read books breh, the library is free. Google has whole textbooks for free. Harvard offers online classes for free.A degree is an investment with the hopes of future income. The issue is universities have a duty to educate people in fields which directly correlate to a profession. They know damn well there is no job for Interdisciplinary Studies, Contemporary Jazz, Women's studies, etc outside of becoming a professor in said foolishness.

So what is your solution to the problem of over productivity? Have people work shyttier and slower? Get rid of compooters that do jobz bettar then a persun? Mine is to get educated in fields that are in demand.

 

[Robbie3000]

Whats the point of going to college and getting in debt outside of getting a piece of paper to qualify you for employment? Anybody can read the same books, learn the same things. Nobody is paying to read books breh, the library is free. Google has whole textbooks for free. Harvard offers online classes for free.A degree is an investment with the hopes of future income. The issue is universities have a duty to educate people in fields which directly correlate to a profession. They know damn well there is no job for Interdisciplinary Studies, Contemporary Jazz, Women's studies, etc outside of becoming a professor in said foolishness.

So what is your solution to the problem of over productivity? Have people work shyttier and slower? Get rid of compooters that do jobz bettar then a persun? Mine is to get educated in fields that are in demand.

You are looking at this in a very narrow way. You are not solving the underlying problem. If universities scraped "foolish" programs as you call them and only offered fields that correlate to a profession, then you would have an oversupply of those skills and wages and maybe even employment would fall. You would still end up in the same situation where we are today with Engineers working as baristas at Starbucks. How exactly does that solve the issue.

I don't have the answers, but we need to look at this issue holistically and avoid making short sighted solutions that say everyone should just get a STEM degree and that would solve the problem.

 

[Uncle Kingpin]

You are looking at this in a very narrow way. You are not solving the underlying problem. If universities scraped "foolish" programs as you call them and only offered fields that correlate to a profession, then you would have an oversupply of those skills and wages and maybe even employment would fall. You would still end up in the same situation where we are today with Engineers working as baristas at Starbucks. How exactly does that solve the issue.

I don't have the answers, but we need to look at this issue holistically and avoid making short sighted solutions that say everyone should just get a STEM degree and that would solve the problem.

I didnt say anything about STEM. I said people need to get degrees that lead directly to a profession. Law degree = Lawyer, Biology = Biologist, Masters in Basketweaving = Barista. There will always be openings for the best and brightest. There will never be enough jobs for the unqualified. Universities are churning out graduates with no regards to whether this person will be qualified for gainful employment, or realistically be able to pay back the loan. The truth is they have glass palaces to build, and dont care where the money comes from or if the graduates will be able to get a job. Only in the govt and in higher education do they get more money regardless to outcomes. If universities were a car company, and 20% of the cars they made were unable to drive, they would be out of business.

 

[nomoreneveragain]

I'm paying my loans, I don't know why

 

[Domingo Halliburton]

I'm paying my loans, I don't know why

because even bankruptcy doesn't get rid of student loans. They'll start taking your tax refunds and even possibly garnishing wages. Student loans don't go away

 

[Rawtid]

Student loans are not being paid because nobody gets a good job out of school. No jobs = No money = No loan payments. It's a fukking joke how much debt people are allowed to run up without any guarantee of future earnings.

No one should police an adult's financial decisions.

 

[Uncle Kingpin]

No one should police an adult's financial decisions.

So we gon act like Credit scores dont police an adult's financial decisions? People are free to spend their money, but are highly regulated in regards to debt accumulation.

 

[Rawtid]

So we gon act like Credit scores dont police an adult's financial decisions? People are free to spend their money, but are highly regulated in regards to debt accumulation.

I don't think they do. I don't base my financial decisions on my credit score and anyone doing so is not smart. Having a good credit score doesn't mean you're good with money. It just means you're paying borrowed money (debt) back as agreed.

 

[Uncle Kingpin]

I don't think they do. I don't base my financial decisions on my credit score and anyone doing so is not smart. Having a good credit score doesn't mean you're good with money. It just means you're paying borrowed money (debt) back as agreed.

How do you plan on buying a house, car or anything large without credit? How else can a financial institution determine whether or not to extend credit? Should they just take your word for it?

Nowadays, everything from jobs to car insurance are based on credit. Even rich people dont buy major purchases outright. Debt servicing is the point of this whole thread. Student loans are not being paid back for the same reason every other commercial debt becomes delinquent - people are not paying. The difference is commercial debt is predicated on your future ability to pay. It is shameful that anyone with a pulse can get a student loan regardless of their ability to pay it back. Trust me, it WILL be paid back. If not by the Students, then by all of us through Federal guarantees.

 

[Rarely-Wrong Liggins]

I'm getting so tired (this is not necessarily aimed at you) at americans thinking we have the right idea about everything and everything we do is correct. We could improve so much!

 

[Mr. Somebody]

They keep forgetting to sign up for auto pay after the collector calls them. .

 

[Rawtid]

How do you plan on buying a house, car or anything large without credit? How else can a financial institution determine whether or not to extend credit? Should they just take your word for it?

Nowadays, everything from jobs to car insurance are based on credit. Even rich people dont buy major purchases outright. Debt servicing is the point of this whole thread. Student loans are not being paid back for the same reason every other commercial debt becomes delinquent - people are not paying. The difference is commercial debt is predicated on your future ability to pay. It is shameful that anyone with a pulse can get a student loan regardless of their ability to pay it back. Trust me, it WILL be paid back. If not by the Students, then by all of us through Federal guarantees.

I don't feel you need to borrow money to buy any of the things you listed. All of them can be bought using cash. Borrowing is certainly more convenient and allows you to "purchase" much more quickly than saving for them but it also has the most risk.

No one with a paid for house went into foreclosure
No one with a paid for car has ever had it reposessed
No one with a paid for education experienced loan default

The only thing you need a good credit score for is to borrow money at a "good" interest rate. Student loans are another animal but the terms of the loans are listed. I also don't think you NEED to borrow money in order to get a college education. Again, it's just more convenient.

 

[Wild self]

College is an outdated institution for the most part. Technology eliminated most of the jobs and even if you have a damn PhD, you ain't gonna make it far. Not even with a STEM major for the long term.