So, what do we think about college

hawkdon

hawkdon

Well-known Member
Location
Liberty MO
student loan forgiveness?? I have mixed thoughts, I had no chance for college,
nor did any of the 7 kids in our family.....I've always tried to pay my debt, but failed
a couple times....I sorta thought, mistakenly, that these kids would get pretty dang
good paying jobs and pay those loans off..I think it is a many headed monster type
issue....what do you think??......don
 

Mixed feelings.

I think the government should subsidize college educations, particularly in fields that produce needed technical expertise. I think it is good for our economy, and would help pay our SS. And let people like you get a college education, if you wanted to. At present I do not think this is the case without student loans.

On the other hand just forgiving loans doesn't seem right to me. People entered into these voluntarily and a lot of people, me included, payed them back.

Much of the problem comes from people who took out the loans and did not get an education resulting in higher paying jobs. That was mostly irresponsible.
 

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College was never even suggested to us kids.

I'm not highly educated but finally graduated in my 30's. I qualified for a Pell grant and I also took out loans. But it was a small amount, long paid off. I lived broke and I was fine with that. I also went to school part time for awhile and worked full time. When I went to school full time, I worked part time.

I worked with a woman who lived off her loans which were much more substantial than mine. She didn't work at all while in school. I asked her why and she said she worked in a veterinarian office and they didn't have any part time work. I didn't say anything but all I thought was 'ok, Walmart, Target, Taco Bell, someone wasn't hiring?'
 
I think everyone understands this.
A borrower agrees to pay the loan.

Totally unfair to all tax payers.

The average cost of student debt cancelation per taxpayer making between $1 and $50,000 is $158.27;
The average cost per taxpayer making between $50,000 and $75,000 is $866.87;
The average cost per taxpayer making between $75,000 and $100,000 is $1,477.78;
The average cost per taxpayer making between $100,000 and $200,000 is $3,158.35; and
The average cost per taxpayer making between $200,000 and $500,000 is $9,947.92.
https://www.ntu.org/foundation/deta...t-cancelation-could-average-2000-per-taxpayer

Forgiving loans fits perfectly with the modifying the JFK quote to.

Ask Not What YOU Can Do For Your Country, But What The Country Can Do For YOU.
 
IMO, this is just another "political gift" that has the intent of influencing the upcoming elections. The Biggest issue I have with this ruling is the lack of funding to pay for it....just another major addition to the nations National Debt. I feel the governments should NOT be allowed to spend 1 dollar, without making provisions to fund any programs they come up with.

The way our government is behaving, it is just a question of time before the value of the dollar plummets, due to this soaring debt....and then When that happens, not If, the vast majority of our people will be reduced to living in poverty.
 
To some people going to University (College) is an end in itself, for others it's the stepping stone to realising a career. I think anything which is of benefit to the country, such as the medical profession, should be free for citizens of that country. Foreign students should only have free tuition if they then practise for a certain number of years in the country. Students of obscure subjects should pay the full whack.
 
I have mixed feelings.

I believe that when you borrow money you should pay it back.

I feel bad for all of the people that worked two jobs to get through a state school debt free.

I feel bad for all of the kids that didn’t go to school because they couldn’t scrape up the money.

I feel bad that the government is involved in solving all of life’s problems.

I feel bad that pumping more money into the economy will fuel inflation.

I do feel that any kid we can help get an advanced education in college, trade school, apprenticeship, the stronger we’ll be as a nation.

I wish I knew how to shift gears without creating a disadvantage for so many people.

It’s all very confusing and frustrating for the people that get stuck paying the bills.
 
College has become a business, a business with acres of lawn, spectacular buildings, towers, fountains, incredibly pricey books, and celebrity instructors. What does the increasing availability of student loans really contribute? More of the above, at a higher price. Big surprise? Actually not. It‘s a business. if government poured more and more easy money into the pockets of the purchasers of a desired commodity what would we expect? Higher prices. Perhaps the government should instead pour money into methods and infrastructure designed to less expensively broaden the availability of higher education to those with a proven ability to benefit? An education without unneeded lawns, fountains, stadiums, and highly skilled and compensated instructors serving relatively small groups of students?
 
ElCastor said:
College has become a business, a business with acres of lawn, spectacular buildings, towers, fountains, incredibly pricey books, and celebrity instructors. What does the increasing availability of student loans really contribute? More of the above, at a higher price. Big surprise? Actually not. It‘s a business. if government poured more and more easy money into the pockets of the purchasers of a desired commodity what would we expect? Higher prices. Perhaps the government should instead pour money into methods and infrastructure designed to less expensively broaden the availability of higher education to those with a proven ability to benefit? An education without unneeded lawns, fountains, stadiums, and highly skilled and compensated instructors serving relatively small groups of students?
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That's one reason distance learning has become so popular- the price of education doesn't include overhead.
 
I think the student loan forgivenes is a bunch of phoney-baloney. It just aint going to happen to the millions of students they are talking about, but if it does happen I bet only about a thousand students will be approved to get it.
 
JaniceM said:
I have middle-aged family members who are still struggling to pay off their loans.
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Not all college courses lead to jobs/positions that make it easier to pay for what was borrowed.
As a reason that many are struggling.
Should that relieve those struggling from the responsibility to pay for college course choices that didn't pay off?
 
Knight said:
Not all college courses lead to jobs/positions that make it easier to pay for what was borrowed.
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That is true, however not a good reason to forgive loans.

People made those choices willingly, kind of like taking out a car loan with a longer payoff than the car is likely to last.

Perhaps the government should have been more helpful informing the student borrowers of the risks.
 
Alligatorob said:
That is true, however not a good reason to forgive loans.

People made those choices willingly, kind of like taking out a car loan with a longer payoff than the car is likely to last.

Perhaps the government should have been more helpful informing the student borrowers of the risks.
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I think many older people don't realize college is much more essential now than it was when we were young. It's more than just a personal choice.

I recall when I was around 13 yrs old, a common commercial on t.v. went "to get a good job- get a good education!" and it meant a high school diploma. A high school diploma isn't worth much these days, and hasn't been for a long time.
 
Another thought on this subject. Is the price of college out of hand? Even books can be insanely expensive. They change books also so you have to have the latest edition instead of finding a used copy at a bargain.

A co-worker was helping her sister get her daughter to UC Berkely this last weekend. I said "I'm pretty damn liberal but you couldn't have paid me to go to that school." I'm not real ambitious or a title chaser either I guess.
 
We have private, for-profit "universities" that accept anyone and dispense useless degrees with less value than toilet paper getting government money in the form of student loans. They use that money to pay their CEOs multi-million dollar a year salaries. That's our tax dollars being flushed down the toilet when students can't repay the loans, which is more often than not.

I was just reading a story about a woman who borrowed over $100k to study slavery. Yeah, there's a big demand for people with degrees in slavery.

Something needs to be done about the college accreditation process, but there's too much money to be made with our current screwed up system. It's the power of the college industrial complex.
 
Most of college is fake. Is not "higher education". Have had personal experience with these predators. The wide eyed and idealistic young people do not know what's up and are getting ripped off by pretentious evil. Real higher level skills in medicine, engineering, science, and farming should be subsidized and encouraged.
 
Lawrence00 said:
Most of college is fake. Is not "higher education". Have had personal experience with these predators. The wide eyed and idealistic young people do not know what's up and are getting ripped off by pretentious evil. Real higher level skills in medicine, engineering, science, and farming should be subsidized and encouraged.
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I think you summed it up well here.

I'm in low contact with my brother but his oldest daughter was considering medical school. She ended up getting a masters in physical therapy. She was instantly employed.
 
Lawrence00 said:
Most of college is fake. Is not "higher education". Have had personal experience with these predators. The wide eyed and idealistic young people do not know what's up and are getting ripped off by pretentious evil. Real higher level skills in medicine, engineering, science, and farming should be subsidized and encouraged.
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As I mentioned somewhere, kids I knew who went to college and took "liberal arts" were usually the ones who ended up moving back in with their parents, or at least had trouble finding jobs. College was looked at as "something after high school," without any clear goals in mind.
In contrast, it was kids who took vo-tech that stepped into good jobs afterward.
I also think the approach of "career colleges" is a good idea. As it stands (last I knew) regular college/university is basically high school with extras, instead of focusing on a student's career goals. I don't see any sense in taking unnecessary courses that don't contribute to what the student wants to do afterward- it's a waste of time and money.
 
My Dad died when I in my first year of college. I started working at 14 and continued to work throughout my collegiate years (and for the next 40 or so). My family was not wealthy. We had the necessities and took a vacation (camping) in the summer. Nothing extravagant by any means. College funds weren't common back then so when my Dad passed, I knew my Mom didn't have the means to pay my tuition. But she helped where she could because she didn't want me to drop out of school. So I worked, took out school loans, got an educational grant and also received a scholarship.

I had debt when I graduated but paid back every dime within five years. And I was proud of that. I did not have a job that paid a high wage but I prioritized paying off my school loans for two reasons. I didn't want to have long-term debt AND I wanted the money that helped me get through college to be available to the next person who might need it.

It never occurred to me back then that there would be such a thing as "loan forgiveness". The expectation was that I was given a hand-up to complete my education, not a hand out, and that I was to honor the debt and repay it as soon as possible. And so I did.
 

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