FARK.com: (6991006) When it comes to student loan debt, today's high school and college students are more screwed than pretty much any other college graduate

If you can read this, either the style sheet didn't load or you have an older browser that doesn't support style sheets. Try clearing your browser cache and refreshing the page.

		When it comes to student loan debt, today's high school and college students are more screwed than pretty much any other college graduate (salon.com)		30
		More: Obvious, college graduates, North Dakota, food service, George H. W. Bush

• • •

7124 clicks; posted to Main » on 13 Mar 2012 at 1:16 AM | Favorite | share:

Share this link:

URL:

http://fark.com/go/6991006

Bookmark:

Article Comments close

Voting Results (Smartest)

View Voting Results: Smartest and Funniest

Redisplay/refresh voting results (Smartest or Funniest) or Return to comments

Archived thread

nm		2012-03-13 01:57:03 AM

3 votes:

doyner: Hey kids! How about letting the Department of Defense pay your tuition?Seriously. We need to broaden our representation. The military needs more of those traditionally opposed to joining.Act now and you might also get a master's too!
/srsly.
//post 9/11 GI bill will fund my JD too...
Enjoy unemployment!
/Went to a good law school (aren't many)
//Actually has a job
///Extremely lucky to have one
////Don't go to farking law school.

Kimothy		2012-03-13 12:00:41 AM

3 votes:

Maybe the Fed could force lenders to charge the same amount of interest on student loans that the Fed charges to banks for loans. Doesn't the Fed pay banks to borrow money?

ChuDogg		2012-03-13 07:30:24 AM

2 votes:

rico567: I look at my situation in 1966, when I left the military and entered a state university with about 15K students, and it seems like another world. I was getting $130 a month from the VA and had a job that paid $1.40 an hour, and was driving a new car and thought I was in hog heaven. Graduated in '69 with no debt, as did my fiancé, and have done our best to remain so ever since.

The only solution I can see for the present insupportable situation is for there to be a proportional withholding from paychecks for educational loans, just like income tax or FICA. You only pay in accordance with what you make.

In your day, tuition at public universities was funded 80% by taxes, today that number is less than 20%.

We went from a taxpayer funded model to an individually funded model through guaranteed loans. Which not only put more of a burden on the students, but also led to the massive inflation costs.

Pretty simple, every person who cheered lowering taxes screwed everybody who came after them.

Got mine.. now fark off!

FishyFred		2012-03-13 01:50:00 AM

2 votes:

doyner: Aar1012:

Service means citizenship

/Would you like to know more?

Go on...

What he's trying to say is this:

i39.tinypic.com

Aar1012		2012-03-13 01:47:05 AM

2 votes:

doyner: Hey kids! How about letting the Department of Defense pay your tuition?

Seriously. We need to broaden our representation. The military needs more of those traditionally opposed to joining.

Act now and you might also get a master's too!

/srsly.
//post 9/11 GI bill will fund my JD too...

Service means citizenship

/Would you like to know more?

doyner		2012-03-13 01:45:27 AM

2 votes:

Hey kids! How about letting the Department of Defense pay your tuition?

Seriously. We need to broaden our representation. The military needs more of those traditionally opposed to joining.

Act now and you might also get a master's too!
_{/srsly.
//post 9/11 GI bill will fund my JD too...}

FishyFred		2012-03-13 01:35:03 AM

2 votes:

the_chief: Ha ha. My family paid for mine.

So did mine. No ha ha. The fact that I got away from this scam unscathed does not make me less appalled at what it's doing to my peers.

bunner		2012-03-13 03:09:08 PM

1 votes:

Kids? Buckle in. Ready?

The economy IS debt. Thanks to Wall St. and taxes, estate IS debt. The confetti cannon at the fed spits out IOUs with nothing behind them but... take a guess, 14t in debt.

It's all debt. All of it. Every lock, stock, barrel, acre, bank note, speck of arable land and the people who till it.

And the only thing propping it all up is your great great grandkid's sweat equity. The cake is a lie, the plate is a lie, the fork is a lie and the bakery is closed. Study moar!

Smackledorfer		2012-03-13 02:39:08 PM

1 votes:

Meesterjojo: 2) Yes, getting an "Of Arts" Degree, for most of the population, is a bad choice/investment on their future

Not even. Last I saw the numbers you still end up with lifetime earning, on average, of significantly more than the average non-degree holder, and more than enough to justify spending the money and taking the risk on getting the education.

People always forget this, and then they look at cherry picked numbers. They compare a hard working hairdresser making 200k, the top of the line underwater welding specialist, etc, to the starving specialty art history major. Imo, those with a BA who fail at life wouldn't be doing super hot without one either. You think the BA who can't earn 30k is on par with the top of the line specialty tradesman? No. He's the equivalent of the bottom of the barrel plumber working for peanuts while his contractor collects the real money. You never see people take the guy with a bachelor's in psych who busts his ass climbing corporate ladder through I/O psych, sports psych working for a major team, or working alongside engineers and often being paid more than them. We never compare that top end tradeskill cherry picked number to the museum curator, or anyone who busts their hump to become an expert in their field.

Then you have to look at sheer numbers, and while it might be good advice at the margin to move one poli-sci major over to underwater drilling engineer, I hardly think the successful tradeskill fields and engineering fields have enough room to take 30% of the filthy liberal arts majors without seeing the pay fall dramatically.

No, the real problem is twofold:

1. We need to acknowledge that an educated populace is a good thing even if not everyone in the fields they go into are smashing successes.

2. We need to acknowledge that demand cannot stretch forever. That we will reach a point in society in which the needs and wants of the majority fail to put everyone to work. Now, many people disagree with me and will say that new products will be developed that will stretch demand for labor, and that will happen, but I don't see it keeping pace with automation.

3. So what do we do with the extra people? Continue on our current path, driving them to a debt-ridden life with zero wage growth in a service industry? Or do we educate everyone and keep plenty of paths open so that we maximize the contributions to society from the arts, and accept that it is worth the costs to society of giving all these non-producers a playground?

I admit, it is certainly a long-term utopianesque view.

bunner		2012-03-13 12:38:20 PM

1 votes:

The only thing more depressing than reading posts from people who can't figure all this sh*t out is the ones from people who have it ALL figured out, and prove this by telling others that they don't.

Delay		2012-03-13 11:22:35 AM

1 votes:

bunner: And the ostensibly conservative, harrumphing cheerleaders for that whole crock of sh*t that the Reagan era foisted off on us are still convinced that they have a seat in the getaway car, despite the fact that it pulled out in '08 and didn't even leave a 25¢ tip in the piss pail. You want a steady job? Become an assassin for the flatulently wealthy.

Many of the same folks who have been negatively impacted by these "make the rich richer policies" still support the architects of the policies. I just don't get it.

A simple change that would knock down this absurd debt to get a college degree would be to increase Pell grants. Here's another graphic. It would cost almost nothing to implement this policy compared to the cost of the pointless Asian wars.

graphics8.nytimes.com

impaler		2012-03-13 10:49:29 AM

1 votes:

Nightjars: 1. Be born in the 70s
2. Get into tech during the .COM boom when the only requirement to land a job is a warm body and a pulse.
3. Obtain enough experience to be able to stay in the field after the .COM bubble busts
4. Earn enough to put yourself through college while working

Easy as 1..2..3..4? All you youngins need to go back in time and be born earlier. And get off my lawn.

LOL. What a stupid plan.

Here's what kids should do:
1. Be born in the early 70s
2. Get into tech during the .COM boom when the only requirement to land a job is a warm body and a pulse.
3. Take your massive salary and buy a massive house in 1999
4. Sell house in '06 and buy Apple stock.

But kids won't because they're too lazy.

Kids these days, amirite?

Azteki		2012-03-13 09:18:49 AM

1 votes:

i say take out huge loans, get the best/most expensive education possible then flee the country.

ongbok		2012-03-13 04:04:54 AM

1 votes:

There is a way to avoid this debt. Unless you get a scholarship to pay for most of the cost, attend your local CC for the first 2 years. Once you get your AS transfer to a IN STATE PUBLIC SCHOOL. This is the advice that should be given to all prospective college students. They will be much happier once they are done and have a quarter of the debt that their buddies who went off to 4 year schools from the beginning. This is what I did and was able to finish with only about 15k in debt that is all paid off, unlike some of my other friends who are still paying school loans off 15+ years after graduation.

alex10294		2012-03-13 03:32:35 AM

1 votes:

ElizaDoolittle: alex10294: ElizaDoolittle: alex10294: 340K in debt. Undergrad+med school. Paying super-high interest rates to

Protip: the balance on an outstanding loan is called the principal, not the principle. How's that expensive education working?

Apparently better than the predictive typing assistant on my phone. ;). But ya, my spelling leaves much to be desired. Didn't waste much time on it. Actually, I'm a grade school dropout (really). I tested into a middle-of-the-road college and then got serious and got a Double BS in chem and bio. Unsurprisingly, people don't care if you proofread when you do well in the hard sciences.
/didn't proofread this either.

A double BS (what a great description) from a no-name college?

Yup. That and graduating suma cum laude in both majors and hitting the 99.5th percentile on the med entrance exam got me into a top 10 med school and a great future... Why are people so down on the american dream nowadays.. ;)

I suppose I'd be better off an an unemployed/coffee industry lit major with a mortgage on my life that I'll never pay. That way I'd know how to spell suma cum laude without looking it up..

/One "m" or two >> one cream or two

vernonFL		2012-03-13 02:50:41 AM

1 votes:

The Dog Ate My Homework		2012-03-13 02:41:03 AM

1 votes:

State universities in my state USED to be incredibly inexpensive. My friends and I got a good education and paid about as much as we spent on booze. Since then, the legislature has repeatedly cut funding for universities, forcing the universities to repeatedly increase tuition costs to the point that it's barely worth it for a lot of people.

Here's the kicker: My friends, who got such a bargain from taxpayer-subsidized educations, are among the loudest opponents of taxpayer funding for, well, pretty much anything. They got theirs, so fark everyone who comes after them. But it gets better, because we all have kids now, and these same assholes now complain about how expensive college is. To which I say, suck it.

Nana's Vibrator		2012-03-13 02:05:42 AM

1 votes:

OBBN: Klippoklondike: Thank god for G.I. Bill and small state colleges.

THIS.

See, this George Tenet guy lied and convinced Colin Powell to go on national television and sell a war to the people of the United States. So they sent a bunch of GI Bill enlistees over to Iraq. And a lot of those guys died. So, I think I speak for a lot of us when I say I know what the stats are, but for some reason, I know the second I sign up for some GI Bill, I end up on one of those videos on a terrorist website with 5 jihadists standing behind me making me read something until they cut my head off and yell Akbar Allah and Death to America.

doyner		2012-03-13 02:01:12 AM

1 votes:

CygnusDarius: FishyFred: doyner: Aar1012:

Service means citizenship

/Would you like to know more?

Go on...

What he's trying to say is this:

[i39.tinypic.com image 550x358]

And in a few years, that will turn into:

[th03.deviantart.net image 300x204]

And, inevitably:

[images.wikia.com image 323x331]

You completely missed my point

OBBN		2012-03-13 01:58:10 AM

1 votes:

Klippoklondike: Thank god for G.I. Bill and small state colleges.

THIS. If you want your college tuition subsidized then give your four years in military service and you won't be under crushing debt. I do feel bad for those trying to go through college, I am sure it isn't easy to finance. But sometimes I have to think about how much planning actually went into their choices. I didn't got to college, but my wife did and graduated with less than $6,000 in debt. She worked in High School and saved to pay for college. All the money she got for birthdays, Christmas and such was not spent that weekend at the mall. It went into her savings account for her education. She worked in college while carrying a full load, in fast food. It didn't pay much, but she didn't spend money on things she didn't need. I realize that not everyone is able to find work at this time, but what about the last 4 years when they were in high school?

Also, what about the parents? Between my wife and I we have 6 kids (4 from her previous marriage and 2 from mine). We started pre-paid college funds for them when they were infants and right now 4 of the six have fully funded college plans. Also, in some States such as Georgia where my kids live with their mother, if you maintain a good GPA in high school you are eligible for State funded scholarships. I have stressed to both my kids that I am limited in what I can do for them and it is imperative that they make good grades so they are eligible for these programs. To date, they both maintain straight A averages. So, I am very fortunate there.

The other thing that I wonder about is the degree choices of some of those in college. Sure, you might have always wanted a degree in 18th century art, but did you really think that you were going to get a high paying job with that degree right out of school? And did you finance more than you needed to fund shopping sprees and such? The point is, I feel for these young kids, but if going to college is something that you want to do you have to start preparing for it in advance. If you don't have the money, save or go in the military. Or possibly think twice about going to college. There are plenty of trade jobs that pay as much or better than those jobs that require a degree. I had one, a Linesman for BellSouth. I made much more than almost all of my friends that went to college. It might not be for everyone, but it is certainly an alternative.

As far as the picture of the OWS guy with the Masters degree saying he is shackled with debt. Boo Farking Hoo. DId you have to have a Masters? DId you have a plan or did you think it would just be cool to stay in college a few more years before heading out into the real world? Did you think long and hard about the debt that you were going to have to take on before you made the decision to get the Masters? And, if you can't get a job what can I tell you? Life is a biatch and your despite what you think, your Masters degree isn't the golden ticket it used to be years ago. You took on the debt, but now you want your fellow citizens to bail you out. Sorry, but we have problems of our own. I broke my back on the job and am now disabled. Financially, it was devastating on me for a few years. But I was able to, with the help of family and my wife, get through it. It was a few years of cutting way back, never going out to eat, wearing the same clothes until they fell apart and driving the same old car until the wheels fell off of it. It was tough, but I wasn't looking for someone else to bail me out. Tighten the belt, eat beans and rice for the next year or two, take any job you can find and if you keep trying sooner or later you will land that dream job you wanted. But it might take a while and you might have to live a much lower standard than you thought.

Sorry for the rant. I am in a lot of pain tonight and it makes me snippy. /Rant off

Nana's Vibrator		2012-03-13 01:49:51 AM

1 votes:

If you want a college degree, the way I see it, you either go to an Ivy League school, or you go to a state school. Don't bother with the in-between... unless you can blackmail one of your old frat brothers over that homoerotic rape thing you two losers did all those years ago.

Unless it allows you to network through a lucrative career by name dropping, paying more than $10K per year for school just doesn't make sense.

Outshined_One		2012-03-13 01:38:03 AM

1 votes:

Aar1012: vernonFL: I went to a small state college in the 90s, a party school in Appalachia. Tuition was less than $10,000 per year. I was able to get Sallie Mae loans that I'm almost done paying off.

Fun Fact: Tuition in the 1990s is not the same as tuition today...even at state schools.

/Where are the Engineers to comment about the stupidity of a non-hard science education?

Pissed off that so many PhDs are pushing them out of cushy jobs?

Aar1012		2012-03-13 01:36:39 AM

1 votes:

the_chief: Ha ha. My family paid for mine.

Yeah...WTF is up with these kids and not having mommy and daddy pay for it? Next up, they'll be demanding access to entry level jobs they're qualified for as opposed to being shut out by insane requirements

Aar1012		2012-03-13 01:30:12 AM

1 votes:

vernonFL: I went to a small state college in the 90s, a party school in Appalachia. Tuition was less than $10,000 per year. I was able to get Sallie Mae loans that I'm almost done paying off.

Fun Fact: Tuition in the 1990s is not the same as tuition today...even at state schools.

/Where are the Engineers to comment about the stupidity of a non-hard science education?

clyph		2012-03-13 01:23:19 AM

1 votes:

Klippoklondike: Thank god for G.I. Bill and small state colleges.

THIS.

My choice in colleges was largely guided by what my GI Bill would cover. UNM FTW.

blackminded		2012-03-13 01:23:01 AM

1 votes:

doglover: Just because you're in a certain situation doesn't mean that shiat's not farked up beyond all recognition for a lot of people. And when those people default (Congress can't legislate money into pockets) and the lenders fail AGAIN and demand to be bailed out AGAIN things are only going to get worse, even for you.

This should be the boilerplate in every one of these threads, for student loans and for mortgages. Americans are a selfish, short-sighted, "covet thy neighbor's shiny new goods until he defaults and gets foreclosed then to hell with him" bunch. by and large.

doglover		2012-03-13 01:18:24 AM

1 votes:

vernonFL: I went to a small state college in the 90s, a party school in Appalachia. Tuition was less than $10,000 per year. I was able to get Sallie Mae loans that I'm almost done paying off.

La de farkin' da.

Just because you're in a certain situation doesn't mean that shiat's not farked up beyond all recognition for a lot of people. And when those people default (Congress can't legislate money into pockets) and the lenders fail AGAIN and demand to be bailed out AGAIN things are only going to get worse, even for you.

Klippoklondike		2012-03-13 01:17:31 AM

1 votes:

Thank god for G.I. Bill and small state colleges.

aybara		2012-03-13 12:24:20 AM

1 votes:

No college degree, work on the networking side of teh Intarwebz keeping the tubes clean. I can pay for my mortgage, and have no student debt.

Thankfully I never took my uncle's advice to get a student loan for college.