this post was submitted on 12 Sep 2023
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Many Senior Citizens Expect To Die With College Loan Debts. (portside.org)
submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 34 points 1 year ago

I know I'll die with student loan debt, because I dropped out of college after four and a half years, never have had a decent job, and finally moved to another country without leaving a forwarding address. They found me once after I filed an absentee ballot, then I moved again. Welp, guess I can't vote in the US anymore.

However, I refuse to be held back for life because of contracts I signed when I was 18 and too stupid to know what I was getting into. I didn't even want to go to college but my mom made me.

The whole thing is ridiculous and stupid and it sucks that the way I took is the only way out, as most don't have the option to leave the country and never come back.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago (2 children)

If you can't pay off the college loan with job you found after finishing college, does not it mean it is a bad investment and you shouldn't go to college? There are well paying jobs which does not require college degree, but also the minimum wage job seems to be better option than going to college if you can't pay it off until the end of your days

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah but you won't know if it will pay off until many years after studying, so it's a gamble.

For the majority of cases having a university degree will give you a higher salary, not to mention the value of the experience of going to university as well as the connections you make there (both personally and professionally).

University in the US is just stupidly expensive and the loans have a crazy interest rate.

I'm from the Netherlands where you'll receive money from the government while studying. You can take a loan on top of it with minimal interest and so it's basically always worth it if you can afford it and are academically able to.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah I am from Poland and we have free university so usually it is worth going to university as well. It might be easy for me to say these things as I am not from USA, but most likely I would look for some jobs with good sallary to loan cost ratio or not go to university.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Same in France, universities are about free, and I had a small scholarship because my parents were not rich, so in a way, I got paid to go to uni

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Maybe if you view everything in your life as a transaction or a zero-sum game, and put no value in education or knowledge.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Not having to consider price is a luxury a rich person can consider. A nice luxury but a luxury just the same. It is also just another form of consumption in the absence of clear utility on the other side.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm far from rich, and have ~$40k left in student loans that I've been paying off for nearly a decade now, so trust me it's not about not considering price. That completely misses the point I was making.

Finances are one consideration, not the only consideration.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Yes agree. It is complicated. It is also a decision that has to be made at an age that people are may not be equipped to make it and the people around them may not be that helpful either. Add to that even the best decision is just a guess made with what is known at the time.

Families have different approaches too. My family was pretty nuts and bolts. We were expected to get training to earn money and get out on our own. My wife's family was much more go to college and explore. None of them found a paying job based on their education until later going back to school for a masters or some other training. The financial outcomes were different too.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

There are better ways of learning than university

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Oh but this is good for the economy

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Sure it is, if, as always with articles talking about 'the economy,' you substitute 'the economy' for 'rich people's bank accounts.' Then it all makes way more sense.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Is there any instance where they are not the same thing?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

I'll probably die with student loan debts... but only because I'm a mature student and the student loan system in the UK was recently changed so debts are written off after 40 years rather than 30. Still, having the remaining debt written off when I'm in my 80s is something to look forward to, I guess? Our repayment terms are substantially more progressive than in the US, though (closer to a graduate tax than loan repayments), so pensioner me likely won't be required to actually pay anything. I'd rather we had properly free university the way most of Europe does, but I'll still take the UK's system over the US's.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Student loan debt relief, finally! Death, sweet release