Some older Americans say millennials’ student debt is their own fault

Of course Art History is a ticket to financial doom .. but then so is gambling, or spending all your money on Italian shoes. Where are you going to limit this insane escalation of protecting people from themselves? When we're all so helpless we can't get out of bed in the morning unless a Govt workers lays out our day-clothes for us?

 

I would never trust a guidance counselor. They have other goals and motives, not necessarily aligned with the best interests of any given child, or their family culture. Parents are in a far better position to guide their child, since they know the child, family financial circumstances, the likely 10 year future in terms of housing etc (the period when the kid will be repaying loans), and so on.

I'm not sure why parents and kids aren't across the changing education and industrial climate, though. That stuff is easy to access. And it's not as though it isn't important .. goodness! I mean to say, it's not something that a parent can neglect in the 21stC.

 

I appreciate that you and your daughter are paying for her education. Now, concerning those loans she/you are taking, that is 100% your/her responsibility, correct? Can you/her be trusted to pay it back in a timely manner?

Yeah, those are personal questions that are none of my business, but if the thinking is that the taxpayer (me) needs to foot that bill, as evidenced in your other posts, then it immediately becomes my business. Taxpayer funded vouchers for college? Really? I already paid for MY daughter's education (without your help) - I really don't want to pay for your daughter's too.

 

That's an interesting point. In this country, university fees (aka, student loans) don't require parental guarantee. If the kid defaults, it's on them. The debt cannot be passed to anyone else.

 

Honestly, not sure if a parent has to co-sign or not. I was frugal my entire life and was therefore able to pay for my daughter's education with no loans.

Seriously, I am embarrassed of what a large number of American citizens have become: Irresponsible little mooching cry-babies who think everyone else owes them a living/education/home/cell phone/medical care/food. Sad.

 

Get the government completely out of all loans and subsidies for college students.

Then watch tuition prices fall to what the actual market price is.

Watch salaries for professors fall.

 

Watch us fall behind in the global knowledge worker competition....

In a global market like we have now, a highly educated populace is a public good. We all have a vested interest in helping the next generation of workers get a good education.

 

Student loan forgiveness is not going to help the Democrats.

Even some of my liberal friends get pissed off when they hear this because they paid their student loans off.

 

Some older Americans say millennials’ student debt is their own fault

You can easily change the thread title to:
Some millennials' say older Americans lung cancer from smoking is their own fault

and get the same replies.

 

Do you demand the same thing from the parents of the students at your local elementary school?

We actually intend to pay off her loans as a graduation present. We’re taking them for cash flow reasons — to make sure we have enough money on hand for the years when both she and her younger sister are in college.

With an attitude like yours, no society would ever take any step to make life easier or better for younger generations.

“I had to suck it up, so you should, too” is really a lousy basis for public policy.

I will be happy if my grandkids’ generation doesn’t have to go through what we’ve gone through to save for and pay for a college education.

 

That is a great question. In a fair system, each parent would pay for his/her children. But I suppose the system of property taxes that covers the costs of the school districts has been in place for so long that it is pretty much accepted.

Using elementary school funding as a reason that college also should be paid for by the taxpayer isn't rational, because that line of thinking could continue unabated. Masters programs? PHDs? What if a person gets a 4 year degree, then decides they want a different degree, on and on, for life? Does the taxpayer have to pay for all that? Because that is the extension of your rational.

I very much appreciate that. Thank you for being a responsible citizen. If only more were like you when it comes to finances. You must admit that taking care of yours without relying on others to do so is quite empowering.

Nothing is free. Someone has to pay for all those things. You want to make it easier on your grandkids, while you make it harder on someone else's kids who will be footing the bill. That isn't right. Your kids should pay for your grandkids education, just like you and I did/are doing for our daughters.

 

I'm with you on that. 18 years old isn't old enough to give kids a gold visa card that can't be bankrupted out of existence.

Get loan money out of the university business and prices will go down.

 

Lol...They should all do like trump and refuse to pay their debts.

 

I completed my military obligation and earned the GI Bill, and got my hands blue collar dirty, and invested before I went to college. All the folks from out of the Great Depression, who were the village that raised me up, said pay as you go son, pay as you go. I left college at age 28 not owing a dime, with a paid off new car, and with money in the bank. I didn't graduate as I didn't have enough smarts to make it thru four semesters of calculus, although I almost made it. I was going for engineering and didn't want to switch to a major that pays poorly, so I left as I already knew how to make good money if not engineering great money.

But I had started working 3:30 to midnight in Jr. High, off the books, scrubbing steak plates in a restaurant for 50 cent an hour. I knew how tough the world is at age afourteen, and knew I had to stand on my own two feet.

A person so good as I am should never have to pay the freight for anybody else, unless it is voluntary charity from my heart.

 

I admire your life's ethos, jayrunner, but charity needs to inform your last sentence. Good on you for being a life success.

 

Last part of the last sentence apparently didn't get uploaded, stopping at "anybody": "except by charity when it voluntarily comes from my heart." Or something quite close to that. Real charity, not confiscation by government.

Been seeing a lot of other people's post get cut off also.

 

Still disagree with that individual requirement of charity. But thank you. You are inspiration to the product of hard work.

 

So you had the GI Bill. Most people don't, and most people can't, because the military rejects 80% of applicants.

And you attended college a long time ago, when it was much cheaper relative to income.

What you did is simply less feasible now, because circumstances have changed. So expecting people to do the same makes no sense.

 

There is always a way for the willing and the intelligent. I worked full-time 2nd shift during college. I didn't have time for spring break, drinking, and partying.

If the military rejects you, guess what (unless you have a physical disability), you're not college material and are bound to be a failure in life.

There was a smart Vietnamese kid at Ole Miss who lived and studied in his van in the parking lot. He did go in the dorm to shower. He didn't have money and he didn't want stupid beaucoup debt. So he found a way and got an engineering degree. There's always a way for the willing and the intelligent.

 

But since college was more affordable back then, you had to work less in order to afford it. College is four times more expensive relative to income these days. So take the hours you worked, quadruple them, and then tell me if that's a reasonable expectation.

Um, what?

The entire military, active and reserve, is about 2.1 million people.

Every year, about 20 million people apply to college.

There simply aren't enough slots in the military. It has nothing to do with fitness.

So now you're suggesting people should be willing to be homeless in order to afford college? Seriously?

I've got a better idea: we find a way to make college affordable, so people don't have to go to outlandish extremes to get an education.

 

Bet you nothing is able to stand in the way of that engineer who once lived in his van in the parking lot. He was not homeless. He wasn't a nomad. He was focused and knew the value of a dollar.

 

And he is the Horatio Alger exception, not a reasonable standard on which to base public policy.

 

Dont forget the liberal colleges that overcharge the students

 

That really gets to the nub of the issue

Clueless liberals with useless degrees and a mountain of debt want the kids who learned a trade to bail them out

 

I look at student loans this way. If you bought a Yugo, and it only lasted 2 years, but you financed it for 5, it's your own fault. If you took a loan to pay for your BA in social studies, and you found out no one would hire you, too bad. The person who loaned you the money didn't have any visibility in your major and that is where financial aid offices of the universities have a decide conflict of interest. The university doesn't care what type of future employment you gain, they only care about you paying for the courses you sign yourself up for at the time and are perfectly happy to cash those checks.

If I'm an investor, I simply expect that there is a risk to the capital I provided. The bank is supposed to evaluate that risk and the universities are using BS credentials that don't articulate the actual risk to repayment that folks making stupid choices on debt are incurring.

yes, the system seems broken. From the ridiculous expectations of the students themselves to the fraud of university accreditation being used to salve the risk to the banks. My money ultimately is what ends up being improperly managed by everyone from the bank to the university to the student. But I'm the one who then has to take the haircut, not the stupid student who wasted the investment... And the very second someone says, well, you took the risk, sure I did. Which means, next time, I won't. And where will the money then come from? If you create a system where I can't ever be compensated for the use of my resources, I'll simply stop affording them to this process.