Ted Rall for December 27, 2021

Yep, that’s a real problem. Good that Biden’s putting of the moment of doom for the moment, but not good enough.

Yeah. This looks right. /s

Or you could, you know, have gone to a public university rather than Columbia.

Ye pretty sure my cousin’s are all in debt because of the their loans it sucks man

Ya know, free school used to be considered an investment made by society to improve all of our futures. Then some schmuck decided it was more important to make a quick easy profit for a few than a long term investment for the many.

But forgiving school debt punishes the hard-working kids who held jobs while taking on a full courseload, or who turned down an ivy to go to a state school because it was more affordable, or the parents who stuck whatever cash they could into a 529 to avoid that debt.

I had a similar experience with the MBA program at Penn State, except they touted that the average starting salary for their graduates was $30K (now nearly $80K). In the past few decades, I’ve never seen anything near it, even now for $30K. Fortunately, one could go bankrupt by proving hardship, which is what should be the law now — before Gingrich gave his masters more wealth by making bankruptcy nearly impossible.

The Ramones first album came out in 1976, at that time tuition at least in Calif/Texas public universities was < $200 semester. Pell Grants(free money!) were also widely available for low/middle income students.

The college forced him to borrow money? I did not think that colleges had that authority. Perhaps someone needs to learn a little bit about personal responsibility. If you don’t understand the contract, you don’t sign. You take responsibility for the fact that you do not understand. I mean did they seriously not even tell you how much the loans were for? And you did not ask?

You were 17. In a different era you would be expected to have a job and either be married or getting ready to support a family already. YOU are the one who CHOSE to not learn how the world works until … when?

Then, the poor guy got stuck in a dead end job as a cartoonist. Sad.

Point made Ted. Glad he didn’t go on a rampage and kill anyone. Then he’d owe tons of money AND be in prison.

Paid off my student loans on time. Was in the dealership going through the loan process for my first new car. I mentioned the loan payoff, the loan officer said they couldn’t care less, it had no effect on my credit rating. I think, though, things have changed today.

Go to trade school or Community College.

Who.. picked the courses you took? Who partied instead of studying? Who decided they needed an expensive car and fine clothes? Expensive apartment. You.. likely.. are irresponsible, for making the wrong choices and setting the wrong priorities. Suck it up.

“In a rat trap, and you’ve been caught,” Bob Geldof.

“Have they no refuge or resource?” cried Scrooge. “Are there no prisons?” said the Spirit, turning on him for the last time with his own words. “Are there no workhouses?”

Naturally, college debt, acquired when you know pretty much nothing about finance, is the only debt that stays with you, even through bankruptcy.

The average college graduate pays about $7800 more a year in federal taxes than the average high school graduate. Over 30 years, that totals about $234,000. If that’s divided by the 4 years it takes to get a college education, the government would break even if it paid every student $58,500 a year to attend school. This doesn’t even consider that with the degree, the person is less likely to ever need unemployment or welfare, that more students would complete high school if they could see a clear way to a really good job, and that they would be enriching the Social Security and Medicare funds. They would also be paying a larger amount in all other types of taxes.The best investment we could make to keep America strong is to not just forgive all student loans but to make all higher education, including trade schools, etc totally free, as long as the student is making decent grades, and increase the number of schools and teachers to make room for all who can profit from the education. There is no better way to spend money than to invest it in our people, to give them every opportunity to be the best they can be. Yes, It’s good for them individually, but the country is made up of individuals, so what’s good for one is good for the country.. We don’t, even during a time of high unemployment, have so much a lack of jobs as we have a lack of people who have the skills to perform the jobs that are available- in other words, a lack of education.

Well Theodore, I’m quite sympathetic to this financial quandary. There are three ways out: 1. win the big lottery jackpot; 2. under specific circumstances, you can Chapter 7, https://www.npr.org/2020/01/22/797330613/myth-busted-turns-out-bankruptcy-can-wipe-out-student-loan-debt-after-all. This will cost about 2 1/2 times that of a regular Chapter 7 because your lawyer has to do that much more work to make it happen. Your debt will be forgiven and you can rebuild your credit rating in a year. Moreover, people no longer look askance at people who’ve gone into bankruptcy, thus those who take exception to wiping out student debt wouldn’t give it a second thought. 3. Refinance through a loan servicer that will provide an income-based repayment plan. You may never get it paid off, but when you die, the loan is forgiven.

about sums it up. Pell Grants that had made college possible for me, dried up in 1984 and I took out the first of 3 loans to finish my BA. Fortunately, the total was manageable but nothing like what we see today with the banks in charge.

I worked hard in high school to get a couple of scholarships which paid a good amount of my college tuition. I was very lucky to have parents who were willing to pay the rest. I also lived with them and went to a more reasonably priced school. I could have gone to Harvard, Stanford or Yale, but I wasn’t going to do that to my parents or myself. My husband paid for his own college entirely by first going to community college and then working his way through the rest. Neither of us had any school debts. I don’t know if any of this is possible these days. It seems like things have become worse. Free education through college would be one of the best investments this country could make.

If you’re only 17, you do not have legal capacity to enter into a contract. Your parents are the liable party, not you.

“The college forced me to borrow thousands of dollars a year.” What caliber gun did they put to your head?

Panel one fit me to a T, but I was fortunate that tuition during my early years was still quite low. I remember paying my tuition for college before attending seminary and thinking then how low it was. My books cost me more. Nowadays, going to college and paying for tuition would require either a full scholarship, very wealthy parents, a part time job, or that loan that repayment would dog you for the rest of your life.

Not unrelated: Credit card companies used to bombard incoming freshmen with offers of credit lines, expecting that they will be used irresponsibly. (For all I know, they still do that.) Fortunately, I never took them up on it.

As long as we are focused on student loan debt…. Someone mentioned to me that they felt that there was a large number of educators out there.

If you are an educator, and a member of NEA, their site has links to help you eliminate/reduce your student loan debt.

I won’t provide links to NEA dot ORG because I am going to shamelessly plug membership in this excellent organization.

If you ARE an educator and NOT a member you are missing a large number of opportunities and benefits. Chief among them (IMHO) is the voice we have collectively in our government. I have seen the power of our state level NEA organization at work and it is tremendous. Here, and in other states as well.

If you are a member use your benefits and help eliminate your debt. Don’t leave money on the table.

40 years later, Ted Rall refuses to take responsibility for his actions and instead blames the people who pointed out he was irresponsible. Deja Vu all over again.

Where are the parents in all of this? My parents and my wife’s parents paid for our college educations, though neither of us had more than the necessities growing up, very few vacations, etc. We did the same for our 2 kids, scrimped for years saving every spare penny in 529’s, UTMA’s, even savings bonds. With the market returns we had enough leftover to also cover grad school/med school.

When I graduated from high school in 1962, my husband and I bought a house and two cars within the next few years, on what he was making on a job he got right out of high school. Most of the guys I graduated with did the same. I didn’t work, few women did, and those who did usually chose to do so. Now, it isn’t really a choice for most women, unless they don’t mind living in poverty. When I decided to become a teacher, my first quarter’s tuition at Southern Illinois University was $79, and we rented any books we needed for $20. Anyone could go to college with just a part time job to pay for it, and without piling up a lifetime of debt. Since that time, the GNP has skyrocked and the American worker is acknowledged to be the most productive in the world. But, all of the value they are producing is going to the top 1%. who use that money to buy politicians who make laws that insure that they keep making most of the money, which they can use to buy more politicians, who will write more laws so they can make more money to buy more politicians and etc etc etc.The Middle Class standard of living is declining, and a college graduate hasn’t anywhere near as easy a time as we had with just high school. We produce the highest quality goods on earth, and we can’t afford to buy them. A young person told me a while back that I couldn’t really understand why their generation was so angry. What I actually don’t understand is why they aren’t rioting in the streets.

I was living in the back of a truck going to college, I applied for a student loan and was denied because my father made too much even tho he was not supporting me.

No one “forced” you to do anything.

BTW, those 3 years in engineering school…sure were wasted. But at least you tried for a functional real world degree. Better than basket weaving and gender studies.