Student Debt

[SkylarHunter]

Another thing to add to the list of things I can't wrap my head around: The Student Debt Time Bomb | Common Dreams | Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community

How come a country that spends so much money in bombs can't find a way to finance education?

Yes, here in Europe we're all sorts of financially f**** up but at least young people can still get a degree and start a life without their entire future being already mortgaged.

 

[Rival]

Not necessarily in the UK...., it is £,9,000.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

How come a country that spends so much money in bombs can't find a way to finance education?

There are many reasons, but the three in particular I blame are our sense that you have to find your own way in life, fear of collective social responsibilities, and our attachment to this idea of "positive thinking," where it is claimed that if you really want something badly enough, your "positive thought energy" will be send out into the universe and attract positive things, whereas bad things happen because you had "negative thought energy."

 

[Shadow Wolf]

Not necessarily in the UK...., it is £,9,000.

By American standards, that is VERY cheap.

 

[Rival]

By American standards, that is VERY cheap.

By British standards it is a nightmare.

 

[Quintessence]

Probably for the same reasons why this country can't fund universal health care and take climate change or environmental issues seriously: Republicans.

 

[Midnight Rain]

Not necessarily in the UK...., it is £,9,000.

Is that a year? Because the university I attended to get my BA was 16k a year after expenses that have to be included. And its 22k a year for a full time graduate student and 24-26k a year for doctoral candidates. If it wasn't for grants, scholarships and tax writeoffs I would have been around 60k in debt just to get a degree that makes a little over 50k a year. And the interest rate was something like 4.5% or something. So if I didn't make any headway on paying back my loan I could accumulate 2700 dollars of debt in interest a year or 225 a month. That is my phone bill, electric bill and netflix.

 

[Penumbra]

Another thing to add to the list of things I can't wrap my head around: The Student Debt Time Bomb | Common Dreams | Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community

How come a country that spends so much money in bombs can't find a way to finance education?

Yes, here in Europe we're all sorts of financially f**** up but at least young people can still get a degree and start a life without their entire future being already mortgaged.

Because the people don't vote in enough representatives and senators that support it.

 

[SkylarHunter]

Is that a year? Because the university I attended to get my BA was 16k a year after expenses that have to be included. And its 22k a year for a full time graduate student and 24-26k a year for doctoral candidates. If it wasn't for grants, scholarships and tax writeoffs I would have been around 60k in debt just to get a degree that makes a little over 50k a year. And the interest rate was something like 4.5% or something. So if I didn't make any headway on paying back my loan I could accumulate 2700 dollars of debt in interest a year or 225 a month. That is my phone bill, electric bill and netflix.

This is what got me so angry ( and it's not even my problem). If you have to get into that much debt to have a degree but the job you find afterwards (if you even find a job) doesn't pay you enough to get rid of the student loans and pay your other bills what is the point? What do the governments expect to achieve with this kind of mentality?
The poorer the people, the poorer and less developed the country.
It's like people are stuck in the never ending circle of "if you want a job you need a degree, to have a degree if you have to get loans, you finish schools and you can't pay the loans so you have to borrow more just to survive and you'll be forever a slave to the banks". Is that it?
Because if it is I didn't need a degree to see it's going to end up badly for all parts involved.

 

[Midnight Rain]

This is what got me so angry ( and it's not even my problem). If you have to get into that much debt to have a degree but the job you find afterwards (if you even find a job) doesn't pay you enough to get rid of the student loans and pay your other bills what is the point? What do the governments expect to achieve with this kind of mentality?
The poorer the people, the poorer and less developed the country.
It's like people are stuck in the never ending circle of "if you want a job you need a degree, to have a degree if you have to get loans, you finish schools and you can't pay the loans so you have to borrow more just to survive and you'll be forever a slave to the banks". Is that it?
Because if it is I didn't need a degree to see it's going to end up badly for all parts involved.

The alternative is getting a lower paying job (30-50k) with a 2 year degree at a community college. This will run you anywhere from five to fifteen thousand but its about 1/4th the amount of money that I spent. And you can be come like a dental hygenist (around 16 usd/hr) or EMT or web developer ect. That is what a lot of people are opting for. Because BA is not worth much now a days. Most of the time BA are just placeholders till you get your MA. A bach degree is going to be obsolete soon just as the AA degree is obsolete now. Go and do 2 years to get your general AA degree at a community college and it will never make you a penny more than if you had not. I worry that soon it will be that way with BA degree's.

edit. sidenote to add. The government now has made 41 billion dollars last year alone in interest from student loans. There should be NO interest rate in government loans or it should be super super SUPER low.