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comment by goobster
goobster  ·  2505 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: The New York Times is entirely too blase about these statistics.

Student loans: Paid off. A wedding present from the in-laws.

There is no more impactful or meaningful gift. This will positively affect the rest of my life. I am truly grateful to them. More than I can express.





blackbootz  ·  2505 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Pardon my incredulity, but you still had student loans? In my eyes, you're an older middle aged gentleman with skills. Was that not enough to ameliorate your student debt? Or was it just simply that onerous? I say this in the spirit of solidarity. As in, what hope do my peers have (I'm 25) when student loans still afflict older, much more established people to the degree where a gift that extinguishes said debt constitutes the most meaningful gift you could receive?

goobster  ·  2504 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Thanks for the compliment, but my situation is not at all unique in my peer group. Most people I know are still making student loan payments, actually. People making six figures.

For me the situation is a bit different, since I didn't actually go to college until my late 30's. Then realized I hated the industry, and went off and started my own business, and then the economy tanked, and I defaulted for years and ... yeah. It went on and on and on.

The student loan payment system is designed to make it difficult to pay off. If you over pay, they play games with the extra money, instead of applying it to the principal. If you lose your job and miss a few payments, they sell your debt to a debt collector (who is actually the same company, just a different office) and add thousands of dollars to the principal, effectively increasing your debt right at the time when you can't pay.

Etc.

Eventually, their games break your will to fight, and you just pay your monthly payment via auto-pay, which is designed to ensure the loan lasts far longer than it needs to.

So, say $200/mo leaves your account automatically on the 15th of every month, and will until you are well into your 60's. Possibly longer.

There are two types of people who get their student loans paid off quickly: Those who come into some sort of cash windfall (death of a relative, or whatever), and those who monomaniacally focus on learning every detail of the byzantine internal operations of SallieMae (or whatever the company is called nowadays) and pore over every single monthly statement and bill, and make regular calls to the company customer service department demanding that the extra payment they made gets applied to the principal and not the interest, and ... it tires me just to think about it.

Pissing away a couple hundred bucks a month on a shady bunch of fucksticks empowered by the Federal Government and the politicians that despise you, is all part of becoming an adult.

Sorry.

OftenBen  ·  2504 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    Most people I know are still making student loan payments, actually. People making six figures.

Fuck.

    The student loan payment system is designed to make it difficult to pay off.

Fuck!

    Pissing away a couple hundred bucks a month on a shady bunch of fucksticks empowered by the Federal Government and the politicians that despise you, is all part of becoming an adult.

FUCK!

You are seriously bumming me out duderino

goobster  ·  2504 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Oh... and when they increase your debt right at the time you are least able to pay it (when you are unemployed)?

Yeah. Bankruptcy doesn't help.

Sallie Mae has protected student debt from bankruptcy protection. So even if you go bankrupt (I have many friends who have), the day after you get out of court, having lost all of your belongings and job... there's a bill from SallieMae for your student loan payment in the mailbox.

Due in 30 days.

blackbootz  ·  2504 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Multiply your history by a hundred million. That's this country. It's ridiculous.

I'll take this moment to plug my idea for a solution. A (non-compulsory but highly encouraged) service program, wherein 18 year olds spend a year or more in service to the country doing all the work that needs doing--caring for the elderly, daycare and education services, infrastructure improvement and development, etc.--and in exchange, you get free tuition at a public university. What do you think?

goobster  ·  2499 days ago  ·  link  ·  

The WPA Program was kinda like this. And many countries have compulsory military service.

I think every American should spend maybe 18-20 in public service, and earn a basic wage. Let them go crazy when the crazy is most crazy, and make them do good honest work for their fellow man.

Then let them loose in the workforce, better human beings.

OftenBen  ·  2499 days ago  ·  link  ·  

It's a lovely idea but I don't think we will live to see it happen.

OftenBen  ·  2504 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    'Commie Bullshit'

-Republicans.

blackbootz  ·  2504 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Lol.

I'll start at the "laboratory of democracies" level first. See if Maryland is up for it. Hopefully that will mitigate some Republican hostility.