Classroom Time For The Reader Who Said: "No 'solutions' are needed as there is no problem"

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A reader made this incorrect statement today (see the comments):

 No 'solutions' are needed as there is no problem. Do not borrow money that you cannot repay. If you do borrow money, pay it back per the agreed loan terms or bear the consequences. 

[Note that no change in bankruptcy laws is remotely possible with Republicans in charge of the House of Reps and 60 votes needed to overcome Senate filibusters. That said, those who wish to spin their wheels trying are obviously free to do so.]

When I first began researching and writing about the student loan debt crisis, I had readers say this all the time. Frankly, I'm surprised to see it again, because things have (a) gotten so much worse and (b) our hard work is getting noticed by major media outlets (I now write for several of them, including USA Today).

Since I am an educator, I think this reader needs to be educated on the topic. Here's my response:

@Anonymous 9:32 AM - Well, I beg to differ. There are plenty of experts who agree. I talk with them on a regular basis, too. 

It's really hard for me to take this comment seriously. I have to be honest. With outstanding student loan debt at over $900 billion and fast approaching $1 trillion, you can sit there and argue that there isn't a problem? Really?

It's a systemic problem, and there are complex reasons for why we're facing a student loan debt crisis.

As for blaming the debtors. Please stop doing that. It's boring. I've heard that argument so many times. It makes me yawn. If you spoke to any student debtor - and I've now spoken with thousands and thousands of them - you'd know that they WANT to pay back their loans. But there are reasons for why it has become difficult (if you checked the news recently, the creation of jobs for the month of May was PATHETIC. A 'whopping' 54,000 jobs were created. In April? It was 38,000!).  So smart, educated folks have all these degrees, want to work, and can't find anything. (Oh, read some Stiglitz to ponder this problem further. There's something called inequity, and that's another part of the problem).

On that note of inequity . . .  

When Wall St and the banks and the hedge funds stole everything and sent the economy sliding, millions and millions of jobs were lost. Most of those jobs aren't coming back. To make matters worse, the damned government bailed out the banks (that nationalization of the banks, mind you, began under a Republican administration. That's right. Bush and his cronies SOCIALIZED the banks. Who would have ever imagined? A Republican doing socialist-y things!). So the jobs are gone, but folks still have to make ends meet. They have families to feed, rent/mortgages to pay, etc., etc. Folks also find themselves getting sick. And since our health care system is a f^%&#in' joke, they can't manage their bills if, God forbid, they become ill. Those are the hardest stories to hear. 

Then there's this philosophical issue about the importance of education. I won't get into the fact that education serves a public good (that's a serious matter, and I'll table it for now. If you're interested in hearing my thoughts on the matter, you can read my recent interview with Henry A. Giroux - http://www.truth-out.org/higher-education-under-attack-interview-henry-giroux/130319640). For now, I'll just talk about the economic side of it. If you read any recent reports/data on the matter, you'd understand this, too. For the time being, I'll just provide you a little tidbit to make this point. It comes from a recent study put out by the Young Invincibles. In Ohio, 37% of millennials without college degrees were unemployed. Conversely, 4% of millennials with degrees were unemployed. That's a pretty startling difference, don't you think? Of course, I am trying to determine if there is any data to show what sort of jobs the millennials with degrees have . . . because if they're flipping burgers or working as a maid at Hotel Corporate Crud, chances are, they aren't benefiting from their education in a tangible sense. That gets back to how silly your remarks are. Because if these folks are underemployed or working jobs that only pay minimum wage, then they're probably having a hard time paying their loans back. See, that's where people like you and me don't see eye to eye. It's clear to me, having studied sociology and history and all those 'pointless things,' that the problem affects the whole of our society. If we neglect education, scary shit starts happening (just pick up some books by good authors, and you'll find plenty of examples and case studies of what I'm talking about). If we stop educating people - and we're far behind now other countries when it comes to the percentage of folks with college degrees - then shit is just gonna get worse. It already is bad, and if you know a thing or two about uneducated countries, it ain't pretty. We're on a fast track down to third world status. Hell, in Detroit, for example, 50% of the city's population is illiterate. I don't know about you, but that's scary as hell. Study after study has shown that societies that have educated the majority of their people are healthier. Those societies are also more equitable. That means the distribution of wealth isn't out of whack. Oligarchies like Iran, Russia, and U.S. are inequitable, which means there's a whole lot of trouble as a result. 

On a more practical note, the statistics make it clear, that the most assured path to financial security is to earn a degree. It's a shame that education was invaded by corporatists (and I'm not using that in a lame, conspiracy theorist way). Education should not be a part of the market. Period. 

You're missing another key point here, too. Tuition has skyrocketed over the years, while wages for majority of Americans have stagnated (in fact, if you read anything by Robert Reich, you'd know that wages are going DOWN. They've been stagnant since the 1970s. That's pathetic when you realize that households now have two earners, and not one as they commonly did in the past). So what's the leave people with? Nothin' . . . that's why people BORROW money to go to school!

Moreover, these loan sharks have full control over the conditions of the loans, i.e., they have NEVER been regulated (because the U.S. Government gave birth to them). Because the money is guaranteed and the lenders don't have to worry about bankruptcy claims on the part of borrowers, they have no incentive to negotiate the terms of repayment. They have all the power. How's that for free market ideology?  Moreover, they mislead people - there are also many examples of lenders making deals with financial aid offices to defraud students (Cuomo busted up a few in NY, and uncovered kickbacks that financial aid officers were receiving from lenders). Not only that, they have defrauded American taxpayers (look up the case that former researcher for the DoED - Jon Oberg - just recently won for the U.S. Government. The case was settled for $58 MILLION, because the bastards figured out a loophole and got away with it under the Bush Regime). 

Do your research on the subject, and then we can talk.