If you have heard problematic claims made about my character, please feel free to email me about it (ccrynjohannnsen AT gmail DOT com) and avoid feeding the trolls.
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/
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.
