Should taxpayer money be used to pay for student loans?

There is definitely a benefit to society in having an educated populace. An employer will have an easier time hiring educated people for jobs that require it like engineers, doctors, and so forth. While an employer could hire someone without the education and train them, there's a risk you put all this money and time into someone and that someone then quits and gets a job somewhere else that pays him more (likely because they didn't have to pay for his training). Students don't usually have the money to pay for their education (they want the education so they can get the money after all). Companies won't provide that level of training to employees (as the employee can easily quit once they're trained.) So in the free market system education is underutilized and we're less efficient.

So it does make sense for the government to help with that. Student loans, grants, and so forth are forms of that help.

That said, the system is currently broken in that it pushes far too many people through degree programs and the jobs don't exist. Even if the economy was perfect, we're educating too many people, the jobs still wouldn't be there. Most students have a belief that they will all end up doing nice high paid jobs after graduating so they take on the debt. They then graduate and get a real education by not having tons of offers for six figure jobs showering them. And then they complain about their loans. The system is as guilty as anything in encouraging everyone to attend college. When I was in highschool if you weren't planning to go to college after you were stupid. And yet, a figure far short of 100% of jobs require college degrees, and they're not all bad jobs either (though we do need people to do the ones that are perceived as bad jobs all the same.) The system has lots of room for improvement. Make it harder to get the college education and try to encourage degree choices such fill needed vacancies.

As far as the students going bankrupt for existing debt, the interesting thing on all the proposals I've seen from politicians is none of them would help this kid. Lots of proposals to pay more of the schooling, to reduce interest rates on new debt, and so on. Nothing I've seen that covers existing debt. If they passed a law making college free tomorrow I don't see them forgiving existing student loan debt.

Rocketman said:

I read a USA Today article this week where a former student was whining because his student loan had a balance of $58,000 forcing him to file chapter 13 but interest on this loan would keep climbing. Are we supposed to feel sorry for him? He spent it, he should pay it back.

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You can't claim bankruptcy on student loans. They never go away. He may have claimed bankruptcy on his other debts but not his student loan.

Why Bankruptcy Won't Erase Student Loan Debt | TIME.com

TurtleDude said:

fortunately, declaring bankruptcy to get out of student loans, I believe, has become a lot harder

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Actually, student loan debt cannot be discharged under current bankruptcy laws. Once you accept the federal loan you're stuck with it for the next 25 years (avg. time it takes to pay off most federal student loans over $25K). However, there are repayment options available to most students carrying federal student loan debt.

While I agree with the OP comment that if you accept the loan you should do everything you can to pay it back, it is disturbing that so many people w/college degrees still carry so much student loan debt years after obtaining their degree.

ChrisL said:

You can't claim bankruptcy on student loans. They never go away. He may have claimed bankruptcy on his other debts but not his student loan.

Why Bankruptcy Won't Erase Student Loan Debt | TIME.com

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If you read the whole thread you would realize that was never stated, however you can file chapter 13 so you can avoid paying other bills.

Rocketman said:

If you read the whole thread you would realize that was never stated, however you can file chapter 13 so you can avoid paying other bills.

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Isn't that what I said? :lol:

Understandably, it seems a lot of people don't understand what bankruptcy is or how it works.

You don't dismiss certain debts, they are put into forbearance or paid off in a large, renegotiated sum, which you then a lot of your money toward.

For the record: Fed student loans have already been "paid by taxpayers" - and all that changes is at what time you pay it back. You never get out from it.

Navy Pride said:

He should of thought about that before he got the loans.

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That's a rather naïve attitude to take. I know of no college students who takes out a student loans with the intent of defaulting. I would hope they'd go to college to pursue a career in a field they believe will eventually become their life's profession and, therefore, make money doing what they were educated and trained to do. Doesn't always work out that way, but I'd consider anyone who'd take out a student loan just for the money a rather foolish individual...unless they find a way to parlay that loan into tons of cash Mark Zuckerburg/MIT Blackjack pro-style. :mrgreen:

A good idea might be to look at loan recipient's grades. The loans should be dependent upon the grades a student gets. That way you know the loan recipients are taking their loans seriously.

CriticalThought said:

As long as they are not private student loans or PLUS loans I am not sure why someone would have trouble. With income based repayment options you may never be able to pay them off, but you can keep them at bay.

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Actually, the income-based repayment option is a pretty good deal. As your net income increases, you pay more towards the debt. You have to recertified your income annually, but as long as you have earnings you only make repayments commensurate with your income level. Therefore, the rate at which you repay the loan depends greatly on how quickly your income rises over time. Wrote a book that covers student loan debt and alot more. Anyone interested, drop me a PM.

A short and to the point answer to the OP .... HELL NO !

I had to pay for mine, my sons paid for theirs.... surprise, surprise, surprise... we each lived through it and prospered. Many young folk spend too much time in school playing ( it has been reported that 50% of students spend 6 years in college accumulating debt; then leave sans degree ) and then leave or are graduated just in time to acquire a new luxury/high end auto....the latest cool apartment or home ... then can't pay tuition cost that are less the the auto payments.... B.S.

Responsibility redefined these days seems to mean "who can do this for me?"


Let the 25-30 year old children stand on their own and mature.

Thom Paine