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Feds: New student loan repayment options set

Harvard is just an example. The overwhelming majority of universities in this country are simply out of financial reach.

Even public universities are getting pricey. I know my alma mater (Berkeley) has more than doubled its tuition in the last 5-10 years.
 
I wonder how this will apply to graduate loans. Hopefully it will. All of my loans have been through the federal government and I started college in 2008. Maybe I'll be in good shape when I graduate and have $240,000-$500,000 in debt to pay back.
 
What utter nonsense. I suppose you have some way to verify that? Maybe putting a union worker beside a non-union worker?

Yeah - I do - it's called personal experience. I worked a union job, I worked non-union job(s) and I can tell you that non-union workers are smarter, work harder and care about their product while (most) union workers don't care about anything just as long as they get paid and are required to do the least bit of work possible.

Union workers have no incentive to make a good product because the union will always back them, non-union workers have to make a good reliable product because they can be booted at any time for making a piece of sh*t.

Understand?
 
Yeah - I do - it's called personal experience. I worked a union job, I worked non-union job(s) and I can tell you that non-union workers are smarter, work harder and care about their product while (most) union workers don't care about anything just as long as they get paid and are required to do the least bit of work possible.

Union workers have no incentive to make a good product because the union will always back them, non-union workers have to make a good reliable product because they can be booted at any time for making a piece of sh*t.

Understand?

I've worked both and my personal experience shows the opposite. Union workers were better paid and happier, and this led to better work because they enjoyed their work more.

Does my anecdote cancel out your anecdote?
 
Stop there - no way to verify that.

Personal experiences and anecdotal evidence validates any argument.

I met several people that wore flannel and they all had brown hair. People that wear flannel have brown hair, this is fact.
 
We got our obamaPhone,
....We got our obamaLoan,
.........We got our obamaHam, (ebt)
...............We got our obamaTan (or not since he taxed tanning salons),
....................So all Bless our Lord and Savior B.H.O......
 
I've worked both and my personal experience shows the opposite. Union workers were better paid and happier, and this led to better work because they enjoyed their work more.

Does my anecdote cancel out your anecdote?

Yeah, they were happy because they could get drunk and high on the job and could take naps in the bathrooms while being protected via points...

Hell, when I worked a union job - seriously - if I wanted, I could have walked into the shop with a bottle of Jack in my hands - drunk as a skunk and smoking a blunt and they would have just sent me home for the day and would have subtracted 2 points...... But weed smoking and drunks were common in my workplace when I worked in a unionized steel fabrication facility...

People shouldn't be getting drunk and driving around on lifts (trucks) picking up loads while flying down the aisles....

Union workers just don't care, and I would expect any decent union worker to see that...... They don't care about anything except for their paycheck!
 
Yeah, they were happy because they could get drunk and high on the job and could take naps in the bathrooms while being protected via points...

Hell, when I worked a union job - seriously - if I wanted, I could have walked into the shop with a bottle of Jack in my hands - drunk as a skunk and smoking a blunt and they would have just sent me home for the day and would have subtracted 2 points...... But weed smoking and drunks were common in my workplace when I worked in a unionized steel fabrication facility...

People shouldn't be getting drunk and driving around on lifts (trucks) picking up loads while flying down the aisles....

Union workers just don't care, and I would expect any decent union worker to see that...... They don't care about anything except for their paycheck!

So, what you are saying is that your anecdote overrides my anecdote because... magic or something. I'm not clear on that part.
 
If I'm not mistaken, union or not it is illegal to operate machinery while under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol. Being in a union doesn't give anyone a pass to break the law. Your employer may have work contracts with the union but the cops don't. If people did this frequently and no one alerted the police that's not the fault of the union.
 
Personal experiences and anecdotal evidence validates any argument.

I met several people that wore flannel and they all had brown hair. People that wear flannel have brown hair, this is fact.

And a blind man doesn't know colors, but he (she) knows they exist.
 
So, what you are saying is that your anecdote overrides my anecdote because... magic or something. I'm not clear on that part.

A def man knows sounds exist but he (or she) cannot hear them.

Maybe you're just against hearing implants? :)
 
What utter nonsense. I suppose you have some way to verify that? Maybe putting a union worker beside a non-union worker?

He probably thinks all those union doctors and scientists need to go back to the shop and learn up on those kinda medical stuff you know?

If it was not for college educated people most of us would not be here. And some of those were poor but got the opportunity to go.
 
Feds: New student loan repayment options set - Yahoo! Finance



I never went to university. My job could be pretty much be classified as a 'skilled trade'. I'm not worried about being replaced by somebody else. That said, I find this to be a good idea regardless of whether you're a Republican or Democrat. People work their asses off trying to repay off school loans from careers which simply don't pay what was invested in them while at the same time struggling to pay off house bills etc. Essentially, I think universities are OVERPRICED for the jobs which people acquire once out of them. As one musician put it:

You pay 150K just to earn 50K a year.


Why? According to Boo, Collage degrees costs are a symptom of cut backs in federal money....So, I guess we need more taxes for that as well....hmmmmm, now who could we go after for that?
 
Yeah, they were happy because they could get drunk and high on the job and could take naps in the bathrooms while being protected via points...

Hell, when I worked a union job - seriously - if I wanted, I could have walked into the shop with a bottle of Jack in my hands - drunk as a skunk and smoking a blunt and they would have just sent me home for the day and would have subtracted 2 points...... But weed smoking and drunks were common in my workplace when I worked in a unionized steel fabrication facility...

People shouldn't be getting drunk and driving around on lifts (trucks) picking up loads while flying down the aisles....

Union workers just don't care, and I would expect any decent union worker to see that...... They don't care about anything except for their paycheck!


Why should they care? They only have to meet the standard of the most worthless clingon in the place....
 
Why? According to Boo, Collage degrees costs are a symptom of cut backs in federal money....So, I guess we need more taxes for that as well....hmmmmm, now who could we go after for that?

Source? I'll wait.
 
This is just a means of propping up an absolutely FANTASTIC business model that was in danger of going under. I predicted this, on this very forum, a year ago, or so...er, maybe it was on another debate forum, back in my myspace days...can't remember...anyway...

Why do we need college? To further educate people. Seems simple. Here's a question. Is there anything, ANYTHING, that colleges teach, in MOST fields, that can't be learned for free on the internet, these days? Well, yeah, sure. Medicine. A surgeon learns by doing it, not by watching videos of it being done. And that sort of "hands on training" is NOT do it yourself, lol. (scary thought, eh?) I'm positive there are plenty of other examples that just as easily fall outside the realm of the typical do it yourself attitude. But the VAST MAJORITY of college degrees...are WELL within those bounderies. Simply put, thanks to the internet, colleges are becoming a lot less useful. Well, no, not less useful...just less necessary, towards the goal of "higher education". If you were to randomly list of 100 college degree programs, I'll bet 75% of them are things that can be just as easily learned on one's own, for next to NOTHING. All one needs is a clear goal, and desire. Hell, I learned how to take apart, and rebuild my old quadrajet 700cfm carb...and it works beautifully now. And I gotta tell you, most of you likely won't understand, when I say that THAT is a major achievement, for someone with no training, of any real sort, in the field of automotives. Carburetors are fairly complicated pieces of mechanical engineering, and rochester q-jets are some of the more complex you can get your hands on. I learned how to do it, and did it, in three days.

So why do we need college for so many of these fields? Because, in many instances, companies and governments require them. A degree, NOT the knowledge. They REQUIRE the degree, the later is just a plus, lol. Why? Well, the government needs to provide the illusion of security, in the form of various regulations...and the company needs to offset liability, as a result of the need for that illusion of security.

Enter econ 101. People want the jobs. Which means they NEED the degree, even in a world that offers the KNOWLEDGE practically for free. That is demand. The other factor is supply. Which, here comes another question. How hard is it to start your own ACCREDITED institute of higher learning? That is, a school that the state recognizes? Is it something that your typical industrious entrepreneur can just go out and do? Or does starting a new college fall more in the lines of, it's done either by the government, or by very very very wealthy individuals, or groups? What I mean to suggest is, the supply is more or less fixed. Not a lot of college "pop ups" out there, at least not that are also state sanctioned. So, you have consistent demand, thanks to government oversight, and limited supply, also thanks to government oversight. That picture coming clearer yet?

But we have a problem, don't we? The money train is slowing, because more and more, the degrees earned won't ever pay for themselves. At least, not in the short term view of 20 years, or so. In short, a college degree, for many cases, is looking like a bad investment. In addition to this, people are finding that they simply can't afford it, even with (government controlled) lax lending practices for students. So, enter Uncle Sam, to the RESCUE! Now making it "safer" and easier to secure loans for things we couldn't otherwise afford, rather than simply letting the market take it's course, and watch tuition numbers fall, along with the profits that accompany them!

And the question I ask you is, why? Why not simply let things ride? It's BECAUSE it's so easy to get a college loan, that colleges charge so much. Think about it. If no one, or the majority, can't afford to go to college, how do colleges stay in business? They lower their prices until people CAN go to college again. And I think most anyone with a brain knows this is the case. Even Obama. So, again, why? And why, of all the types of loans one can get, are college loans the ONLY one that can't be defaulted on, even in the case of bankruptcy?

Well, I think I know. I've been thinking this for a while now. It's multifacted, but here it is. Hope it doesn't fall into the realm of conspiracy theory, lol. Our government, our economy, our entire society, operates on debt. Our governments operates on a deficit, without which, no government. They REQUIRE this deficit, in order to have spending freedom...a carte blanche, if you will. Our economy operates on debt as well. Insurance requires debt in the form of securities, in order to have "capital" backing them, in the even a claim is made. Banks require dept in order to place bets on which direction the economy will swing, from one millisecond to the next. Everything in our lives operates around the accruement and sale of dept. Just as there were people scrambling to get a seat at the table to gobble up investments on mortgages, so too are they scrambling for college loans. Because college loans are the gold standard...they CAN'T be defaulted on, EVER, no mater what. Sure, now we might have some loan forgiveness...after 20-25 years. STILL a lot safer than any other type of security out there.

Another thing about college loan debt? It ensures that college graduates scramble for jobs. That whole no default thing, again. College grads are far more likely to be productive, because they HAVE to be. A lot of folks, they might not go for the dishwasher job a Joes Crab Shack, because it might be severe underemployment for them. A college grad? If that's what's hiring, that's what they'll take, because the other option, in a manner of speaking, is imprisonment.
 
The problems that haven't been addressed and probably still won't be, is kids choosing schools that cost a boat load, instead of more affordable schools.

A good example is my sister in law.
She could of attended the local community college, for the first 2 years, then went to the private university for the rest of her undergrad, saving 10's of thousands of dollars.
She could of also attend state school for her whole degree program, even her doctorates.

She's still in private university for that and will likely end up with $150k+ in debt.
They shouldn't forgive that, when there were cheaper, just as functional alternatives.
 
The problems that haven't been addressed and probably still won't be, is kids choosing schools that cost a boat load, instead of more affordable schools.

A good example is my sister in law.
She could of attended the local community college, for the first 2 years, then went to the private university for the rest of her undergrad, saving 10's of thousands of dollars.
She could of also attend state school for her whole degree program, even her doctorates.

She's still in private university for that and will likely end up with $150k+ in debt.
They shouldn't forgive that, when there were cheaper, just as functional alternatives.
They aren't going to forgive that, unless she is willing to spend the next 20-25 years in ABJECT poverty. Its not like, whoa, 20 years are up, my loans go away. She has to prove that within the span of 20 years, she has been consistently unable to make her college loan payments.


And she is EXACTLY the target of this sort of legislation. We WANT, no, NEED, people like your sister...else, where are we going to get the debt to bundle up and sell off?
 
They aren't going to forgive that, unless she is willing to spend the next 20-25 years in ABJECT poverty. Its not like, whoa, 20 years are up, my loans go away. She has to prove that within the span of 20 years, she has been consistently unable to make her college loan payments.

Ok, I get it now.
Still though, I've known people to go get multiple degrees (one guy had 3 or 4 in different foreign languages) only to work as a pizza delivery guy.

And she is EXACTLY the target of this sort of legislation. We WANT, no, NEED, people like your sister...else, where are we going to get the debt to bundle up and sell off?

True enough, I just have reservations about the types of degrees and monetary forgiveness for certain people.
 
Ok, I get it now.
Still though, I've known people to go get multiple degrees (one guy had 3 or 4 in different foreign languages) only to work as a pizza delivery guy.



True enough, I just have reservations about the types of degrees and monetary forgiveness for certain people.

It's just like health care. it's expensive, ONLY BECAUSE IT CAN BE.

Imagine how much college would cost if the loans were as hard to qualify for as, say, current home loans are? Imagine how quickly the number of new college students would fall, and how quickly the multi million dollar salaries a lot of the folks that run these places would come into review...imagine how quickly those prices would drop, so that more people COULD afford it, and the loans would become smaller, making the red tape less. Simply put, college is a bubble, the same as the housing market was. Easy money = easy price hikes.
 
It's just like health care. it's expensive, ONLY BECAUSE IT CAN BE.

Imagine how much college would cost if the loans were as hard to qualify for as, say, current home loans are? Imagine how quickly the number of new college students would fall, and how quickly the multi million dollar salaries a lot of the folks that run these places would come into review...imagine how quickly those prices would drop, so that more people COULD afford it, and the loans would become smaller, making the red tape less. Simply put, college is a bubble, the same as the housing market was. Easy money = easy price hikes.


Thank you Teddy Kennedy.
 
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