2 hours ago, CincySportsFan said:

When pretty much anyone was suddenly able to qualify for a student loan, two things happened...

One was that there was suddenly an emphasis put on having a college degree.  "If you don't have a degree, you won't be able to compete in the job market..."

And the second thing was, that schools suddenly saw the ability to line their pockets with all this fresh-found money.  So, tuition prices went up, up, up.  This was not about supply and demand.  This was a strict money grab. Pure, unadulterated greed.  Used car salesmen get a bad rap for their tactics.  College administrators should be right there next to them.

Having either one of those events occur would be bad...having both of them happen has got us where we are today.

Spot on.

As I said before, a humongous chunk of education spending doesn't go where it should.

4 hours ago, TheDeuce said:

I'd probably be lumped into that anti-education group as well. I do not have a degree and I've been in Management in the past two jobs I've had. There is plenty of money to be made even without a degree. I do wish that more and more employers would lessen the weight of a degree to obtain a job. With training, a degree is meaningless, IMO. 

Also, I thought you had your degree, so kudos to you for doing so well.  That's awesome!

22 minutes ago, Randy Parker said:

I want to give employers freedom, but I am with you here.  A degree, to me, means you know the job.  It doesn't mean you can do it.  And it certainly doesn't mean you can do it well.

I guess I’m a cynic. To me, having a degree just means you’re good at memorizing information. If you can memorize things, you can graduate from college and not retain one ounce of what you learned. That somehow means you’re more qualified to do a certain job than someone who doesn’t have a degree? In some cases sure, but not all. 

I’m all for it but not until they get the absurd cost of higher education under control.

If all debt was erased today, more debt would start piling up tomorrow. Canceling debt without addressing the true issue is pointless.

10 hours ago, TheDeuce said:

People pay on student loans for DECADES and will still owe more than they originally borrowed. It is a gigantic scam. 

Pay off everyone's student loans. I don't care that people who went to college 30 years ago had to pay $1200 to go to school. 

$1200 and I made $4.85 an hour at my first job, and we bought our first house with an %18 interest rate.   It’s all relative.  Don’t commit to a loan you cannot pay.  Quite frankly, I think a 4 year degree isn’t worth the money, unless you have a specific career goal in mind. Ever try to find a reliable carpenter lately?

9 hours ago, TheDeuce said:

Yes, I 100% believe everyone's student loans should be paid off. As a country, we waste money on things all the time, lets put a fraction of those funds to good use. 

Moving forward, the solutions are 1.) Affordable Education and 2.) 0% interest loans, when loans are necessary. 

So, I should have sent my child to Harvard, instead of UK and had them take a loan out ( keep in mind I actually had 1 child that could have been accepted)? That loan should be forgiven?

9 hours ago, TheDeuce said:

 

8 hours ago, TheDeuce said:

It's not, and hasn't been. Employers are "requiring" Bachelor Degrees for jobs that don't even pay $20/hr. 

If there's ever been a time to go to a trade school it's now. A  four year degree is grossly overrated. 

On that, we agree.  My plumber of 40 plus years cannot find someone to take over his incredibly successful business.  I have a flooring guy, whose business is run by his brothers and sisters.  None of their college educated children are interested in the business.  In the meantime, the family ( run by siblings over 60) have more business than they can handle.

34 minutes ago, Beechwoodfan said:

Don’t commit to a loan you cannot pay.  

Nobody commits to a loan thinking that after four years of payments they’ll owe more than they borrowed…

23 minutes ago, Beechwoodfan said:

So, I should have sent my child to Harvard, instead of UK and had them take a loan out ( keep in mind I actually had 1 child that could have been accepted)? That loan should be forgiven?

 

Harvard is a private school. Not the same situation, IMO. 

9 minutes ago, TheDeuce said:

Nobody commits to a loan thinking that after four years of payments they’ll owe more than they borrowed…

Why not?  I took out my first car loan…did all the math and was terrified that I couldn’t pay it off.  Yet, I did…Ignorance is no excuse.

 

 

43 minutes ago, Beechwoodfan said:

$1200 and I made $4.85 an hour at my first job, and we bought our first house with an %18 interest rate.   It’s all relative.  Don’t commit to a loan you cannot pay.  Quite frankly, I think a 4 year degree isn’t worth the money, unless you have a specific career goal in mind. Ever try to find a reliable carpenter lately?

“According to the National Center for Education Statistics, for the 1970-71 academic year, the average in-state tuition and fees for one year at a public non-profit university was $394. By the 2020-21 academic year, that amount jumped to $10,560, an increase of 2,580%.

During the same period, tuition and fees at private institutions jumped by a similarly astronomical 2,107%, from $1,706 in 1970, to $37,650 in 2020. Between 1970 and 2020, the dollar had an average inflation rate of 3.87% annually, resulting in a cumulative price increase of about 567% during the last 50 years.

The trouble is, the rise in income—particularly minimum wage—hasn’t even come close to keeping pace with the increase in college tuition.

Between 1970 and 2020, the federal minimum wage rose from $1.60 per hour to $7.25 per hour, representing a more modest increase of 353%.

To afford tuition in 2020, public university students must work 6x as many hours as students in 1970”

https://www.intelligent.com/1970-v-2020-how-working-through-college-has-changed/

2 minutes ago, Beechwoodfan said:

Why not?  I took out my first car loan…did all the math and was terrified that I couldn’t pay it off.  Yet, I did.

There is no situation where you should owe MORE after four years of payments than you did when you first borrowed. 

15 minutes ago, TheDeuce said:

“According to the National Center for Education Statistics, for the 1970-71 academic year, the average in-state tuition and fees for one year at a public non-profit university was $394. By the 2020-21 academic year, that amount jumped to $10,560, an increase of 2,580%.

During the same period, tuition and fees at private institutions jumped by a similarly astronomical 2,107%, from $1,706 in 1970, to $37,650 in 2020. Between 1970 and 2020, the dollar had an average inflation rate of 3.87% annually, resulting in a cumulative price increase of about 567% during the last 50 years.

The trouble is, the rise in income—particularly minimum wage—hasn’t even come close to keeping pace with the increase in college tuition.

Between 1970 and 2020, the federal minimum wage rose from $1.60 per hour to $7.25 per hour, representing a more modest increase of 353%.

To afford tuition in 2020, public university students must work 6x as many hours as students in 1970”

https://www.intelligent.com/1970-v-2020-how-working-through-college-has-changed/

Are you saying Beechwoodfan went to college in 1970? ?

5 minutes ago, TheDeuce said:

There is no situation where you should owe MORE after four years of payments than you did when you first borrowed. 

We’re the students defrauded in some way? We’re they lied to? Was nothing clear? Anyone who tales a loan out knows you are going to spend much more than you borrowed.

As I said before, I am all for zero interest rates to help people pay, and believe future loans should be examined.  As someone who worked her way through college and worked hard to pay her children's way to college, I feel insulted and disrespected.  I listen every day at work to people whine about getting their loans paid off.

i have paid off every debt I ever owed my entire life.  Seems like the right thing to do.

2 minutes ago, theguru said:

Are you saying Beechwoodfan went to college in 1970? ?

I was still watching the Cool Ghoul then!