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    Myrna MinkoffHamilton Nolan
    2/18/15 11:17am

    Most borrowers actually have less than $27,000 in debt.

    Sorry. If a recent-ish grad has this much debt and they're still bitching about how they need total debt forgiveness just to be able to eat, they can kiss my fat ass. You took on the debt, you're responsible for it. Shut up and get to work.

    And if you're one of the people with $100k in loans you're either a lawyer, doctor, engineer or idiot. Again, no sympathy.

    For all the people about to bitch me out: Yes, I took on student loans — I paid my own way through college entirely. I paid off my debt well ahead of schedule because I didn't act like an irresponsible asshole. I lived within my very meager means.

    I will be deleting the vast majority of replies most likely, so if you're just going to call me a hateful troll, you can save yourself the typing time and get back to your barista job, Mr/Ms MFA in photography.

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      FergyFrogMyrna Minkoff
      2/18/15 12:05pm

      At least someone is keeping it real around here. Oh no, you have 100k in debt? What'd you study? Theatre arts at NYU, you say? That sure sounds like a shitty situation! Maybe if you wanted to study theatre arts you could have gone to SUNY Purchase for a quarter of that price.

      I had my student loan debts but 1: I went into a field where I could pay back my debts. 2: I didn't goto a prestigious private school just for the name on the paper.

      I have no sympathy for these delusional people. You made your grave, lay in it.

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      Yuppie ScumMyrna Minkoff
      2/18/15 12:18pm

      "...engineer or idiot"

      Some of us are both. Don't pigeonhole me!

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    kamla deviHamilton Nolan
    2/18/15 9:55am

    It is highly disturbing that "1.8 million people" is considered "a small proportion of all borrowers."

    I know three people who have/had six figure student loan debt. Most of them plan on working until death with no retirement.

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      thebunkkamla devi
      2/18/15 10:01am

      What degrees did they get for their six figures in debt? Is it something at least remotely likely to pay off the investment?

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      toothpetardkamla devi
      2/18/15 10:05am

      AND THEY SHOULD BE GLAD FOR THE OPPORTUNITY FREEDOM TO DO SO!

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    NewYorkCynicHamilton Nolan
    2/18/15 9:59am

    Recently my school sent some of our students on a class trip/college tour of NYU. Our tour guide was a theater major. Tuition at NYU is 44K/yr (not including living expenses). All I could think the entire time was, "I hope you have rich parents, because you're never paying that shit off," and, "What kind of asshole spends nearly 200K on a theater degree?"

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      Dan SeitzNewYorkCynic
      2/18/15 10:27am

      I actually have a theater degree, and the program was built, impressively, to ensure you got a job in theater. Wanted to act? Great, but you also learned to handle lights, do basic costume work, stage manage, the whole boat. Whenever somebody complained, the teachers all pointed out "If you show up to a theater company and are able to do other jobs, they WILL hire you."

      Granted, I never worked in theater beyond a few small jobs after college because the culture is almost absurdly toxic at this point, largely thanks to the idea that work/life balance isn't for true artistes. But it was a smart program design.

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      NewYorkCynicDan Seitz
      2/18/15 10:33am

      But do you think that degree would have been worth 200k for the average person you graduated with, or that they could have paid that back in a reasonable manner?

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    SuffersfoolsgladlyHamilton Nolan
    2/18/15 10:13am

    I feel terrible for everyone who has to live with this kind of debt and pressure hanging over them.

    I just did a U.S. Census interview for my elderly mother and the interviewer, who was probably in her late fifties, is STILL trying to pay off her student loans!

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      WhatthefoxsaysSuffersfoolsgladly
      2/18/15 10:40am

      I was close to 6 figures in debt when I started working. Even though I had a decent paying job, I roomed with 4 other people, ate spaghetti or pb&j for dinner 3 or 4 nights a week, didn't take vacations, didn't have a car, only bought clothes on sale, and ironed my own shirts. Meanwhile, lots of my former classmates lived on their own, bought cars, sent out their laundry, ordered take out every meal, went on a vacation every year, and constantly complained about money.

      I paid off my loans in 7 years. I have no sympathy for people who have a job that pays $50K a year and complain about loans, which I suspect are a large portion of the debt holders.

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      virtual_britSuffersfoolsgladly
      2/18/15 10:44am

      I literally lived in fear the day I graduated. I didn't get a job in my field (marketing / commercial art and advertising) due to the stupid Art Institute - YEAH WE GOT SUCKERED INTO IT. We thought it was a REAL school and back then the internet wasn't used that much for reviewing things. So I got a job working for a large-ish law firm as a receptionist (occasionally working on marketing things) and have been trying to move up the ladder in different departments only to be declined every time.

      Get a new job you say? Make more money? Go back to school?

      All of that is impossible when you live pay check to pay check making about 2100k a month paying other bills and trying to survive.

      50k later (built up interest and nonpayment fees) and 5 years later... I am down to 21k debt... and that's because my dad passed away from cancer and I was able to use some of the insurance money to pay it off. Otherwise, making any payments (Navient's lowest payment they will take with all my loans is $581 dollars a month) was literally impossible.

      Also my credit is DESTROYED - so if I did want to get another job... they most likely will do a credit check and not hire me anyway.

      It's miserable.
      I am sure someone out there will be like "well don't treat yourself to dinner ONCE A MONTH" or "Don't pay for internet... find a hotspot" "There are ways to save money and pay your loans!" - Don't even come at me. I deserve dinner once a month in a decent restaurant and WiFi!

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    EricHamilton Nolan
    2/18/15 10:17am

    This is bad and rising tuition fees/housing costs are leading to this but I doubt most people do the necessary research before entering college:

    People should know exactly what types of jobs their degree will lead to, the odds of getting a job related to their degree, how much a potential job will pay and how long it will take to pay off any potential student loans.

    If you are surprised at any of these things at the end of four years of college, you did it wrong.

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      cepalgEric
      2/18/15 12:48pm

      You are asking teenagers to predict what the job market will look like four years in the future if they don't want to have crippling debt.

      If a single human being could consistently predict what the job market will look like four years in advance, as an adult, that human being would be the wealthiest motherfucker the stock market had ever seen. Being able to predict the job market a month out once or twice a year is enough to make you a god among analysts.

      And you are demanding highschoolers predict what the job market will look like four years in the future or else resign themselves to debt slavery.

      Speaking as a graduate of the class of 2009, who tragically missed the signs for "the economy will self destruct midway through your junior year" and suffered for it, I have my doubts my descendants are going to do a hell of a lot better than me.

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      Ericcepalg
      2/18/15 1:20pm

      Congrats on your degree in Communications though or maybe Art History... Psychology...

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    nopunin10didHamilton Nolan
    2/18/15 11:34am

    There's an alternative to making federally-backed student loans bankruptcy-eligible that we need to consider. We need to set higher standards for which schools are eligible for them, and those standards need to include figures like default rates and average debt per student after leaving the school.

    There are a number of colleges across the country (particularly the for-profit variety, though they're not the only culprits) that charge far more in tuition than they have any right to. Their students either graduate or drop out with far more debt than what they can handle income-wise.

    A tiny private school that specializes in a liberal arts education, for instance, shouldn't be charging the same as an Ivy League school. The liberal arts can be a very personally valuable field, and no one should feel discouraged from entering it, but the chances that the pay will match Ivy-level debt are really low for the vast majority of students.

    The students are being fleeced. They end up with too much debt, and if they do end up defaulting, it's taxpayers that pick up the bill. If we start limiting student loans to schools based on the rate at which they generate unsustainable financial burdens, it will create incentives for colleges to lower prices, and we could also see lower interest rates in the student loans that remain.

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      phunkshunnopunin10did
      2/18/15 1:51pm

      I agree. Fully.

      There's only one thing I'd point out though...Those small liberal arts colleges (and New England is speckled with them) are usually for the progeny of wealth to matriculate at before they go 'into the office' each day to putz around before inheriting something or other.

      I know thats cutting those institutions a bit short, but at those prices, they're just not worth it for much else.

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      nopunin10didphunkshun
      2/18/15 1:55pm

      The problem is that those schools charge like they're catering to heirs and heiresses, but not every student that goes there ends up fitting that profile.

      If you wanna ransack the pockets of the rich, and they're willing to pay for it, whatever. They're not going to default on their student loans, if they have any. But for a school to claim an elite nature while robbing the middle class students is unethical.

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    notaquarterbackHamilton Nolan
    2/18/15 10:14am

    [insert Boomer or Gen Xer posting here about all these fucking whiny millennials getting Women's Studies degrees who should've majored in Engineering because you know it's just that easy.]

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      e.nonHamilton Nolan
      2/18/15 9:50am

      debt slaves... the plan is working perfectly.

      welcome to america.

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        dontcallmemimiHamilton Nolan
        2/18/15 10:15am

        Disappointing to see people encouraging loans to those choosing STEM fields or medical school and not those choosing philosophy or theater because that's what we want: a homogenous society focused on producing capital and goods, not thought or art or beauty.

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          PeteRRdontcallmemimi
          2/18/15 10:23am

          Cost/benefit. $100k debt for a $30k job, if you can find one in your field.

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          thebunkdontcallmemimi
          2/18/15 10:27am

          It's a real shame how science and engineering don't require thought.

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        DeathocracyHamilton Nolan
        2/18/15 11:16am

        Two quick notes from me: 1. I love task rabbit. It is a good way to SUPPLEMENT income, though terrible to rely on as a primary source of income. People who do use it as their primary should look into just making their own small business and useing taskrabbit to help meet new clients.

        2. What is necessary is a rigorous personal finance education in high school. This is something that used to be done when kids really had to learn how to balance a checkbook. The game has gotten much more complicated since then, but there are still easily understood fundamentals that can be taught to any caliber of student. (this is not to say, that creditors dont share in the blame for offering staggering debt to people who dont know how to manage it)

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          Biggus Dickus (RevsBro)Deathocracy
          2/18/15 1:56pm

          Number 2 cannot be stressed enough.

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          WaidonutDeathocracy
          2/18/15 3:33pm

          2 is soooo necessary but it's barely done. I'm lucky I didn't land with student debt but my high school offered fuck all in terms of personal finance education. I pay someone to do my taxes because fuck if I know how any of it works. I've been working for a few years but hell if I know how retirement works, how to invest my money, how to make proper savings. What's a pension plan? (Who knows, most companies in my industry don't offer it anyway).

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