Student Loan Fairness Act (HR 1330)

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SheHateMe

Diamond Member
Jul 21, 2012
7,251
20
81
I have no problem paying back my student loans. I am in far less debt than one of my roommates who is a veterinary pathologist and has over 150K in debt. She works with the NSA and is having her PHD paid for. I don't know what this means for her student loans...maybe they will be dismissed since she works with the Government. Who knows.

Anyway, clocking in at about 24K by the time I graduate (December), it won't be hard to manage once I get a job and begin working...however, I'd be a fool to turn down an offer to have the government work with me as I pay back my loans. I think many of you turn up your nose to people with student loans because some of you characterize borrowers as people who will never pay it back or people who went to school for art and won't be able to pay it back.

That is not always the case....


Also, why must every discussion devolve into a "Liberal" vs "Republican
issue? Come on, guys.
 

Midwayman

Diamond Member
Jan 28, 2000
5,723
325
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Want to see the cost of schooling come way down real quick? Make student loans just like any other debt in concern to bankruptcy laws and let the market handle it. The .gov can still guarantee ultra low interest rates or something but we need a system that doesn't allow an 18 year old kid to almost effortlessly borrow hundreds of thousands of dollars to obtain a degree that will very likely get him a $30k/year job.

You know the reason why they got that way? Doctors and lawyers figured they could game the system by going to incredibly expensive schools and just declare bankruptcy afterwards. By the time it mattered it was already off their record.

Cheap money leads to expensive loans. Ignorant teens not knowing what it means to sign up for huge loans is part of the problem. They need a lot more education prior to funding those loans.

It doesn't help that a college degree seems to be the new high school degree and tons of people who would be better served by tech or vocation schools are pushed into expensive 4 year schools.
 

Wreckem

Diamond Member
Sep 23, 2006
9,458
987
126
Yeah...following the link on the OP's link...



Fuck that. Let's just do away with the programs.
Want to get a college education? Get a fucking job and pay for it.

Or our education system could be like most of the rest of the modern world where education is either cost free or very low cost.
 

Greenman

Lifer
Oct 15, 1999
20,284
5,057
136
Or our education system could be like most of the rest of the modern world where education is either cost free or very low cost.

If education is free in "most of the rest of the modern world", why are there so many foreign students here?
 

SheHateMe

Diamond Member
Jul 21, 2012
7,251
20
81
If education is free in "most of the rest of the modern world", why are there so many foreign students here?

The prestige of getting a degree from an American University. That's what I was told by an International student from China who lived across the hall from me. She came to the US to study business and to improve her English, after she graduated she went back to China and got a good job.

It makes you stand out.
 

nageov3t

Lifer
Feb 18, 2004
42,816
83
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Or our education system could be like most of the rest of the modern world where education is either cost free or very low cost.

I'd support reigning in the costs of runaway college tuition long before I'd support wiping out student loan debt.
 

Zargon

Lifer
Nov 3, 2009
12,240
2
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Is the ever increasing financial barrier to entry for graduate school a good thing?

graduate, get a job, save


also, if you cant secure a stipend that covers tuition you just arent that good at what you are doing :ninja:(yeah I know, that doesnt actually hold true outside of research-y areas, Im just teasing )




(I paid for my wifes masters in cash)
 

davmat787

Diamond Member
Nov 30, 2010
5,513
24
76
This legislation would establish a new “10-10” standard for student loan repayment as the new standard repayment plan. In the “10-10” plan, an individual would be required to make ten years of payments at 10% of their discretionary income, after which, their remaining federal student loan debt would be forgiven.

Note this bill states repayment at 10% of the borrowers DISCRETIONARY income, not even total income. Unless I am way off, a recent grads discretionary income might be only a third or so of total income, so their repayment liability would then be only 10% of that third!

This also provides no incentive for a recent grad to live frugally and maximize their discretionary income level.

Is their even a formula for determining discretionary income, or do they simply trust the borrower to say they have X amount left over each month after expenses?
 

TheVrolok

Lifer
Dec 11, 2000
24,254
4,076
136
graduate, get a job, save

also, if you cant secure a stipend that covers tuition you just arent that good at what you are doing :ninja:(yeah I know, that doesnt actually hold true outside of research-y areas, Im just teasing )

(I paid for my wifes masters in cash)

What about something like medical school? Get a job and save 150-250k+? Become a physician at 40, 50, 60?
 

werepossum

Elite Member
Jul 10, 2006
29,873
463
126
I have no problem paying back my student loans. I am in far less debt than one of my roommates who is a veterinary pathologist and has over 150K in debt. She works with the NSA and is having her PHD paid for. I don't know what this means for her student loans...maybe they will be dismissed since she works with the Government. Who knows.

Anyway, clocking in at about 24K by the time I graduate (December), it won't be hard to manage once I get a job and begin working...however, I'd be a fool to turn down an offer to have the government work with me as I pay back my loans. I think many of you turn up your nose to people with student loans because some of you characterize borrowers as people who will never pay it back or people who went to school for art and won't be able to pay it back.

That is not always the case....


Also, why must every discussion devolve into a "Liberal" vs "Republican
issue? Come on, guys.
This is in my opinion how good government should work - government fronts you some money, you get a good (or at least better than you could afford on your own) education, you are therefore a more valuable member of society, you pay back your loans, government fronts that money to the next Joe or Joan. Thus I never turn up my nose at someone who has student loans, only at those who want someone else to pay back their student loans. One caveat though - one is never a fool to repay what one owes, regardless of whether one has the opportunity to avoid it.
 

Charles Kozierok

Elite Member
May 14, 2012
6,762
1
0
Problem: Too many students going to college to get degrees that don't allow them to find jobs that are in demand and pay well, leaving them with loans that they can't pay back.

Solution: Pass new law to remove the disincentive of taking out student loans to get useless college degrees, so even more people will get them, with taxpayers picking up the tab.

No thanks.

This could be retitled the American College Professors' and Administrators' Job Security Act.
 

werepossum

Elite Member
Jul 10, 2006
29,873
463
126
graduate, get a job, save


also, if you cant secure a stipend that covers tuition you just arent that good at what you are doing :ninja:(yeah I know, that doesnt actually hold true outside of research-y areas, Im just teasing )




(I paid for my wifes masters in cash)
Paying in cash is a wise thing to do if one can afford it, no doubt. I think though that a case can be made that society is better off to allow people the opportunity to attend school earlier, assuming that their education is of value to society. A doctor who takes twenty years to get through medical school rather than four, to avoid debt, is sixteen years society went without that doctor. (Admittedly funding the 86,423nd unemployed Doctor of Seventeenth Century French Poetry is of much less clear value.)

Of course, this holds true only if those taking out the loans pay them back.
 

werepossum

Elite Member
Jul 10, 2006
29,873
463
126
Problem: Too many students going to college to get degrees that don't allow them to find jobs that are in demand and pay well, leaving them with loans that they can't pay back.

Solution: Pass new law to remove the disincentive of taking out student loans to get useless college degrees, so even more people will get them, with taxpayers picking up the tab.

No thanks.

This could be retitled the American College Professors' and Administrators' Job Security Act.
:D No way. It's a rule in Congress that a bill cannot be named for what it actually does.
 

sze5003

Lifer
Aug 18, 2012
14,177
622
126
I have about 60k or more in student loan debt I'm paying off. Would of been nice if my parents had not gotten a 40k parent plus loan for the first two years I lived on campus and then decide they weren't going to make payments on it or ask me to pay it until later.

But while I'm paying a lot each month in these loans, I at least got a job where my salary will grow and can still live. Not as nicely as my coworkers where they had their education payed for but it will suffice. I'm not signing this. I look at myself struggle sometimes and no one helps me out while everyone else I know gets all these bail outs. Where were they when I was going to school ?
 

SheHateMe

Diamond Member
Jul 21, 2012
7,251
20
81
One caveat though - one is never a fool to repay what one owes, regardless of whether one has the opportunity to avoid it.

I don't have a problem paying back my loans, but being able to get assistance or deferment if I can't make $400 payments every month would be a huge help.

When I get a really good foundation in the ground and when I start making Anandtech money, I don't mind paying off all my loans and buying an M3.
 

sze5003

Lifer
Aug 18, 2012
14,177
622
126
I don't have a problem paying back my loans, but being able to get assistance or deferment if I can't make $400 payments every month would be a huge help.

When I get a really good foundation in the ground and when I start making Anandtech money, I don't mind paying off all my loans and buying an M3.

I would love to make $400 payments total instead of nearly $800. I'll even pay it just as promptly.
 

AyashiKaibutsu

Diamond Member
Jan 24, 2004
9,306
3
81
Instead of looking at the right wing circle jerk fantasy of every jobless college student being a major in ancient sumerian pottery, lets try to look at the reality of how many students got screwed by needing one more semester without aid or demographic changes shifting the job landscape mid-degree all while being shouted at from every direction not to worry about it since it'd all be worth it. That's where the fairness comes in. Fairness isn't always about all the dollar signs lining up.
 

DucatiMonster696

Diamond Member
Aug 13, 2009
4,269
1
71
LOL

Everyone should realize that most legislations titles found in proposed government bills almost always end up doing the exact opposite of what it claims to want to prevent or accomplish.
 

werepossum

Elite Member
Jul 10, 2006
29,873
463
126
I don't have a problem paying back my loans, but being able to get assistance or deferment if I can't make $400 payments every month would be a huge help.

When I get a really good foundation in the ground and when I start making Anandtech money, I don't mind paying off all my loans and buying an M3.
I'd support some flexibility in repayment, as long as the plan gets it paid back in a reasonable time. Needs to be based on total income though; this discretionary income thing is bullshit. I'll buy a house and a car, then you can have 10% of whatever is left after my expenses.

I would love to make $400 payments total instead of nearly $800. I'll even pay it just as promptly.
Holy cow! When I bought my house, my house payments were under $600!
 

Charles Kozierok

Elite Member
May 14, 2012
6,762
1
0
Want to see the cost of schooling come way down real quick? Make student loans just like any other debt in concern to bankruptcy laws and let the market handle it.

Nice idea, but you have to think about the secondary effects. Do you know how the market would "handle" that idea? By cutting the availability of student loans by, oh, maybe 90%.

Do you think insurance companies are going to lend $100,000+ to 18-year-olds with no assets, no income, no guarantee of future employment and no collateral, when all they have to do is declare bankruptcy -- at a time when they have nothing anyway -- and then just walk away from it?

You could call your proposal the Student Loan Elimination Act.