re: Almost 20,000 students ask to have student debts erased

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going back and forgiving loans isn't going to fix it I could be wrong but I haven't seen a single person in this thread say they think these kids should have have their loans forgiven.

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I think he was probably talking about the 20,000 or so students who are asking for exactly that.

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No idea

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You sound like a good dad, making your son own his decisions. That's probably why even though your son made a poor decision, he's taking responsibility for it now.

That sucks. Better cut back on the beer.

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t-duckie goes on more vacations than i do

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I nearly went to the navy out of HS but my step mom, who eventually threw me to the curb, threw a huge fit about going to college. If I could go back I'd have went to the navy, obtained the GI bill, then went to college, probably LSU. But then I wouldn't have met my fiancé.

Either way, I had some bad parental guidance considering they pushed me in the direction of college and loans and then kicked me to the curb when it felt too late to try to start over.

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Education department didn't deceive any students on job prospects, they just gave out loans. Way wawy different

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Disagree here, listen to people in HS and college. They all say you need a college degree in order to find a decent job. That inflated the number of people going to get a pointless degree just to say they have one.

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You act as if this hasn't already happened to you as a taxpayer in other circumstances.

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And I get pissed off every time it happens

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I'm back in school right now for a Master's in Leadership

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You're taking out more? Will that pay off in terms of increased salary?

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I graduated from college, in a recession, with zero debt. My parents paid for college with the expectation that afterwards, they could cut me loose and I would sink or swim. I chose to swim. It isn't because I'm better than anyone nowadays, it's because we were raised much differently. That's also the reason so many Xers are so critical of today's 18yo's. They speak a totally different language when it comes to what they expect from the world and how they should be treated.

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Confirmation bias.

There are a ton of external factors that separate your situation from someone going to school today. Let's assume you graduated college in 2002 (recession for X'ers). Tuition and fees at a 4-year public university was $9,200 your senior year. The annualized increase of tuition and fees in the previous decade was ~4.5%, so if you apply that as a discount to your senior year tuition and fees, your 4-year total comes out to $34,485 from Fall 1998 - Spring 2002. Your parents were smart folks and invested $250 in the Vanguard Wellington Fund every quarter, but they kept the dividends themselves because we all know boomers are greedy shitheads. They annualized 6.85% from Jan 1980 to Jan 1998 and would have amassed roughly $35,000 - more than enough to cover your tuition and fees and get you set up to "sink or swim."

Flash forward to a fresh college graduate, John Doe. Average 4-year public tuition was $17,474 in 2012-2013. Tack on 4% annual increases to that and total cost of tuition and fees would be $74,200. Ouch. Now mom and dad still saved just like your parents, keeping the dividends themselves, and that $250/quarter in 1980 would be the equivalent to $450/qtr in 1994 due to inflation, so that is what Johnny's parents put away. Unfortunately, there have been 2 recessions during that time and the Vanguard Wellington fund, while respectable, has only returned ~2.45% annualized in the 18 years they saved for Johnny. His college fund is only worth ~$40,500 barely enough to get him through two years of college.

Now, let's go back to this:

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It isn't because I'm better than anyone nowadays, it's because we were raised much differently. That's also the reason so many Xers are so critical of today's 18yo's. They speak a totally different language when it comes to what they expect from the world and how they should be treated.

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Were you raised differently or were you just lucky? You see, when you consider many millennials are being served a shite sandwich compared to the golden era of wealth growth that you X'ers enjoyed, perhaps our "bitching" is justified. Whether people want to face the facts or not, the bottom line is that there are a ton of external factors that have coalesced to royally screw recent college graduates and their parents and it has NOTHING to do with the way millennials were raised or their sense of entitlement.