re: What/who convinced so many young Americans that capitalism is to blame for student debt?

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A free country, such as the U.S., should educate its masses without burdening with debt - especially those who CAN benefit from college.

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We have different definitions of “free”. No one is banned from seeking an education. But that freedom doesn’t equate to being free-of-cost.

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The huge amount of debt put on productive citizens in our country is massively unnecessary.

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Its also entirely optional.

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It’s dumb to make education (for a better country, better electorate, and better overall citizen) so damn expensive.

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Why should something valuable be cheap?

Student debt is very simple to deal with, but in doing so it requires a ton of self honesty and the realization that you have to make the decision of a comfortable lifestyle or a career you absolutely love. Never take out more in student debt than your expected starting salary. You want to be a teacher, limit yourself to 30-40k, business 50-60, biology 25-30k, engineering 50-60k, and so on. If you desire a higher degree make sure that the cost is worth the payout.

If you are having to finance your degrees via debt or a mixture of debt and scholarships, the very first question needs to be how much does this career field pay and thus how much debt can I deal with when I graduate. If you take out more in loans than you can make on average per year, your first few years will be a struggle until those 2 values equalize.

Nothing bothers me more than seeing a young lass from say SMU get a 200k early childhood Ed degree (and fail to get her MRS) and then be saddled with 3-4K a month loan payments making 42k a year to start. That is an impossible situation. But who’s fault is it? If you spent any time looking at what your degree gets paid, how can you justify the expense?

Many students are still stuck on the unique snowflake idea that they can be anything that they want and never really understand that that comes at a cost. If you are truly exceptional in an area that has lower pay, your cost will be defrayed via scholarships , but if you aren’t and you continue down that path you and only you made the choice of your debt.

Good Lord . . .

Something that valuable SHOULD be cheap. Education is free up to 12th grade and for many with special needs, higher. It should not stop there.

Stop trying to bring ideology into a discussion that should not involve it. Teaching your citizens to be better, more informed, and more skillful is an investment in one’s country. This is not about free market, this is about our livelihood as a nation. Go read more on this dude.

I see what your saying with regards to the actual amount of education required vs. what you needed in the past for CPA License. Still I worked 3 jobs and put myself through LSU. Went back to school and did two years of night school at UNO. Still have less than 10k in student loans. I also looked into getting an MBA and that was 30K. Realistically, the avg salary for an MBA goes up 10k so to me it wasnt worth that amount of debt. But CPA salary goes up way more for the 7k debt I took out to get the hours. Have to way the options in my opinion.

I want to get bailed out like Wall Street and corporate America.

Absolutely!! I knew I needed to further my education but definitely looked at the cost vs benefit. I also believe most people do not look at that at all. How many people have gone back to get MBA's and received a minimum pay raise. We were told that we needed the MBA( I also realize that for some people especially in Oil & Gas that also have Engineering degrees that this is needed and they get a big pay raise. I understand that this is not true for everyone)! For me though, the MBA would have been a waste. I also don't understand why kids go IVY for English degrees. They will never be able to pay their loans back.

The reason for high levels of debt is the idea that everyone has a right to go to college, fostered by Govt grants and Govt backed student loans.

If you had true capitalism, student loans would be done only by private banks who perform a risk assessment based on your career choice and likelihood you will be able to repay them.

Colleges jack up costs of school because they know students can get large loans very easily so they take advantage of it. Do away with these loans, and colleges would have incentive to keep costs down so more people could afford college. Also it would eliminate all those stupid major like gender studies

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Something that valuable SHOULD be cheap.

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Tell that to University administration officials over the past 3 decades who have:

1. Invested in massive facility upgrades, despite their "brick and mortar" model of higher education dying a slow death on the internet, and

2. Colluded to increase costs, ensuring the maximum extraction from "marks" (i.e. non-matriculating students or those who are pursuing non-revenue degrees or otherwise in programs where the education is neither required nor even efficient from a vocational standpoint - I'm talking here about degrees outside of STEM, medicine, law, education, and a handful of others), most of whom will never recoup the financial costs of such an education.

I'm not against higher education. I'm against financial irresponsibility - irresponsibility for which others will have to pick up the tab, particularly.


Now, it starts in secondary school, as well, where they want to push every single kid into a college prep program. At least half would be better served with life skills courses and trades, particularly above 10th grade.

Instead, we tell every kid, even those barely scraping by in a non-competitive High School curriculum with a 95 IQ that he/she/howeveridentifesorpronouns should go to college.

bullshite. Loving and caring for these kids ought to include being honest with them. "College isn't for everyone and I don't think it is for you." Now, when you bring that honesty at that level, you have to provide options.

Trades and life skills are valuable to everyone.

Just sayin'...

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In effect, they aren’t advocating for reducing the cost of education—they are advocating for not having to pay for it.

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They are advocating for reducing THEIR cost of education.

That's all they know. They aren't smart enough or experienced enough to see the big picture.

We - the sage older adults - all know what the problems are, yet, we - the sage older adults - aren't taking any steps to fix it. We just say "sucks to be them" and move on with our lives.

It's our generation - not theirs - that keeps jacking up the costs of college. It's our generation - not theirs - that keeps making it easier and easier to get into student loan debt.

Older generations used to take responsibility for - and look after - the younger generations. We have said F them... they are on their own, while making decisions that continually screw them.

And we wonder why they are acting like this?