Monday, December 3, 2012

Trillion-Dollar Student Loan Industry to be Bailed Out by Taxpayers

The latest sector to benefit from a taxpayer-subsidized bailout is the taxpayer-subsidized student loan industry. - Political Outcast

Currently, student loan debt is larger than credit card debt. Collectively, students have racked up nearly $1 trillion in loan debt. And it’s all thanks to government taking over the student loan industry which prompting schools and universities to increase their tuition fees and diminish their own aid programs. Students were fed the promise that a college degree would yield them an additional $1 million in income over their lifetime compared to their high school graduate counterparts, so paying off their loans wouldn’t be all that hard, right? But recent studies show that the number has plummeted to $300,000 in additional income, and the average college graduate enters the workforce with $30,000 of debt. Nowadays, most college graduates don’t have much better jobs than those without college degrees, and the one thing they’re guaranteed to have is a giant loan that they will spend the rest of their life trying to pay off.

Is it really worth it anymore to get a college education when it’s become little more than a racket for the loan industry, the university system and the government that just wants to create another entitlement with which to buy votes?

...This bailout hasn’t happened yet, but it’s being proposed as part of the fiscal cliff negotiations, and I’d be surprised if it didn’t pass. The Student Loan Forgiveness Act provides debt forgiveness to all student loan recipients who have paid 10% of their discretionary incomes toward their loans for 10 years. If the recipients go into teaching, “public service” or medicine in underserved areas, their debts will be forgiven after only 5 years of such payments.

If this becomes the new norm, what incentive will there be for future students to pay off their loans at all? The next step will “free” college education for all.