Student loans are a cancer. Once diagnosed, they have the ability to consume your entire life. Sure, there is a “cure”, however it comes with a long list of unavoidable sacrifices and if not acted upon, it’ll be crippling. It will spread to every part of your being, taking your freedoms and abilities away only making it more impossible to make ends meet. Although Cancer is not fair, nor forgiving, there are differences between it and student loans, cancer kills, student loans leave you suffering. But after comparing the two, you need to ask yourself, has anybody ever made a sacrifice without the thought of profit lingering in the back of their mind? Whether it is money, experience, a title, or even freedom, the answer is probably “no”. It is always in the best interest of themselves. After hearing this, while in contrary being brainwashed to believe that the government is helping Americans, makes me sick. Matt Taibbi, an American author and reporter, shares mutual feeling. In his article “Ripping Off Young America: The College-Loan Scandal” he expresses his hatred and disgust with modern America and how it “Sucks the blood out of its young” (Taibbi 3). He finds that Colleges and Universities take advantage of the low- and middle- income students. They have a tendency to depend on federally backed loans, funding a “massive and ongoing government subsidy” (Taibbi 3). The unfortunate truth is that at the head of it all is Obama. Having revamped the student-loan industry, the government began to lend money directly to the students. This “prevented” the middle man from taking a cut. However, instead of actually getting rid of the middle man, the government just began to take over their endeavours. The President 's plan was inevitably ... ... middle of paper ... ... long served as a vital pathway for students from modest means and those who are the first in their families to attend college.” (Wang 1) Without aiding the needy, public colleges no longer serve their purpose and should not receive the funding they do. It 's not fair to the people who actually want to better their future, not be a star on a division three football team. The Federal Government claims they are “helping” the youth of America by funding our college expenses, but in reality they are dropping napalm strikes on us that will spread until they eventually engulf our entire generation like a Vietnam shanty town, striping our opportunities and freedoms by putting each and every one of us neck deep in vast amounts of student loan debts. How can our leaders be so ignorant to the sustainability of our nation 's future generations, all for a little money.
Bruni begins by describing the golden promise of college as it appeared for baby boomers. In that time getting into college and completing a degree was enough to be successful. He acknowledges that this idealized vision of college may be inaccurate, however, he asserts that the issue is far more “complicated” than it once was. Bruni makes use of a recent (2012) debate over student loan interest rates in the U.S. to explore the issues surrounding college education today. While rising student debt is certainly part of the problem he suggests that the issue extends beyond that. College is now a “luxury item with newly uncertain returns” (Bruni). While rising costs make college a luxury item that not everyone will be able to afford, even those who can and do manage to go to college are not guaranteed success.
Lee Siegel's “Why I Defaulted on My Student Loans” challenges the current state of the American system of higher education by targeting and discussing its economic impact. He begins by recounting his own story of how he was forced to take out a loan for his education at the age of seventeen. Immediately, his misgivings with the system become obvious as he states that he essentially gave his life away in order to go to college. His background is interconnected with his views on the subject given his statement that he was unable to afford college after his parents divorced and later, his mother entered bankruptcy. As he continues on to discuss how the current system causes students to be forced away from their vocation, he explains how he chose
In the argument, Debate on Student Loan Debt Doesn’t Go Far Enough, author Robert Applebaum, graduate of Fodham University School of Law, asserts that excessive student loan debt should be forgiven after a reasonable repayment period and suggests this would stimulate the economy because former students would have more money to spend(Debate). He backs up this claim by introducing the Student Loan Forgiveness Act of 2012, contending that education should be a right that people of all classes can benefit from, and addressing both the individual and the economic drawbacks of student debt in the middle and working classes(Debate). Applebaum
Many Americans are seeking an ideal presidential candidate for our next election; furthermore, many college students seek a candidate that has their best interest in mind, leading many to focus on Bernie Sanders and his ideas for an affordable education system. In the article, The Myth of the Student Loan Crisis, Nicole Allan and Derek Thomas focus the article on the risky investments of college and questioning the rising debt levels as a national crisis. While Allan and Davis claim the risk of college and mention rising debt levels as a national crisis; however, Allan and Davis use charts to support their stance while avoiding the issues Americans need to focus on, such as the rising cost of college, “justifiable debt”, and the cost of those not contributing to society.
Many people would agree that our country’s young adults have and continue to incur a lifetime of debt by enrolling in college. It’s become an almost acceptable understanding that if you plan to attend college, you might as well expect to graduate with an enormous amount of debt. Robin Wilson, a reporter for the “Chronicle of Higher Education,” and author of “A Lifetime of Student Debt? Not Likely” suggests student loans are very real and can be life altering.
There is no doubt that college is expensive, price tags for some universities go over a quarter of a million for just a bachelors degree! (That’s if you graduate in four too). The extravagant price for college is no doubt crazy. Trying to better yourself and your future shouldn’t cost $250,000 plus. If public universities were to be free a plethora of problems could be solved instantly. According to Forbes the National student loan debt has surpassed 1.2 trillion dollars (Denhart )! This number is growing exponentially as more students enroll in to college. Why question then whether college should be free? Well, this number is the total amount of student loan debt from all students that have exited college. Some of these students are freshly graduated while some are aged with the wisdom trying to pay their loans back. If public universities were to be free and funded by our federal government, our government would pay this amount within ten years. Relatively a short amount of time considering that the student loan debt is an accumulation debt from students that have graduated more than ten year ago, also this also greatly increase with the following years as well.
Clingman, J. (2014, May 05). Time to bail students out of $1 trillion debt. University
Today in America, “The average Class of 2016 graduate has $37,172 in student loan debt, up six percent from last year. $1.28 trillion in total U.S. student loan debt...44.2 million Americans with student loan debt”(U.S. Student Loan Hero, 1). We spend our lives working, learning, and trying to survive. In order to survive, we need to be educated. In order to be educated, we need money. To collect money, we need a good paying job. And in order to have a job, we need to be educated. It’s a large cycle that goes around in circles, and we can’t seem to find a steady way to help provide these things for everyone. While we all strive to make the best of every situation, money has become an issue, creating problems in many lives around the world. “According to the College Board, the average cost of tuition and fees for the 2016–2017 school year was $33,480 at private colleges, $9,650 for state residents at public colleges, and $24,930 for out-of-state residents attending public universities” (COLLEGEdata, 1). And it’s not easy to have a positive look on the American dream when our own president in spouting things like “Sadly, the American Dream is dead” (President Donald
To understand the student debt crisis, one must first understand what caused it and what results from it. College undergraduates use student loans to finance the cost of tuition, room, board, transportation, and personal expenses while attending (Gage and Lorin). Student loans are different from other forms of debt because basic consumer rights like bankruptcy protection don’t apply to students who default on their loans. As a result, students are virtually locked into their debt, offering them little to no ability to refinance it. Solutions to debt problems like consolidation are available to students but that process doesn’t involve shopping for a better deal from competing lenders like it does in other debt areas. Therefore, interest rates often remain high and the loans remain with the original lender (Vanegeren). As Kayla Webley expl...
Vance, J.D. "The college trap: our higher-education system hurts the poor." National Review 27 Jan. 2014. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 12 Mar. 2014.
Student loan debt makes up a large portion of the debt in this country today. Many defaulted loans are the demise of high interest rates, poor resources to students in educating them on other avenues and corruption in the governmental departments that oversee education and financing. There are many contributing factors that lead to the inability to pay off student loans which need government reform to protect the borrower’s best interests.
There is no escaping the fact that the cost of college tuition continues to rise in the United States each year. To make it worse, having a college degree is no longer an option, but a requirement in today’s society. According to data gathered by the College Board, total costs at public four-year institutions rose more rapidly between 2003-04 and 2013-14 than they did during either of the two preceding decades (Collegeboard.com). Students are pressured to continue into higher education, but yet, the increasing costs of books and tuition make us think twice. Sometimes, some of these students have to leave with their education partially finished, leaving them with crushing debts.
In that year, the number of college graduates was only 432,058 (Sourmaidis) and ever since the demand continually increased as did price. This trend allowed for the student loan crisis to occur, which is a problem we face today. As of 2016, American students have accrued a massive 1.3 trillion in student loan debt. Just 10 years ago, the nation’s balance was only $447 billion (Clements). This ever-present cumulative burden has caused many post graduate Americans to delay important life events such as marriage, homeownership and children because of this substantial encumbrance (Clements).
With the ever-increasing tuition and ever-tighten federal student aid, the number of students relying on student loan to fund a college education hits a historical peak. According to a survey conducted by an independent and nonprofit organization, two-thirds of college seniors graduated with loans in 2010, and each of them carried an average of $25,250 in debt. (Reed et. al., par. 2). My research question will focus on the profound effect of education debt on American college graduates’ lives, and my thesis statement will concentrate on the view that the education policymakers should improve financial aid programs and minimize the risks and adverse consequences of student loan borrowing.
Fees and loans are too big of a load for young people to carry. A lot of students drop out do to the pressure of having to worry about all the loans they have to pay back after they are done with college. This should not be an issue to the student. According Iatham Emmmons, “Even worse, a large portion of students never receive funding at all due to the multitude of stipulations that must be adhered to in order to qualify for assistance. A major flaw in the current federal educational assistance programs is that the students’ parents’ income is used to calculate financial need” (Emmons 3). Even citizens who try to get help by applying for funding never end up getting it because they do not meet the needs required for the funding. Education should be p...