Monday, May 4, 2015

More On Student Debt

I noticed that Carter's article yesterday seemed to draw a lot of attention from our class. That reminded me about a fascinating video from John Oliver's segment "Last Week Tonight."

If none of you are familiar with John Oliver, formerly of "The Daily Show with John Stewart," he now has his own segment on HBO. His show is similar to Stewart's, in that it nicely combines comedy with highly informational content. If you guys have the time, I highly suggest you watch Oliver's video about student debt and post your thoughts about it below. Before watching this video, I had no idea student debt was quite as scary as it is. There's over one trillion dollars of student debt in the US. That's more than auto loans and credit card debt, and only second to home mortgages. This number has actually tripled over the last 10 years. At the rate we're going, I think we're going to see some sort of bubble burst with either the amount of students who can actually afford to go to school or severe backlash to the companies that hold their debt.

*Just a heads up, there is some profanity in the video*

8 comments:

  1. I was aware that student loan debt is a huge issue but I had no idea how for-profit colleges played into that. I was honestly shocked to here how much those schools contribute to student debt. I was also wondering, what is the thought process behind student loans being the type of debt that follows you through bankruptcy? I think it is clear that given the large amount of student loan debt and the ever rising cost of tuition, some sort of regulation or increased funding to education is needed.

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  2. Student debt is over one TRILLION dollars! This is unbelievable! We are leaning towards a lifetime debt. Some economists think that the next financial crisis will be caused by student debt in the United States. This might happen if proper regulations/rules are not taken.

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  3. As we've seen in other articles and as we've discussed in class, the student debt situation in the US is out of control. It still does not cease to amaze me that student loans and debt incurred is so pervasive. What Oliver says about these for-profit colleges was astounding. It is absolutely awful that these schools, like ITT Tech and Davenport specifically market themselves to low income people who never really dreamed of going to college. They essentially trick them in to even more debt than they ever could have incurred had they remained a McDonald's employee with a GED. If the necessity to attain education and its simultaneous inaccessibility (without forever ruining your financial standing) doesn't show how messed up the American Dream is then I don't know what does.

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  4. This segment was absolutely horrifying. I had no idea the for-profit schools acted this immorally with their cutthroat marketing schemes. Signing up mentally handicap veterans just to access GI funds and also hitting prospective students "pain points"....are you serious?! How can this even be legal?
    I thought John O did a good job showing that government funded student loans financially burden individuals long after graduation and sometimes forever. This is a huge problem in our country. I have the same fear that others have addressed; high college costs and student loans may be creating a bubble that could cause the next financial crisis.

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  5. Like Bronte said, I was surprised by the role of for profit colleges in adding to student debt. After watching this video, many of these schools sound like a scam to me. The way they prey on low income teens in order to make a profit off of their debt is really horrible.

    I think that it's really important to make education more affordable in order to avoid perpetuating current inequalities. In his intro, Pikkety states that "over a long period of time, the main force in favor of greater equality has been the diffusion of knowledge and skills". Unfortunately in order to get knowledge and skills in America, students often have to commit to years of repaying debts.

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  6. This is really surprising. We all know that students take on debt, but often they don't really understand the kind of debt they are acquiring. Like the video says, the original idea for federally subsidized loans however, for-profit schools are taking advantage of students and veterans. Even the end of the video discusses that the government is still allowing students at non-profit institutions to gain more than an appropriate amount of debt which is just adding to the overall national debt but increasing poverty as more and more students are unable to pay back their loans.

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  7. Definitely a terrifying clip. I really didn't know about this "for-profit" colleges thing. Also messed up how recruiters are told to hit pain points to make people feel worse about themselves as if it's some kind of trick to get them to pay up and go to school there. The commercials they show... "everything is perfect" for ITT... are disturbing after seeing this film and the statistics of debt students hold graduating from these schools. Even more pathetic is how these schools target veterans and those who have brain damage just to get money. It's a really sad ending too saying how "students will be paying for this the rest of their lives so enjoy college now". America needs to make it more affordable to acquire an education, or our entire economy could pay for it someday.

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  8. Even non-profit educational institutions (and non-profit organizations in general) play this dirty game to acquire funds. Colleges need people to attend them in order to stay afloat, and they'll resort to uncouth tactics to do so. Moreover, individuals a part of an organization are much more likely to practice these tactics, as organizations create a sense of belonging and a cause greater than any single individual. This is just the problem with the world in general, where personal wealth is the ultimate end and everyone wants to have the most.

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