{"id":77,"date":"2016-04-05T03:41:49","date_gmt":"2016-04-05T03:41:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/davidwilsonupnorth.com\/?p=77"},"modified":"2016-04-05T03:41:49","modified_gmt":"2016-04-05T03:41:49","slug":"the-real-student-loan-debt-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kyledwilson.com\/davidwilsonupnorth.com\/2016\/04\/05\/the-real-student-loan-debt-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"The REAL Student Loan Debt Crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>You read it here first:<\/strong> The student loan debt problem is NOT what you think it is.\u00a0 Wait, check that, there\u2019s some pretty smart people who read The 5&#215;5.\u00a0 Ok, the student loan debt problem is NOT what you are being told it is.\u00a0 It is in fact, much worse!<\/p>\n<p>I read an article today filled with misplaced sympathy, false tragedy, and more hand-wringing, nail-biting and genuine worry than the waiting room of the Free Clinic the week after Spring Break.\u00a0 Politicians on all levels are getting involved, including the Presidential candidates.\u00a0 The message being spread loud and clear is that one of the most pressing domestic issues facing the USA today is student loan debt, and more needs to be done to save these poor, exploited victims of modern predatory Capitalism.<\/p>\n<p>Seriously?<\/p>\n<p>Just for the heck of it, let&#8217;s consider these FACTS:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left:30px;\">Like ALL other LOANS (mortgages, car loans, etc.), the terms of all student loans are clearly spelled out PRIOR to acceptance.\u00a0 BEFORE they sign, it is the lendee\u2019s responsibility to determine whether they will be able to repay the loan according to the expressed terms.\u00a0 What is NEVER explicitly expressed in any of the terms, either from the lender or the educational institution, is that the borrower will graduate to a \u201chigh-paying\u201d job that will make it easy, convenient and entirely painless for borrower to repay the money that the borrower asked to borrow.<\/p>\n<p>Given these facts, can someone please explain to me how these individuals are being victimized or exploited?\u00a0 They knew the deal going in, and when the time comes to start paying back, suddenly it&#8217;s just not fair????\u00a0 Since when?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Did the student ask for the money? \u2013 YES<\/li>\n<li>Was anyone forced to take the money against their free will? Were they somehow conscripted into borrowing? \u2013 NO, and NO<\/li>\n<li>Are they being asked to pay back money they did not receive? \u2013 NO<\/li>\n<li>Are the interest rates even close to being that of a credit card? \u2013 NO<\/li>\n<li>Are the interest rates at, or even below market rates for unsecured loans at the time the money was borrowed? \u2013 Yes<\/li>\n<li>Is the lender entitled to have THEIR MONEY returned to them under the terms of the agreement explicitly expressed prior to any money changing hands? \u2013 YES<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>So I ask again, where is the injustice?<\/p>\n<p>I had student loans.\u00a0 I could not have attended college without them, and I did not graduate to a \u201chigh-paying\u201d job (whatever THAT means).\u00a0 In fact, I was unable to find work in my chosen area of study, and ended up working in entirely different fields, changing careers now 5+ times.\u00a0 Regardless, it was still my responsibility to pay the loans back (as promised), and it took me about 20 years to do that.\u00a0 Ironically, my final payment was made right about the time MY children were entering college.\u00a0 Yes, college now costs more, a LOT more.\u00a0 As a result, WE now have loans (Parent loans and Student loans) to repay, which we are doing.\u00a0 But again, like me, my children could not have attended college without them.\u00a0 We each did what we needed to do in order to embark upon the path of our choosing.<\/p>\n<p>There is indeed a student loan crisis, and that crisis is this:\u00a0 There is a growing segment of our society that thinks they should be able to forsake their responsibilities the moment any aspect of a given situation starts to go against their liking.\u00a0 What ever happened to that <strong>very simple premise<\/strong>, so simple that it is routinely invoked by toddlers, wide-eyed and disappointed, pleading\u2026 \u201cBut you PROMISED?!?!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The REAL crisis is an amalgamation of labor law, government regulation, tax code, trade agreements, immigration enforcement, foreign policy, political ideology, and public perception.\u00a0 The only reason student loans get dragged into this mix is because it\u2019s a lot easier to show a sympathetic public the sad faces of poor, fearful, financially-strapped former students.\u00a0 Note the use of the word \u201cformer.\u201d\u00a0 Why are we not seeing pictures of, or hearing from current students in the midst of enjoying their higher education experience?\u00a0 For the same reason we don\u2019t hear people bitching during the middle of a party.\u00a0 The bitching starts when the party is over and one has somehow become obligated to stick around and help clean up the mess.\u00a0 They would have much rather foreseen the future an hour earlier: \u201cThanks for the great time, but I gotta go!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Like former students with acquired debt, and entry-level workers who do not yet earn enough money to buy the latest iPhone AND plasma television AND vacation in the Tropics, we continue to add more and more \u201cclasses\u201d of people to the roster of the \u201coppressed.\u201d\u00a0 We even have political candidates promoting the notion that somehow we will be a much better society if we simply relieve everyone of their unpleasant responsibilities.\u00a0 Really?\u00a0 Will that premise also apply to firefighters and hospice workers?\u00a0 Military personnel?\u00a0 Pediatric Oncologists?\u00a0 Sanitation workers?\u00a0 And by the way, regardless of whether the topic is student loans, tuition, or healthcare costs, those politicians aren\u2019t really erasing the responsibility, they\u2019re just imposing it onto somebody else, feeding into the ever-growing premise of \u201cI don\u2019t care who takes care of that particular need of mine, as long as it\u2019s NOT ME!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>With respect to this issue, it&#8217;s time that certain members of society grow up and face reality.\u00a0 Students who borrowed money are legally and morally obligated to repay the debt.\u00a0 They should stop the &#8220;not fair&#8221; whining, because the rules of the game were well known before the game began, and they still CHOSE to play.\u00a0 They need to just figure it out, make a budget, have a plan, and buy only what they can afford.\u00a0 They may need to work more than one job, even a job they don\u2019t really like, and don\u2019t tell me how hard it is, because I know exactly how hard it is.\u00a0 I\u2019ve worked as a substitute teacher, a door-to-door salesman, a private cab driver, a handyman, a telemarketer, and a janitor, all AFTER earning my Master\u2019s degree.\u00a0 Along the way, I managed to pay back every single dollar of my student loans, and if a near-sighted, follically-challenged product of the Flint Public Schools can do it, then anybody can.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You read it here first: The student loan debt problem is NOT what you think it is.\u00a0 Wait, check that, there\u2019s some pretty smart people who read The 5&#215;5.\u00a0 Ok, the student loan debt problem is NOT what you are being told it is.\u00a0 It is in fact, much worse! I read an article today &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/kyledwilson.com\/davidwilsonupnorth.com\/2016\/04\/05\/the-real-student-loan-debt-crisis\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;The REAL Student Loan Debt Crisis&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-77","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cultural-commentary-and-perspective"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kyledwilson.com\/davidwilsonupnorth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kyledwilson.com\/davidwilsonupnorth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kyledwilson.com\/davidwilsonupnorth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kyledwilson.com\/davidwilsonupnorth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kyledwilson.com\/davidwilsonupnorth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kyledwilson.com\/davidwilsonupnorth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kyledwilson.com\/davidwilsonupnorth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kyledwilson.com\/davidwilsonupnorth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kyledwilson.com\/davidwilsonupnorth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}