You talk about owning up to our choices, but conveniently leave out any details about the options before these choices were made. I’ll give you an example of what I mean. Do you want to work in a factory all your life? Oh, sorry, factories all closed and went to China, so perhaps you might want to work as a carpenter? Oh, sorry, housing crisis and there’s no jobs there either! How about in a car wash? No, not interesting?

There is one more option which I forgot to mention. You can also go to school and work real hard and buy this degree with a loan I can arrange right now. You’re sure to get a well paid job.

What’s missing here? Well only reality. And what’s that you say? Well, you’ll find out in a few years after you’ve signed those loan papers. Here’s a few of the inconvenient facts that aren’t talked about.

Fact #1 No employer has ever asked me to prove or even see my diploma. (I have a B.A.) How valuable could it be if an employer would prefer to look at my credit report than my degree? I mean it would appear to me that the college degree would be a better indication about my ethics, values and, oh yeah, my ability to do the job than my credit report that is now torpedoed because of it. I love how employers and skeptics use credit reports to imply there is some natural cause and effect relationship between ethics and values and a bad credit history. Anyway, that’s another topic.

Fact #2 The real cost of education. I mean some talk about the price of education as only the cost of tuition and throw in a few snickers bars just to be generous. I mean before students make their choices (which they will be responsible for until they die! ~ or, perhaps more conveniently shot first) , they need to see the big picture here and talking about the cost of education in these limited terms is simply misleading. Now, I know our education system isn’t the best as compared to other countries ( I keep hearing that) and that’s why it costs so much. Wait what did I just say? Anyway, the real cost of education is going to be a long (and dirty) laundry list – housing, transportation, food. Oh yeah, you probably guessed these costs are going to varying on both the circumstances of your yourself and your family.

Yes, I agree with the above writer, it’s all about your choices, but this is a lazy persons argument ( or someone who graduated from a state university) if we don’t consider the options before those choices were made. Let’s agree that the world is a chaotic place and laws that hold young people as well as those that were once young, hostage for the rest of their lives with no consumer protections is not only bad law, but morally unsupportable – unless you work for a big bank in which case you have a high credit score. Nobody in banking would ever do anything wrong, right?

I absolutely guarantee that in the future, your default information will be tied to TSA databases and should you attempt to enter the country, you’ll either be denied entry, or possibly arrested. It will be as simple as the lender getting a judgement against you – which will be granted because you’ve left the country, essentially admitting your guilt.

People bitch and moan about everything – how they’re being screwed over by banks, how it’s not fair that people on Wall St. get big bonuses, how they can’t get a job, and so on. In the mean time, they live in the greatest country in the world that gives them the opportunity to get a higher education, and have the freedom to excel and make unlimited amounts of money. How do they repay that – by skipping out on a contract that is ultimately funded by the American taxpayer.

If you think you’ll be able to have a better life in another country, then take what little money you have and go – one less person for the welfare roles and being a leech on our economy.

Who would give a minor a massive student loan if he had no credit, no collateral or any employment history without safeguards in place protecting the lender from people like yourself or the author simply walking away from their loans?

Why just school? Shouldn’t that be the case with everything? If you can’t afford it, then don’t buy it. Jeez! What is so difficult to understand? That’s the problem, whether we’re talking about school, a house, or a car – people that cannot afford it somehow think that taking a loan is going to make it more affordable.

There is nothing that says you have to pay lots of money to get a good education. Take two years at a community college, then transfer to a better name school for the remainder. Or, just go for 4 years at your state school. You think you’d be any worse off? How? You can’t get a job or pay for your loans now – wouldn’t be easier being in the same position with no loans?

Just because someone is offering you a loan doesn’t mean you have to take it. It’s this sense of entitlement that people feel – they deserve it, even if they can’t afford it. They don’t think and simply take the loan, then when they can’t get a job that pays enough, or can’t get a job at all, that sense of entitlement comes out again – they think they shouldn’t have to pay their loans.

This article is stupid to begin with, even suggesting not paying your student loans and going to another country. Essentially, it’s admitting a crime – and fleeing then country. It’s theft. Nobody forced anyone to take a loan – the student signed the papers on their own without any force.

The government has every right making student loans non-dischargable even by bankruptcy. When the student signs for the loans in the first place, generally he/she is not an adult of legal age, has little or no credit, and nothing to provide as collateral for the loan. Why would anyone make a loan to such a person in the first place? Without safeguards in place to protect those funding the loans, they must be non-dischargable. If not, then there would be no student loans for anyone.

You canNOT discharge in bankruptcy.
You canNOT refinance (not all lenders will ‘allow’ consolidation).
You canNOT pay ahead (the lenders are NOT required to apply ANYthing to principal -EVER)
You canNOT sue them for ‘breach of contract’ for changing the terms back in 1998.
You canNOT EVER get sick, lose your job, or experience any other catastrophe.
You MIGHT be able to get some of it ‘forgiven’ if you are still young enough and poor enough, and willing to stay poor for the next 20 years (public service) – and any amount the Feds ‘forgive’ will be counted as TAXABLE INCOME in the end…
You CAN lose your license to make a living,
You CAN be denied a job that would actually pay enough to pay OFF the loans.
IF you default, the Feds pay the Lender, sell your defaulted loan to the Lender’s Collection Agency, and you have NO LEGAL RECOuRSE – they get paid twice, you get screwed FOREVER.

You might as well die. It’s the only way out.

Thanks to Clinton and the GOP, there are NO/NONE/NADA/NOT ONE consumer protection for student loan borrowers.

And the BANKSTERS, OIL COMPANIES, HEALTH INSuRANCE , BIG PHARMA, Halliburton, KBR, Blackwater, every nuclear power plant, and every pro sports complex in the nation get FREE WELFARE and totally SuBSIDIZED existence with taxpaid BONuSES for ripping us OFF!!!!!!! THEY CAN GO STRAIGHT TO HELL and I swear I will meet’em there.