A College education is important, perhaps more important than ever before. If you want to work anywhere other than Walmart or McDonald's or someplace like that, a college education is essential. But it's all a scam.
As the Federal Government has steadily provided less and less aid to states for public institutions, students and parents have been expected to pick up more and more of the tab. If you're not as lucky as some and you must take out student loans, than you will on average, leave college with $33,000 of debt or about the down-payment on a decent house.
Every year, the amount of student debt required to graduate increases from the year before. Since 1978, college tuition has increased by 1,120%.
The Federal Government is not unaware of this drastic situation. They just enjoy profiting from it over spending on it. The Student Loan business is quite the profit-maker for the Department of Education, which issues the bulk of Student Loans. In fact, the Department of Education runs similarly to a Wall Street Investment bank.
The Department of Education issues a student loan. Afterwards, it slices and dices yours and other student debts into securities which it then "swaps" with other Private institutions which then dices up your debt further and performs 'Credit-Default Swaps' with other institutions. They are, essentially, betting on whether or not you will default on your student loans.
Many of the institutions betting on your chances of default, have no stake in your debt. Instead they pay the seller of the swap in installments in order to bet that you likely will eventually default on your loan. And if you do, that buyer of the credit default swap collects a huge payout, even though no harm has come to them through your defaulting.
Meanwhile, the Department Of Education is making over $40 Billion Dollars each year in profits. This is a big business for the Federal Government. Few students or parents understand the link between the Dept. Of Education's profit making, private banking institutions swapping debt with the federal Government, and the dramatic increases in tuition we've seen in our lifetimes.
Still, it isn't the Department Of Education who's risking it's future over the loans it issues, it's the student, the parents, and the tax-payers who end up shelling out more and more every year. Students enter the working-world with loads of debt and through future car loans, mortgages and credit-cards are indebted for most if not all of their lives.
And yet, the Government has made it incredibly difficult to claim bankruptcy. Unlike large corporations that get bailed-out or go bankrupt with ease, never having to pay off the majority of their debts, students are not able to file for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy thanks to changes to bankruptcy law made in 2005 under President Bush. A law written "by and for the credit industry" as Elizabeth Warren described when it was originally introduced in the 1990's.
Back then, when Elizabeth Warren was part of a group of advisers, working with the Clinton Administration on the question of rising bankruptcy. Which, of course, was mostly due to the hollowing out of the middle-class. At the time, Warren convinced Hillary Clinton to oppose the bill, saying that it would hurt the middle-class while making big banks on Wall-Street more powerful. Hillary agreed and spoke to her husband who eventually vetoed the bill. One of his last acts in office.
Five years later, when the bill was reintroduced, no one was there to oppose it as vigorously as before. Hillary Clinton, presumably didn't have the political room her husband had had five years earlier, she voted in favor of the bill.
So now, if you have student loans, credit card debt, car loan debt, and finally, it becomes too much, you will be pushed into a Chapter 13 bankruptcy, where your debt is restructured and you still end up paying a great chunk of that debt. President Obama eased some of that pressure, but under his Student Loan Default program, you will still be paying your student loan debt off for as much as 20 years before the rest is forgiven. These are higher standards even than that of Private Student Loans!
Suffice to say, your debt, has become big business! Hundreds of Billions of dollars of student loan debt is exchanged, chopped-up, and swapped each and every year. Students are no longer minds to be filled, but pockets to be ravaged for decades to come!
Well, plenty of activists, and even a few powerful politicians have made this issue central to their message. Including Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. But Everyone should be fighting this fight.
This isn't some issue that has just appeared on its own. This has been engineered between powerful private institutions and the politicians who've helped Wall Street find this new source of nationwide income. It is now one of the major sources of private debt in America. Students shouldn't have to spend most of their lives paying for an education that doesn't even necessarily guarantee a higher income.
In fact, although we have been told over and over that the economy is struggling because of an educational deficit, in other words, students don't have enough of the skills needed in a complex, high technology economy. Yet, more students are attaining a college education than ever before! The result has been more people fighting over a fewer high-pay jobs, while the rest of the graduates move into their parents basements or get a job at some low-wage, low-skilled job.
When will congress listen? Chances are never. That's why I am suggesting, that for those young adults who've received a public education, but not a job that fits the work you've put into that education, to stop making payments entirely. Why should you struggle to pay-off the very people who tanked our economy and stripped away the opportunities you were supposed to have upon graduation?
I've defaulted, and I will never attempt to pay off an education that should be free to all. I will not be a slave to that debt. I will not be a slave to the Department of Education or the private institutions that has since tried to collect on that debt. In fact, two private institutions, and the Department Of Education have tried to collect on that debt. Funny, which one am I supposed to pay anyway?
I'm not suggesting that those who've been able to make use of their educations risk their careers and lives to stop paying the debt, though if you feel a moral need to join me, and the many thousands of dropouts and graduates who cannot pay thousands of dollars to multiple institutions, you're welcome to join.
On twitter, as well as reddit and other social media, it's takes all of two minutes of searching to find groups of disaffected youth protesting through non-payment. The whole system is a scam. A scam to leave you indebted and to start you off on a lifetime of indebtedness. I refuse to participate, and thousands of others out there also refuse. Join us and maybe our Government will finally pay attention to the student loan bubble that's bound to burst sooner or later.
Those of us who refuse to pay a dime more, are just helping along with the bursting of the predatory, student loan bubble industry. After all, you can't get blood from a stone!
DISCLAIMER: If you do decide to protest the Government's unfair Student Loan Industry by not paying your student loans, you could and likely will have your wages garnished, Tax-returns withheld or gouged, and will likely destroy your credit. I don't want to understate the consequences of this action but somehow we must bring attention to the issue. Feel free to comment or Fight back in some other way. Anything and everything is a help!