EDIT: It's a double-packed Freedman news update here at OTLSS!
Very recently in a discussion concerning
Law School denialism, a debate raged over whether hyperbole can be properly utilized as humor to drive home a point, on the one hand, and
Godwin's law, on the other, where certain subjects are so taboo that they can never be referenced, ever, and it all becomes a game of "You Can't Say That on Television." Predictably, the philosophical stance varied by which side of the fence you were on, and I admit to my own bias in the debate as a scamblogger. During the back-and-forth discussion of what is allowed to be said is not
"as bad as" what, and who is or isn't a monster, however, an
actual important issue rose to the top:
Steven Freedman and AnotherSeniorLawProf - this is a posting from the website "outside the law school scam." I think you should both read this and consider what the real life consequences are a very high proportion of the students recruited to law schools. This posting was made partly in response to the debate where Freedman is feigning outrage at Campos' comments and AnotherSeniorLawProf thinks is just a source of amusement. Perhaps before either of you trivialise what has happened to so many graduates you will read this. Better still you will show it to your children and say - "this is what daddy does to some people" and ask, is the outrage misplaced? I have replaced some of the profanities to make it past the filter, but they seem appropriate:
_____________________________
"Law school destroyed my life. The debt just grows, because I cannot pay it down. My situation is so untenable, I cannot even bring myself to speak about it any detail anonymously. It has not yet taken my life, but I expect it to at some point when I simply do not have yet another monumental effort left in me. What has not yet killed you does not make you stronger, it makes you tired.
A history of monumental efforts is the shared history of any poor student who has had to fight to get an education in shit public schools, fight to afford undergrad, working the whole time, and survive through all the attendant social difficulties that lands families in poverty in the first place.
These "professors" and the principals of these "schools" are F******G. SC*MB*GS.
The now-relentless targeting of the poor - because that's the common theme, not skin color, poverty - with promises of good jobs, economic safety, and power in society by these f******g evil, lying, predatory mother f*****rs, in combination with a set of carefully designed, fully intentional federal laws that are 100% punitive in the treatment of debt (that allegedly exists for the benefit of students) makes me want to see this country end.
How in god's name did we get the point of government-assisted fraud that lures POOR students with a ***hope of rising out of poverty*** through their own efforts that is guaranteed to keep the poor in poverty for the rest of their lives?
I watched the very same thing happen to my friends who were not from wealthy or even stable families, some of whom had no living parents get fucking scammed by one of the schools featured above. It destroyed their lives too.
***
Of course I'm on IBR, but I wonder why I even bother be on it as opposed to defaulting. I cannot keep the interest from growing the balance - an interest rate which per the government is negatively subsidized at 6% (meaning 6% is the profit margin).
The terms of wage garnishment in event of a default are identical to IBR - exclude poverty level from the gross, sliding, income-based scale up to 15%. Why bother anymore?
IBR is semantics. It exists to keep money flowing to schools that should not be receiving it because the default rate among their recent graduating classes is too high.
I will never be credit-worthy carrying this balance, although I have no other debt. I had a car loan once that I paid off. I never used credit cards. I've worked since I was 12 years old. My paper route was feeding my family. I have always been the working poor.
Move on to what?
A combined, state, federal, IBR tax rate of 50% which ensures I will always be the working poor? I cannot get married, because of the government moving to consider a non-debtor spouse's income in IBR. I will never be able to afford to have children. I will never own a major asset.
What am I living for?
Am I living for the consent financial stress that I have no reasonable basis to believe will ever abate? I'm unable to afford the doctor when I get sick. The government promises to garnish my SSDI should I become disabled, and my SSI should I ever retire.
So, why keep doing this?
To pay back money that flowed to a fraud outfit, at a price that was inflated and inflated under me massively over 3 years because of uncapped GradPLUS loans? To pay interest that was never lent to me that is7%+ in excess of the risk-free rate when I cannot declare bankruptcy or even default?
This is insane. Sooner or later, it's enough and you just quit."
Posted by: Lurker | April 25, 2015 at 05:45 AM
One of the constant messages of the scamblog movement is how the scam impacts real people. It is easy to get lost in discussions of how many graduates are too many, whether or not the legal market is improving, what the true "premium" of the JD degree is, should law schools reduce costs, is student debt "as bad as" everyone says it is, etc. etc. etc. Notice that all of these discussions are, at some level, high-flying and impersonal. Yes, the outcome of these discussions have real-world, practical implications, but it is easy to ignore the actual human impacts like those above when discussing things from a "policy" perspective. Such is the Ivory Tower, though, and its general insulation heretofore from real-world effects and externalities.
All of this makes the "academy" response from Steve Freedman all the more troubling:
