Wednesday, December 28, 2016

The Student Loan Cycle of Madness Continues

It was bound to happen.  Just as the lax attitude of the Law School Cartel steadily marched towards mutually-assured destruction due to increasing cost and terrible prospects, so has the student loan system begun to turn full-circle and prey upon those least able to pay:

The government has collected about $1.1 billion from Social Security recipients of all ages to go toward unpaid student loans since 2001, including $171 million last year, the Government Accountability Office said Tuesday. Most affected recipients in fiscal year 2015—114,000—were age 50 or older and receiving disability benefits, with the typical borrower losing about $140 a month. About 38,000 were above age 64.

 The report highlights the sharp growth in baby boomers entering retirement with student debt, most of it borrowed years ago to cover their own educations but some used to pay for their children’s schooling. Overall, about seven million Americans age 50 and older owed about $205 billion in federal student debt last year. About 1 in 3 were in default, raising the likelihood that garnishments will increase as more boomers retire.


 “I believe this is the tip of the iceberg of what may be to come if we don’t work harder on this problem,” said Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri, the top Democrat on the Senate Special Committee on Aging.


Wait, I thought it was only lazy, stupid Gen-Xers and Millennials who didn't want to work hard, were entitled, were deadbeats, wanted a trophy just for showing up, etc.  Maybe these Boomers should show some initiative, go get a damn job, and pay their bills.
Except I can't really bring myself to say this with the venom I might like.  While I and many. many others have had to deal with this sort of dismissive verbal abuse for decades, and it has taken some time for the truth to bear fruit, two wrongs do not make a right.  Maybe the actual truth, a truth that the scamblogs have diligently proclaimed for some time now, is (1) that the last ten years (and more) have been hard on most everyone, and (2) that the cost of higher education has been a cost that has rapidly and disproportionately risen compared to the value actually received.
Further, I believe once you start garnishing social security checks, the ridiculousness and moral depravity of non-dischargable student loans are apparent for all to see.  These people are not doctors who declared bankruptcy after medical school and now have enjoyed million-dollar salaries for decades, scott free - they are people who worked, tried to make a living, tried to support others, have varying degrees of disability, and yet still have the yoke of student debt affecting their retirement.  
A failed small-business owner can declare bankruptcy, learn from what worked and what didn't, and try again.  A student-loan debtor apparently carries the albatross around her neck for life.  Meanwhile, in the irony of all ironies, the ABA has had to sue to enforce PSLF for its own employees.  IBR and PAYE are increasingly in the crosshairs due to angry legislators who feel mislead.  Now, get out there and "network."
Friends - do not go to law school.  Costs are only increasing, prospects only get worse, and the student-loan "safety-net" touted by ScamDeans and LawProfs is actually no safety-net at all to graduates.    Find something actually in demand and hopefully less financially onerous regarding the requisite education.   Perhaps we will all have garnished checks in "retirement", but at least you can act to minimize the damage, now.

17 comments:

  1. The ABA suit is crazy and without merit ABA says if you go to work for a trade association like the ABA you can get your debt discharged if the work is "public interest law."

    Working for a trade association and having a quarter million of law school debt discharged after 10 years is a fraud on taxpayers.

    In fact, the individual plaintiffs in the ABA suit are all toileteers, with minimal employment options in the legal profession. The low paid jobs they got are the best they would do in private industry or elsewhere. What is the argument for discharging the debt of a lawyer who has no marketability to earn more than the law salary he or she is getting?

    The 10 year program for discharging debt is one where most lawyers are getting the most money they can get anyway in a job, and the ABA is seeking discharge of their debt. Really, really a fraud on taxpayers. Sort of like becoming a social worker for $250,000 in tuition (most social workers earn around $50,000) and then arguing for discharge of that $250,000.

    The question is why taxpayers should subsidize horrendous economic decisions to attend toilet law schools at $250,000 a shot?

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  2. One person with no unpaid student loans is Old Guy. He kept up his paymetns even through periods of protracted unemployment.

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  3. > "I believe this is the tip of the iceberg of what may be to come if we don’t work harder on this problem"

    STOP. LENDING. SO. MUCH. GODDAMN. MONEY.

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  4. Captain Hruska Carswell, Continuance KingDecember 28, 2016 at 12:36 PM

    Do not default. Repeat after me: Do not default. The nice ladies at Great Lakes will help you out. You catch more flies with honey than vinegar. Be cordial. It's not their fault that the ABA put dozens more law schools on line and boosted production of Hyundais, I mean lawyers.

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    1. Exactly. Don't be like Donald T-Rump and default on your loans. He defaulted on his loans for his airline and Citi-Bank was stuck holding the peanut bag.

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  5. See what you get Old Guy, by paying your loans - nothing.

    I hope Virginia Foxx, tea party lady heading the house committee in charge of federal student loans, gets her way and socks it to the law school toileteers seeking $250,000 a shot discharge from the federal government for their horrible decision to toilet.

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    1. Juvenal wrote "Probitas laudatur et alget": integrity is praised—and left out in the cold.

      Delete
  6. "Friends - do not go to law school. Costs are only increasing, prospects only get worse, and the student-loan "safety-net" touted by ScamDeans and LawProfs is actually no safety-net at all to graduates."

    Epic.

    Like the Surgeon General's warning on tobacco products, the above warning should be on all law school websites, advertisements, and applications.

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    Replies
    1. Warning: Outside the Law School Scam has determined that attending law skule may be hazardous to your wealth.

      Delete
  7. I too don't have the venom to summon anymore, but I do have something that just might be even worse: total, utter, complete apathy. When it gets to that stage for society as a whole, it's absolutely over.

    Anger can be flipped to love and sympathy, but when someone just doesn't react at all it becomes impossible to engage them.

    That is why they say there is a thin line between love and hate. And that it is worse not to be noticed.

    The toxic attacks against younger generations is probably about to bear fruit on a widespread scale. I am but one of many, but I imagine I am nothing special, so more will follow in the coming years.

    Since they didn't care about me, I don't care about them. I won't talk about it, I just will make no efforts to help and will not shed any tears. I will do my best for my parents and other older relatives, but that is as far as I will go.

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  8. Yo, Old Guy,

    here's a story for you: you think it's bad that the government sucked back 1.1 billion in entitlements from the disabled and old people to pay unpayable debts? I agree. It's totally predatory, evil, disgusting, economically pointless, fucked up, unforgivable.

    Thing is, direct, federal student loans were 100% sovereign-debt-funded. DOE borrowed from Treasury who earmarked funds from 10-year bond auctions. That 1.3 trillion is counted in our 19.7 trillion the public owes.

    Uh, borrowers repaid 250 billion dollars, but Congress did not use one red cent of that to pay down the sovereign debt that funded student loans. Public still owes all 1.3 trillion.

    Congress used 250 billion over 6 years to bomb Pashtunistan or something.

    PONZI SCHEME!

    Not making it up. There's a handy chart on pg. 35:
    http://www2.ed.gov/about/reports/annual/2016report/agency-financial-report.pdf

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    1. Captain Hruska Carswell, Continuance KingDecember 30, 2016 at 5:29 PM

      Anon at 11:16:

      Our mission was ACCOMPLISHED. Haliburton, Donald five foot one Rumsfeld and Black Water got paid. Much better than forgiving student loan debt.

      Delete
    2. Captain Hruska Carswell, Continuance KingDecember 30, 2016 at 5:34 PM

      Also, when the DOE garnishes Social Security from geezers, I feel zero sympathy for those old geezers. Why? Because they defaulted. They ignored DOE for years and years. They are deadbeats who made a CHOICE to be dead beats. Their conduct amounted to the equivalent of theft. So sad, too bad. Suck it up buttercup. See my prior advice. Never default. Something can always be worked out.

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  9. People don't realize this, but the Department of Education maintains an actual police force. There already have been cases of said police force busing down doors for various reasons.

    It will be interesting to see how the new Trump administration handles the student loan issue. Trump has already been critical of student loan practices, but it's uncertain what he'll actually do about it.

    One good sign is how Trump handled the Boeing issue. He took a stand against a private company charging whatever it wanted to the government for a product/service. Hopefully, he'll hold private universities to the same standard.

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  10. No sympathy for boomers who owe the debt, or anyone else dumb enough to take it, especially since about 2007 - the writing was on the wall by then.

    If deadbeats going to get a discharge of the debt, well, fuck, I suppose I should expect a refund from my law school or somebody for the same amount I foolishly paid on time?

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    1. Yet the government still makes some effort to protect people from con artists and scammers, even though most of the people who fall for these scams should really know better. And unfortunately law school has degenerated into what is mostly a scam, as this site and others have documented.

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  11. Unless today's law students get into one of the scam programs to eradicate law school debt, most borrowers are going to default. There is no way to pay off $200,000 or more of law school debt unless one has a very elite job for a very long time. That describes a small minority of lawyers.

    It is incredible that federal programs like income-based repayment are allowed for lower ranked law schools. It is totally foreseeable that many or most law students are not going to earn enough to repay the debt and will have to rely on this or another loan forgiveness program.

    Income based repayment is a fraud on taxpayers for the law industry that has already produced 1.8 million ABA accredited law school graduates for only 780,000 jobs and continues to produce twice as many lawyers each year as there are long-term lawyer jobs.

    It is completely foreseeable that most law school debt today will be borne by taxpayers because the ABA is allowed to persist with severe lawyer overproduction. Congress needs to limit borrowings to some formula of the median income of employed graduates a school. The current system of unlimited money to attend toilet law schools does not work. In fact, it creates more unemployed and underemployed lawyers each year.

    Congress needs to act now to severely limit law school loans by imposing outcome-based standards before any such loans can be made and by imposing limits on much law students can borrow based on the realistic income prospects of their law school.

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