Saddled with student debt? Welcome to America's screwed generation

[marmar]

Saddled with student debt? Welcome to America's screwed generation
I got into a good university and received a great education, but – like thousands of Americans – I am paying a high price

Natalia Antonova
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 1 August 2012


I may not look like it, but I am a modern-day serf. Saddled with thousands of dollars of student debt – debt that has been stripped of all consumer protections and is non-dischargeable in bankruptcy – I am part of a screwed generation.

Earlier this year, the collective student loan burden in the United States passed the $1tn mark. Analysts are increasingly referring to a student loan bubble that could result in a crisis similar to the subprime mortgage crisis of 2008.

A bad job market for recent graduates and skyrocketing education costs have greatly exacerbated the problem. We are seeing a phenomenon in which the old are essentially eating the young, with the baby boomers having a disproportionate amount of financial privilege. And among the nation's elite, there is a terrible sense of denial about just how bad the younger generations have it – old white guys in Congress believe we're merely lazy and entitled, having not had the good grace to be born into families with trust funds. It's a class war, and the middle class is losing.

My own student debt saga began in 2002, when my family's finances went south after I had successfully applied to Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. I was reluctant to take out loans that would cover half the cost of my pricey education, but every adult advising me on the matter was adamant that going to Duke was not an opportunity to pass up. I also realised that my financial aid package in a cheaper state school would not be that much better. So I rolled the dice. I received a great education and have, so far, had good luck in the job market. ....................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/aug/01/student-debt-america-screwed-generation

[handmade34]

1. serious concern...

and it is not just young people... I have my own story and it ain't pretty... suffice it to say, my life is forever altered by my student debt



http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2012/04/student-loan-debt-isnt-just-young-persons-problem/50749/



http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2012/04/18/150909686/what-america-owes-in-student-loans

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/13/business/student-loans-weighing-down-a-generation-with-heavy-debt.html?_r=1

[madrchsod]

2. my wife is in the 11%......

[caraher]

6. so is mine <nt>

[supernova]

3. Chief reason I've stayed away from Grad School

is the crippling debt.

It's a vicious circle. I've been laid of from jobs in the past decade, in part because I didn't have a grad degree. And not having a stable job meant no way to pay for grad school, either. And now I'm 50. It's too late for a grad degree to be a positive force in my career. If I ever can get a Masters, it will be for personal enlightenment only.

I do feel sorry for everyone caught in this horrible trap.

The Fed needs to extend Pell Grants to grad school.

[fasttense]

4. The baby boomers are not the ones causing this.

It is the uber rich who can't bear the idea of carrying their fair share of taxes so that we can make an education available for everyone. It's the corporate elite who pay 17 to 0% taxes through tax havens and scummy deductions and are starving our social systems. It's the uber rich politician both Democratic and RepubliCON who made it impossible to write off student loan debt in bankruptcy in 2005.

Thank the bushes and the RepubliCONS for making serfs out of our children.

[davidpdx]

5. By the time I finish my DBA I will have almost topped out

on my student loan limit and I'm 41. If I lived to be 75 I don't think I could repay it.