Angry Bear » Ripping Off College Students’ Economic Future
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The Tom Friedmans, James Freemans, and others suggest baby boomers are ripping-off the X, Y, and Z generations with these programs. From the well-heeled segment and do not have to work anymore 1-percenter population, we find Stan Druckenmiller, Pete Peterson, the Koch brothers, etc. spending portions of their advocating the discontinuance of Social Security to save the country, students, and themselves. Some are taking to college campuses with false data and advising students to protest the rip-off of their futures in a Days of Rage manner. All tend to ignore the real threat to students and their future. The threat is not likely to come from Social Security, Medicare, etc.
What is threatening the future wealth and income of college students is the increasing debt taken on by students seeking the education necessary to have a chance in a global economy where investments are seeking fewer Labor intensive opportunities. The increased funding necessary to go to college is the result of decreased governmental funding of schools, declining or stagnant household incomes, financial strategies delineating the increased risk of student loans (CBO, The New America Foundation, Heritage Foundation, etc.), and the increased cost of attending colleges and universities (which as Alan Collinge of Student Loan Justice Org. states cost increases have outstripped CPI and even Healthcare) .
Student Debt has quadrupled from 2003 to 2013 going from ~$240 billion to > $1,000,000,000. Up from 41% in 1989, 66% of all students now have an average debt of ~$27,000. The rise in average student debt can be traced to a sharp decline in state funding of public colleges of 25% since 2000 and a stagnation/decline of household income for the vast majority of US households over a similar time span.
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Burdened with student debt, a student can expect to lose lifetime wealth of ~$208,000 when compared to unburdened students.
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Read the whole thing, obviously. Also, follow studentloanjustice.org, which I can't get to at work because "corporate decision", lol.
Maybe I'm biased, but I think it's misleading to think of the problem as being chiefly about student loans. The problem is chiefly about a sharp decrease in public funding for education at a time when education is more crucial than ever for anyone who wants to participate in the economy, coupled with a pronounced trend toward running institutions of higher learning as profit making enterprises. So, increased demand, decreased supply, add profit motive and stir like crazy. That leads to soaring tuitions, which are especially unaffordable in an economic situation with mostly stagnant wages, thus, debt. The first reform I think the industry itself needs it to repeal the ridiculous law that student loan debt cannot be discharged in bankruptcy like basically every other freaking debt.
In conclusion, Elizabeth Warren for President.