By Professor Doom
I can’t emphasize
strongly enough how important it is to end the student loan scam. I know, I’ve
been harping on how bad this is lately, but it bears repetition. Student
loans turn our kids into prostitutes. Student
loans drive our kids out of the country.
And now student
loans are destroying the social security safety net. I’m not a fan of social
security—the whole idea of “give your money to government, and trust it to give
it back to you 40 years later” strikes me as pure idiocy, but social security, a
horrible government created problem, was created to help fix the horrible
government created problem of Keynesian fiat currency—the latter makes it
impossible for people to save, because their wealth is constantly being sucked
away from them by the Fed’s printing scheme.
Anyway, social
security is supposed to help, by giving money to our citizens when they are too
old, too infirm, to even work as a greeter at Wal-Mart or to pour cups of
coffee.
Trouble is,
student debt is insanely high now, and all too often that debt was for
“coursework” that couldn’t even theoretically result in a job that could pay
well enough to pay back the debt. This scheme has been going on for decades
now, and now we have elderly citizens, finally collecting their social
security, who still haven’t paid off that impossible-to-pay-off student debt.
Well, they almost
get to collect that social security:
This is becoming
ever more common now: elderly citizens, finally old enough to be handed some of
their own money back via social security…and not getting it because they were
suckered into student loans.
Despite all of this, the government still expects her to pay back a federal student loan she took out in the 1980s…
It’s so funny (in
a sad way), one of my first essays compared higher education administrators to
scumbags who ripped off the elderly:
If I
targeted actual 8 year olds, and got them to sign contracts so that every penny
they saved in their lives went right to me, I’d be considered a…fool.
If
someone comes to my university, and I document they have the cognitive skills
of an 8 year old, then make them check a box so that I make more money and the
student will never save a penny in his life I am a…successful university
administrator.
It’s sad that the
hyperbole of a few years ago is now a simple statement of fact. To take money
out of the pockets of senile elderly…how can someone do this? Well, the
“leaders” running higher education do this every day now.
Let’s see if I can say something else
outrageous that nevertheless becomes truth: hey, Federal government! Instead of
abusing the elderly, why don’t you just claw back the money that was illicitly
transferred to the rulers of higher education? A ridiculous, outrageous,
draconian idea…but so many of our schools are money laundering schemes—indebt
the students through bogus coursework, take the money and stuff it into the
pockets of admin because of their “leadership.” Screw that, this money was
taken illicitly, and like any other fraud, the criminals should not be able to
just walk away with their ill-gotten gains.
Enough hyperbole,
back to reality. While the previous story is just one person, such stories are
becoming ever more common:
“…Between 2002 and 2013, the number of senior citizens
losing out on a portion of their Social Security to pay back education debt
soared 500% from 6,000 to 36,000..”
Sure, 500% growth
still just means 36,000 victims, but realize the student loan scam has been
running for only a few decades, it really just started to become a major scam
in the last 30 years. It will get much, much, worse than a measly 500% percent
growth, once those former students reach that magical age of 65:
“…More than
3 million Americans ages 50 to 64 are in default on their student loans, putting
them at risk of having their benefits garnished when they claim Social
Security, if they don’t find a way to become current on their debt…”
Seriously,
do the math. If a 50 year old is defaulting, he’s probably not going to be able
to pay back that money, ever. 50 years old, + 15 years, is the magic age of 65.
So, in 15 years, we’ll go from 36,000 victims to 3,000,000 victims. That’s a
20,000% increase if these people don’t die first. Yikes. Am I really the only one able
to connect the dots here? We’ll be ridiculously lucky if the problem of
vanishing social security checks sticks to “only” 500% growth.
I again
come back to: claw back the money. Track down these scum who preyed on our kids
so voraciously, shut down the for-profits and claim their assets. I know, most
of the money has been spent and you can’t get it all back that way…but this was
pure ruthless fraud.
“It’s
almost predatory that they are put in these situations,” said Adam Minsky, a
Boston-based attorney who specializes in student-loan issues.
“Almost
predatory”? Almost? Everyone who
looks at what’s been going on in higher education comes to the conclusion that
a great many of our student debtors were ripped off…and there’s never any call
to de-rip that money back from the people who took it. Yes, I know, most of the
folks who took the money work for the government and asking government to
police itself like this is basically suicide…so just take it as a fantasy idea
here.
Nicholson started attending classes in September of that year, and when she returned from Christmas break there was a padlock on the door of the school.
Isn’t that great?
Students get signed up for loans without even knowing about it…and 30 years
down the road, get hammered, finding out they’re in debt for many multiples of
a loan they never knew they had. 40% of
debtors weren’t really told about the loans so…yeah, this
problem will just get bigger.
Maybe someone
else can suggest clawing back the money from the crooks who stole it?
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