Wednesday, March 30, 2016

Student Loans Draining Social Security





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.

Naomia Davis hasn’t been able to talk on the phone since 2004. The 80-year-old Brooklynite was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s more than 10 years ago and can no longer read.
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.

It turns out the man may have actually signed Nicholson up for a loan, but she says it was without her knowledge.
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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