Will Obama or any future president of America do anything about higher education?

There is one thing that Obama and fellow politicians can do that would help college graduates deal with their debt from loans. They should make it easier for students to get into programs that let you erase some of your college loan debt by volunteering. I know you're going to say "they already have those". Yes, they do exist but they are very specific on which type of loans they will erase or be counted toward to. If I tried to do that, it wouldn't work because I don't have the specific loans that you have to have in order to have them erased or have some money taken off of. I know that teaching will pay off your loans but like I said before, they only cover certain kinds of loans. And the type of loans that I have are not covered. Teaching and volunteering will not help me because my loans are not covered by the programs. You should be able to get into some type of volunteering program and have some part of loans erased or at least lessened. And the rules shouldn't be as strict as they are right now. They need to ease up on the specifications of the loans that are covered.

When 50 years down the line the United States is lagging far behind much of the world you need look no further than the attitudes in this thread.

There won't be a United States in 50 years.

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Originally Posted by Jacob1983

So you're gonna tell me that nothing should be none to higher education? The costs and interest rates on college loans should just stay the same? Poor students shouldn't receive any type of help at all? They should just suck it up and get fucked in the ass by a huge amount of debt right. Sometimes I wish there would be a scenario where I save Obama's life and he would owe me for life. That would be sweet.

I went to college hoping that it would change my life for the better. So far, it's kinda made it worse.

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Government does give out grants, like Pell grants. If anything, school is one place where it's pretty libertarian as far as funding goes... you have to rely on the kindness of strangers.

Besides, if the government hands out a ton, then schools will just raise their prices. What would you have, government mandated colleges like public schools? That's the only sort of 'answer' I could see from your request.

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Originally Posted by Jacob1983

There is one thing that Obama and fellow politicians can do that would help college graduates deal with their debt from loans. They should make it easier for students to get into programs that let you erase some of your college loan debt by volunteering. I know you're going to say "they already have those". Yes, they do exist but they are very specific on which type of loans they will erase or be counted toward to. If I tried to do that, it wouldn't work because I don't have the specific loans that you have to have in order to have them erased or have some money taken off of. I know that teaching will pay off your loans but like I said before, they only cover certain kinds of loans. And the type of loans that I have are not covered. Teaching and volunteering will not help me because my loans are not covered by the programs. You should be able to get into some type of volunteering program and have some part of loans erased or at least lessened. And the rules shouldn't be as strict as they are right now. They need to ease up on the specifications of the loans that are covered.

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What type of loans do you have? Did you borrow from a guy named "Vinny the Shark"? :D

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Originally Posted by Extra Stout

There won't be a United States in 50 years.

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No shit. At least not like we know it. With all the people thinking they should get things for free, who's going to be left to pay for it all?

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Originally Posted by LnGrrrR

Besides, if the government hands out a ton, then schools will just raise their prices. What would you have, government mandated colleges like public schools? That's the only sort of 'answer' I could see from your request.

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That's actually one reason education costs so much. There's always government, with deep pockets, killing the real supply and demand economics of it.

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Originally Posted by Jacob1983

I got a BS in psychology. I picked psychology because I've always found it interesting. The one bad thing about psychology is that you have to do massive amounts of schooling to make the big bucks.

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Look, I don't mean to be an ass about this, but what were you thinking? Did you have a career plan? It doesn't look like it. To take a subject just because you like it, without assessing the probability of getting anywhere was not a smart move. I pay more than $10 an hour in taxes, and the thought of bailing someone out for their decisions infuriates me. I pay too damn much already to have my wealth redistributed. Life is a mix of talent, hard work, and luck. Not everyone can succeed. Sorry if I'm not too sympathetic, but someone has to work retail. Hell, I screwed up with stocks and am paying back $80K in back taxes. I skipped paying taxes on a sale, was going to on the next, and the marker fucked me. It's like paying a mortgage. My life's not as easy as I'd like, and I sure in hell don't want my tax dollars bailing people out unless I get that $80k bailout myself.

But you know what. I put my self there, and I will pay it off. Be a man dammit.

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Originally Posted by Jacob1983

There is one thing that Obama and fellow politicians can do that would help college graduates deal with their debt from loans. They should make it easier for students to get into programs that let you erase some of your college loan debt by volunteering. I know you're going to say "they already have those". Yes, they do exist but they are very specific on which type of loans they will erase or be counted toward to. If I tried to do that, it wouldn't work because I don't have the specific loans that you have to have in order to have them erased or have some money taken off of. I know that teaching will pay off your loans but like I said before, they only cover certain kinds of loans. And the type of loans that I have are not covered. Teaching and volunteering will not help me because my loans are not covered by the programs. You should be able to get into some type of volunteering program and have some part of loans erased or at least lessened. And the rules shouldn't be as strict as they are right now. They need to ease up on the specifications of the loans that are covered.

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What difference is that going to make? You still end up working off your loan. If you have time to go volunteer and work for free you have time to take a second job part time to increase your earnings so that you can pay back your loans.

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Originally Posted by Extra Stout

Why is higher education so expensive?

1) It can be: In America, the number of jobs paying enough for a person to enter the middle class without a college degree has shrunk to virtually nil. Meanwhile, the population keeps growing. Supply and demand.

2) Stratification by school: For the most part, undergraduate degrees are the same from one school to another (graduate programs are something different altogether), but what is not the same is the prestige behind the name of the school on the diploma, and the networking opportunities among one's peer group at a school. There are a ton of companies out there who won't give you a first glance for a job unless you graduated from a particular school. Didn't matriculate at an Ivy? Don't bother asking.

Even my own company, which is hardly Goldman freaking Sachs, won't let you in the door if you got your degree from the University of Houston or Lamar rather than Texas or Texas A&M.

The more prestigious schools become vastly more valuable.

3) Arms race: This creates a vicious cycle where schools have to stay ahead in the race for prestige. Attracting a particular scholar or research project, or having the most up-to-date facilities, determines whether a school stays a "first-tier research school," or some backwater commuter school. And this filters all the way down the food chain to the UTSA's and TAMU-Commerces of the world. Schools are spending tons of money so they can build the best facilities and attract the best scholars (who by the way come in shorter and shorter supply as America declines), so they can turn around and charge students more to have those facilities.

3A) Arms race, part II: Gone are the days when students attended university because they were interested in learning. Students today are paying money (OK, their parents are paying money) to receive a product called a diploma with the name of the university on it, which they can then show to an interviewer and get hired somewhere. And students don't have any intention of living with a roommate in an 8 x 8 room with bunk beds and a little sink, with a bathroom down the hall. They don't have any intention of eating on long wooden benches in a mess hall with poor-quality food on plastic trays. There is no way they are going to work out in a drafty old convocation building with a couple of vent fans where the equipment consists of a medicine ball and some ancient free weights. They have no interest in old classrooms with peeling paint on the walls and wooden desks that have been there since 1965.

No, today's students are discriminating consumers, and they demand luxurious, private living spaces, complete with all the amenities, including granite countertops. They demand gourmet-quality food in aesthetically pleasing dining spaces. They demand the latest fitness facilities -- dozens of machines for weights, treadmills, elliptical machines, elevated tracks, rock-climbing walls, racquetball courts, beach volleyball, you name it, they demand it. They want comfortable well-padded theater seating in their new classrooms, complete with Wi-Fi and cupholders.

All those things cost money. Guess who pays for it?

4) Funding: State support for public universities is far less than it was in years past, so students would have to pick up the slack even if all the other craziness hadn't set in.

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Great post. You nailed it.

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Originally Posted by Extra Stout

Part of it is "class control" -- people from the upper class know that those graduating from the elite schools either are members of the upper class like them, or if they aren't in fact blue bloods, then they're probably quite exceptional if they're rubbing shoulders with the progeny of the elites.

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Originally Posted by Jacob1983

I know this issue is probably not really high on the priority list right now but it matters to me. I went to college for 5 and a half years and I'm over 40,000 dollars in college loan debt that I will be paying back until I'm dead. I just wish that Obama or any future president would do something about this problem. There are millions of Americans that are in the same boat as me. They have to put themselves in debt with college loans just to get a college degree. That's not right or fair in my opinion. You shouldn't have to dig yourself a hole in debt just so you can get a college degree. Obama probably won't do anything about it. I will admit that I did make mistakes during my college years when it came to borrowing money for college. If I could go back and do it again, I probably would. It just makes me mad that I'm stuck with a huge amount of debt just so I could get a college degree. And what have I done with my college degree? Nothing. I wasted 5 and a half years in college and borrowed over 40,000 dollars and it all got me was a job at a retail store. The president or someone high up needs to make it where poor students can go to college at dirt cheap prices or at least make it where they don't have to be in tens of thousands of dollars in debt because of college loans. Why is it that you go to school for free from K-12th grade but when you get to college, you basically have to sell your soul to pay for it?
Anyone in the same boat as me?

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lol !!!

I received 1 grant during my college experience. Just one. I used most of it to pay for books and yes college books are fuckin' expensive. Like I said before, I was unprepared for college. I was brainwashed and misguided by my high school teachers that going to college and getting a degree would make my life better. I borrowed most of my money from Satan aka Panhandle Plains Loan Center. My loans were the advantage and stafford type. There are a lot of haters in this thread but that's life.
I'm the type of person that would only volunteer if I was required to by the law or if I was going to benefit it from. If that makes me a douchebag then so be it. If I could get some of the amount that I owe erased, I would volunteer my ass off. It just makes me mad that I'm stuck in this damn hole that's full of debt.

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Originally Posted by Jacob1983

I received 1 grant during my college experience. Just one. I used most of it to pay for books and yes college books are fuckin' expensive. Like I said before, I was unprepared for college. I was brainwashed and misguided by my high school teachers that going to college and getting a degree would make my life better. I borrowed most of my money from Satan aka Panhandle Plains Loan Center. My loans were the advantage and stafford type. There are a lot of haters in this thread but that's life.
I'm the type of person that would only volunteer if I was required to by the law or if I was going to benefit it from. If that makes me a douchebag then so be it. If I could get some of the amount that I owe erased, I would volunteer my ass off. It just makes me mad that I'm stuck in this damn hole that's full of debt.

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Your debt will not disappear overnight. If you continue to work, maybe take on a second job delivering pizzas, you will pay off your debt. Don't eat out, go see movies at the theatre, waste money on expensive apartments. If you live within your wage then you will be able to pay off the loans. No one should erase your debt, it is yours so you need to own up to it. I purchased a house, I should not be allowed to stop making payments just because it is expensive. I made my own bed and I will sleep in it.

go suck a dick man

higher education is not for everyone...you can find success somewhere else without a paper with a university name on it. You can work your way up

I will pass on sucking a dick. I am owning up to my shit. If I wasn't then I wouldn't be paying off a monthly payment to my college loan collectors. So don't even give me that shit. I was just saying that my situation is kind of what happened to a lot of people that took loans on houses and other things. The lenders approved loans to people that they knew wouldn't be able to pay them back or make payments on them. It was like giving a drug addict drugs or a drunk a beer. And don't fuckin tell me to be a man. I survived 5 and a half years at 3 colleges. A lot of people would have been pussies and quit but not me. I sucked it up and finished and got my degree. And life is hard. That's why I look forward to death. When I'm dead, I won't have to worry about money. In this life, money is everything. Sad but true.

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Originally Posted by Jacob1983

I will pass on sucking a dick. I am owning up to my shit. If I wasn't then I wouldn't be paying off a monthly payment to my college loan collectors. So don't even give me that shit. I was just saying that my situation is kind of what happened to a lot of people that took loans on houses and other things. The lenders approved loans to people that they knew wouldn't be able to pay them back or make payments on them. It was like giving a drug addict drugs or a drunk a beer. And don't fuckin tell me to be a man. I survived 5 and a half years at 3 colleges. A lot of people would have been pussies and quit but not me. I sucked it up and finished and got my degree. And life is hard. That's why I look forward to death. When I'm dead, I won't have to worry about money. In this life, money is everything. Sad but true.

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A bit melodramatic, aren't we? Maybe you should have taken an acting degree :)

Look, the only college I've been to is the late-night ones at Tulane when I squeeze in time between deployments and TDYs... and even I know that a psychology degree won't get you much if you're not already in the career field. (My mom has a BS; but she got that while she was working as a drug counselor for the state.)

You went to college and majored in psychology because you liked it... but did so without looking at the long-term situation. It sucks, certainly, because most 18 year olds aren't looking at the long-term. But don't act like it's some insurmountable debt.

Like I said, ask around the local psych departments; ask if they have a mentoring program. Good psychologists get paid 60 to 80K a year, so you can definitely recover. You just have to suck it up right now. Or find a sugarmomma.

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Originally Posted by violentkitten

so you fucked up and you want somebody else (oh, i'm sorry 'the government') to bail your miserable ass out?

and you didn't go to k-12 free. your parents paid taxes so your ass could go to school.

cry me a fucking river you fucking pussy.

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... if it was good enough for Goldman Sachs...

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Originally Posted by Jacob1983

I received 1 grant during my college experience. Just one. I used most of it to pay for books and yes college books are fuckin' expensive. Like I said before, I was unprepared for college. I was brainwashed and misguided by my high school teachers that going to college and getting a degree would make my life better. I borrowed most of my money from Satan aka Panhandle Plains Loan Center. My loans were the advantage and stafford type. There are a lot of haters in this thread but that's life.
I'm the type of person that would only volunteer if I was required to by the law or if I was going to benefit it from. If that makes me a douchebag then so be it. If I could get some of the amount that I owe erased, I would volunteer my ass off. It just makes me mad that I'm stuck in this damn hole that's full of debt.

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Student loan debt is simply a symptom of the conservative malaise that has afflicted the country since the Republican "revolution" that swept Gingrich into power in the nineties.

We have, as a society simply neglected the basic investments in human captial that we need to remain competitive.

We under-invest in education at all levels, we under-invest in health care, we under-invest in drug-treatment programs at the expense of feel-good, tough-on-crime jails, etc, etc, etc.

If one's parents have the funds for college, then you have a huge advantage out of the gate over those who don't. Just another glaring example of the widening income gap between haves and have nots that does nobody any good.

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Originally Posted by Extra Stout

There won't be a United States in 50 years.

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The more I think about this, the more I am convinced you are wrong.

We'll see.

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Originally Posted by RandomGuy

The more I think about this, the more I am convinced you are wrong.

We'll see.

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Well, youre the lone optimist among people who actually understand what is going on around them.

In 20 years, we wont even be using the US Dollar. The dissolution of the American State isnt too far beyond that.

(EDITED: I am editing this post to make clear that you, RG, are a person who understands whats going on around them, but that youre the lone optimist)

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Originally Posted by DarkReign

Well, youre the lone optimist among people who actually understand what is going on around them.

In 20 years, we wont even be using the US Dollar. The dissolution of the American State isnt too far beyond that.

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To paraphrase Mark Twain, reports of America's death are greatly overstated.

We still have lots of nukes, and our GDP, though propped up by funny money, I'll bet is still top 5 in terms of real value.

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Originally Posted by RandomGuy

Student loan debt is simply a symptom of the conservative malaise that has afflicted the country since the Republican "revolution" that swept Gingrich into power in the nineties.

We have, as a society simply neglected the basic investments in human captial that we need to remain competitive.

We under-invest in education at all levels, we under-invest in health care, we under-invest in drug-treatment programs at the expense of feel-good, tough-on-crime jails, etc, etc, etc.

If one's parents have the funds for college, then you have a huge advantage out of the gate over those who don't. Just another glaring example of the widening income gap between haves and have nots that does nobody any good.

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One out of every two dollars the federal government spends these days has to be borrowed from someone. I cringe to think how quickly we'd end up in financial ruin if education and health care were funded to your standards.

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Originally Posted by Communist Party member, circa 1975

Paraphrase Mark Twain, report of Soviet Union death greatly overstated.

We still have lots nukes, and our GDP, though like vodka with much water to dilute, probably still top 5.

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