I think I was 47 when I finally paid mine off. My wife and I are doing everything we can to help our boys get out of college debt free. Starting your career at a net worth of zero is so much better than negative tens of thousands.
Can’t squeeze a rock. If they can’t afford homes, and a good credit score is all that’s good for, why pay it? Wage garnishment is only a concern if you’re employed or make enough that it’s an option. No future, no payments.
The U.S. Department of Education can garnish up to 15% of your disposable pay (your net wages after legally required deductions like taxes). However, they must leave you with at least 30 times the federal minimum wage, which is currently $7.25 per hour, or $217.50 per week.
So, 15% for the rest of your life or until you can leave the country and are beyond their reach (if an option) if you cannot afford to pay them off. The reality for many is they will never have enough income potential to pay off this debt, so the best course of action is to bail on it to optimize for quality of life if you’ll never be able to pay it back. The developed world is hungry for young, educated talent.
Sums it up well. What else could anybody possibly expect to happen? Wages have remained flat and/or negated by inflation, upward mobility has declined, and getting hired has become progressively more difficult. Good employment prospects remain in major metropolitan areas with high cost of living that eat paychecks whole. Where are the payments supposed to come from, exactly?
Paying taxes in America is like taking out a high interest loan on a used car. And not a particularly reliable one.
Why exactly am I paying taxes if college is still unaffordable and health insurance gets more expensive every year ?
I probably pay a higher percentage of my income in taxes and health insurance as I would in Germany, and get much less in return.
Unemployment insurance is a joke for higher income people.
College in particular is a bit complex. In my Mom's time State College was tuition free. The State of California, assuming it's residents are stupid, claims it's state schools are tuition free for residents. It's just a 15k fee !
State College should be free. Particularly if you go to community college first, this is where the vast majority of students should start. Unless you get a full ride, it's better to drop out after 3 semesters of community vs 3 semesters at USC.
I think the 10k in forgiveness would of been reasonable. That was a very moderate plan, but it didn't happen.
Some type of long term reform is needed though. Maybe allow for a discharge after 15 years ?
Germany was able to get a free ride on US security guarantees for decades. Let's see what happens to their tax rates and social benefits now that they're finally being held accountable for complying with their NATO defense spending obligations.
While college tuition is generally cheaper in Germany, fewer students have the opportunity to attend. Most of them are steered to other tracks from as fairly early age. This model has some advantages but it limits opportunities for late bloomers.
I've heard this argument from conservatives a lot. The reason the rest of the world can have affordable health care and cheap or essentially free college is because America pays for their security.
How does that make any sense at all, why exactly do we need to have military bases in both Japan and Germany almost 80 years after the war ended. At this point why can't they just take care of themselves ?
Most countries offer trades as a respected alternative. Plus it's not like you can't start as a carpenter at 19, decide that you hate getting splinters and then go and study poetry later.
As they should. They bailed banks in 2008. It's time for each citizen to equally get same level of tax money, amounts they deserve like bank owners and banks? why it was only possible for banks in 2008 and airlines in covid and PPE loans in Covid ?
Go lookup the lifetime earnings of college grads vs. HS-only. Then go lookup the demographics (especially economic) of student loan borrowers. Then go lookup home ownership rates of college grads vs. HS-only.
Those charts are interesting but better to look up by degree. Some degrees are not worth getting, some are only from a cheap school. And there are non degree jobs that pay very well - if you can get one.
> The[sic] got equity and loans for the bailout, and made a lot of profit in the end
Your running to defend the bailout in this way reveals your bias.
The “they” in your defense is the government, who issued the loans, but the money was yours and mine. That is, they were public funds, but we, the public, failed to get anything tangibly out of this “profit”.
Quite the opposite, really.
The public took a great deal of the brunt of the failure of the economic tools these banks dreamed up in the form of foreclosures, wherein members of the public completely lost the only financial asset many possess.
One cannot just look at the end result. It is also of relevance what risk was run. Nobody else was willing to lend those bank some more money. Guess why. If can play russian roulette and win 100000 dollars if you survive and it turns out that you survive and get 100000 dollars can we conclude from this that it was a wise decision?
Various people in the government have been telling them for years that they'll be forgiven, and creating periods where they don't need to pay on them, what did people expect would happen?
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York has a great quarterly report on consumer credit [0], which the article briefly mentions. The latest report (Q1 2025) is here [1]. Student loan delinquencies shot up in the last ~2 quarters, which checks out with TFA. It's amazing how the age 50+ cohorts carry substantial student loan debt (slide 21). Is this original debt from their own time as students or is it, for lack of a better word, "second-hand" debt from supporting their children through school?
I have never understood why student loan debt is the only debt that cannot be discharged in bankruptcy proceedings.
It’s so insane that we expect 18 year olds, with brains still very much developing, to be able to make such a life-altering choice. Even though I myself understood this dynamic and decided to go to a state school with max 5k a year in tuition, I’ve never faulted others in the same situation that made less than ideal financial choices.
It’s really tragic that the US chooses to economically hamper so many people for money that is fairly inconsequential in the grand scheme of things. Everyone deserves a chance at upward economic mobility, even if they made a bad choice to study something in college with bad job prospects at a high price tag.
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And that is for healthier individuals and not including other loans like car loans etc. God (if there is one) help with medical debt.
How do we expect young people to navigate this rigged system?
It works.
Dead Comment
Sure, if never having any income and living off someone else is an option, you can do that.
So, 15% for the rest of your life or until you can leave the country and are beyond their reach (if an option) if you cannot afford to pay them off. The reality for many is they will never have enough income potential to pay off this debt, so the best course of action is to bail on it to optimize for quality of life if you’ll never be able to pay it back. The developed world is hungry for young, educated talent.
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/25/they-fled-the-country-to-esc...
Sums it up well. What else could anybody possibly expect to happen? Wages have remained flat and/or negated by inflation, upward mobility has declined, and getting hired has become progressively more difficult. Good employment prospects remain in major metropolitan areas with high cost of living that eat paychecks whole. Where are the payments supposed to come from, exactly?
Why exactly am I paying taxes if college is still unaffordable and health insurance gets more expensive every year ?
I probably pay a higher percentage of my income in taxes and health insurance as I would in Germany, and get much less in return.
Unemployment insurance is a joke for higher income people.
College in particular is a bit complex. In my Mom's time State College was tuition free. The State of California, assuming it's residents are stupid, claims it's state schools are tuition free for residents. It's just a 15k fee !
https://admission.ucla.edu/tuition-aid/tuition-fees
State College should be free. Particularly if you go to community college first, this is where the vast majority of students should start. Unless you get a full ride, it's better to drop out after 3 semesters of community vs 3 semesters at USC.
I think the 10k in forgiveness would of been reasonable. That was a very moderate plan, but it didn't happen.
Some type of long term reform is needed though. Maybe allow for a discharge after 15 years ?
While college tuition is generally cheaper in Germany, fewer students have the opportunity to attend. Most of them are steered to other tracks from as fairly early age. This model has some advantages but it limits opportunities for late bloomers.
How does that make any sense at all, why exactly do we need to have military bases in both Japan and Germany almost 80 years after the war ended. At this point why can't they just take care of themselves ?
Most countries offer trades as a respected alternative. Plus it's not like you can't start as a carpenter at 19, decide that you hate getting splinters and then go and study poetry later.
Go lookup the lifetime earnings of college grads vs. HS-only. Then go lookup the demographics (especially economic) of student loan borrowers. Then go lookup home ownership rates of college grads vs. HS-only.
Your running to defend the bailout in this way reveals your bias.
The “they” in your defense is the government, who issued the loans, but the money was yours and mine. That is, they were public funds, but we, the public, failed to get anything tangibly out of this “profit”.
Quite the opposite, really.
The public took a great deal of the brunt of the failure of the economic tools these banks dreamed up in the form of foreclosures, wherein members of the public completely lost the only financial asset many possess.
Deleted Comment
[0] - https://www.newyorkfed.org/microeconomics/hhdc/background.ht...
[1] - https://www.newyorkfed.org/medialibrary/Interactives/househo...
It’s so insane that we expect 18 year olds, with brains still very much developing, to be able to make such a life-altering choice. Even though I myself understood this dynamic and decided to go to a state school with max 5k a year in tuition, I’ve never faulted others in the same situation that made less than ideal financial choices.
It’s really tragic that the US chooses to economically hamper so many people for money that is fairly inconsequential in the grand scheme of things. Everyone deserves a chance at upward economic mobility, even if they made a bad choice to study something in college with bad job prospects at a high price tag.