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-Short Attention Span Theater-
Half of college students think their loans will be forgiven
2017-03-02
Owing to a serious misconception, almost half of college students recently polled believe they won't be saddled with student loans soon after graduation.

According to a survey of 500 current college students conducted by LendEDU, a private firm that connects students and their families with student loans and loan refinancing, 49.8 percent believe they would be able to receive federal forgiveness on their student loans after graduation.
This fits with almost half of the millennials thinking socialism is awesome
Was that an actual Congress-passed law or one of former President Obama's phone-and-pen specials?
This belief is hardly justified, given the limited circumstances in which these loans can actually be forgiven.

The US Department of Education says that federal direct student loan borrowers can get off the hook if they enter public service jobs for a specified period of time, agree to teach in an underserved area, die or become permanently disabled, or if the school they attended shuts down while they are enrolled or within 120 days after they leave.
And with public service jobs getting fewer and fewer with government cuts, someone better be taking something besides gender studies
"The biggest exemption is the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program, and very few students go into public service," said Nate Matherson, who co-founded LendEDU in 2014.
Or was it one of those bureacratic edict thingies worked up by the department all by its veryownself?
"With maybe 14 percent of the American workforce in a public service job, the actual numbers of those who may qualify for student loan forgiveness or discharge is maybe below 10 percent.
Possibly less. I seem to recall President Trump ordering a public service hiring freeze for the next four or five years...
"The fact that many students do not understand this means that they may be significantly underestimating the cost of financing a college education," he added.
Gee... I wonder where they got that idea from after growing up under Obumble for 8 years?
Many students polled said they would rely on financial aid to make up the difference in reduced debt load. So while 90 percent knew of FASFA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid), 84 percent did not know the correct filing deadline for the application.

Mark Stephens is financial aid director at Pace University, where the "sticker price" annual tuition is $42,354 for the 2017-18 academic year, a figure that he says is on the average "about 50 percent discounted" through a combination of gift scholarships and other freebies like Pell Grants.
Expect to see forgiveness of student loans to become a major political issue in 8 years. I predict the taxpayers will be on the hook for it.
Posted by:DarthVader

#13  Perhaps this is related to those spam emails I keep getting about forgiving student debt. Do the same half also believe they can last longer and beat diabetes with acai?
Posted by: james   2017-03-02 20:27  

#12  I like Gorb's idea. Nothing better to kill socialist inclinations than to have the government take an every larger chunk of your paycheck.
Posted by: rjschwarz   2017-03-02 16:49  

#11  Why forgive the whole thing? Let them pay 15% of whatever they make until they either pay it back or die. At least it won't crush them out of existence.
Posted by: gorb   2017-03-02 15:03  

#10  A good percentage of them are certainly not ready for the real world.

Not true. I have floors which need mopping. My daughter could use one of them.
Posted by: swksvolFF   2017-03-02 13:08  

#9  become permanently disabled

Perhaps some lawyer will claim that their brains already are, based on the current curriculum and campus social requirements they face.

A good percentage of them are certainly not ready for the real world.
Posted by: Mullah Richard   2017-03-02 12:48  

#8  The entire history, ways, and means of economics and loans is sitting in their pocket. Probably an app if they don't feel like pencil, paper, no calculator.
Posted by: swksvolFF   2017-03-02 12:38  

#7  With the interest they charge on some of these loans they are paid back many times over before the principal is even dented. Hey, kids! It's a scam. There should be a truth in lending law that forces these kids to discover how long it will take them to repay the loans, and how much interest they will pay in the process, given their earning potential with their chosen academic majors.
Posted by: Abu Uluque   2017-03-02 12:06  

#6  I like the way you think Glenmore
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2017-03-02 11:30  

#5  A lot of these kids have been told this since their first visit of the tooth fairy.

But don't worry kids..the Easter Bunny will leave payment for your Promissory Notes over on Free Parking, Sorry! you hit a Mouse Trap, but it isn't my Boggle.
Posted by: swksvolFF   2017-03-02 10:36  

#4  That half will return to their own country after graduation and never be found again.
Posted by: Skidmark   2017-03-02 10:28  

#3  Let's make a deal: I get to set the curriculum and test standards, and if they graduate their loans can be forgiven.
Posted by: Glenmore   2017-03-02 10:24  

#2  ...And a disturbing number of students seem to believe that the loans will ultimately be forgiven on a national basis (as opposed to individual) because "everybody knows that the loans will never be paid back so the government will have to bail them out like they bailed out the banks and auto companies."

The first part - 'never be paid back' - may actually have some small truth to it. But the lil' darlings seem to forget that as long as you are getting money from someplace, even unemployment payments, all it takes is a couple lines of code and you're making the payments whether you want to or not. No debates in the media or Washington, no arguments on Capitol Hill, and definitely no chance for you to argue about how unfair it may or may not be. Just some minimum wage data entry drone hitting some keys to enforce an agreement you freely made, so you are not burdened with having to figure out how you're going to pay and have that much more time to reflect upon your choice of Medieval Gender Studies as your major.

And book this - If Hillary! had the good sense to even suggest the remote possibility of a review of student loans, she'd be President right now. The next Democratic candidate won't make the same mistake.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski   2017-03-02 06:03  

#1  Well, when you print up 20 Trillion dollars of debt (and climbing), at a certain point the eventual inflation can catch up on the numbers on the books*. Meanwhile, you still need to pay the minimum on your balance.


The bank holds a note on a 250k house before the Big Bust. After the Bust, the house is only worth 175K on the market. What do you do? You have your employees on the rotation at the Fed and Treasury print loads of money driving up real inflation while under reporting not to panic the rubes. Now, that house is once again worth 250K and your books are good. Meanwhile, the rubes get to cover your bad by paying twice as much at the stores for food, gas, and other daily commodities. It's almost as though it was a tax to bail you out.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2017-03-02 05:42  

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