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>> The gov't will give you a loan, without doing any diligence on your ability to repay, but make it impossible to discharge your debt if you go bankrupt. No d

>> The gov't will give you a loan, without doing any diligence on your ability to repay, but make it impossible to discharge your debt if you go bankrupt. No due diligence.. guaranteed loan.. cannot be discharged in bankruptcy. Makes sense to me. If the gov't could discriminate on who it loans to for risk assessment then that's a different story.

Shivetya 11y ago
that plus they don't necessarily restrict the loans with regards to the education you are receiving. it is one thing to go into a field that is experiencing good growth it is another to enter one that is saturated or quickly saturating. It has always been my belief that if government is going to provide loans it should set limits on the cost of the education it is taking the risk for. It already sets limits on medical care through reimbursement rates, how hard would it be to limit course costs? The means test should be on what you are receiving, not necessarily who is receiving it.
- kuschku 11y ago
  In Germany, it’s simple: 1. If your parents earn enough to finance you studying, you won’t get a loan 2. The loan is limited to 800$ a month 3. If you fail too many courses, the loan is cancelled. But: 4. You only have to pay back in months in which you earn over 30k€ per year This allows the loans to be a lot less risky. I’d argue this is a much better system than what I read about the US tuition system, especially for the students. (Obviously, the large supply of free governmentally paid universities help drive the price down, too.)
  - jimbokun 11y ago
    "I’d argue this is a much better system than what I read about the US tuition system, especially for the students." As an American, it would be difficult to engineer a worse tuition system than ours.
    - kuschku 11y ago
      That’s not really true. You have student loans and state colleges – two very useful tools which make a college education possible for many poor people, too.
zo1 11y ago
>"If the gov't could discriminate on who it loans to for risk assessment then that's a different story. " If they could, they wouldn't be allowed to. As soon as a hint of racial/sexual/anything disparity is shown in who is getting the loans, there would be a massive uproar to "incentivise" the non-proportionately-represented class with loans. Then you're back to square one, as the loan process is then "not" to be used as a corrective measure for society's ills.

Shivetya 11y ago

that plus they don't necessarily restrict the loans with regards to the education you are receiving. it is one thing to go into a field that is experiencing good growth it is another to enter one that is saturated or quickly saturating. It has always been my belief that if government is going to provide loans it should set limits on the cost of the education it is taking the risk for. It already sets limits on medical care through reimbursement rates, how hard would it be to limit course costs? The means test should be on what you are receiving, not necessarily who is receiving it.

kuschku 11y ago
In Germany, it’s simple: 1. If your parents earn enough to finance you studying, you won’t get a loan 2. The loan is limited to 800$ a month 3. If you fail too many courses, the loan is cancelled. But: 4. You only have to pay back in months in which you earn over 30k€ per year This allows the loans to be a lot less risky. I’d argue this is a much better system than what I read about the US tuition system, especially for the students. (Obviously, the large supply of free governmentally paid universities help drive the price down, too.)
- jimbokun 11y ago
  "I’d argue this is a much better system than what I read about the US tuition system, especially for the students." As an American, it would be difficult to engineer a worse tuition system than ours.
  - kuschku 11y ago
    That’s not really true. You have student loans and state colleges – two very useful tools which make a college education possible for many poor people, too.

zo1 11y ago

>"If the gov't could discriminate on who it loans to for risk assessment then that's a different story. " If they could, they wouldn't be allowed to. As soon as a hint of racial/sexual/anything disparity is shown in who is getting the loans, there would be a massive uproar to "incentivise" the non-proportionately-represented class with loans. Then you're back to square one, as the loan process is then "not" to be used as a corrective measure for society's ills.