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You are, like the article making the very unfair and very wrong equation of her financials and every college student in America. I’m not saying that “college st

You are, like the article making the very unfair and very wrong equation of her financials and every college student in America. I’m not saying that “college students need to make better choices” I am saying that this is an article about one individual who knowingly made bad choices and is now trying to claim ignorance and blame an industry that did nothing wrong in this specific case. We could ban loans altogether on the grounds that some people cannot handle the financial responsibility that they bring about. Or only allow loans to people who are 50 years old+ but what sort of world would that put us in? The solution she wants is for someone to say “you don’t need to pay any more money, you already payed enough so we’ll let you off the hook” the actual solution would have been someone telling her before “you don’t have the money to take the education you want, go find a 9-5.

matthewmacleod 8y ago
I don’t think I am making that mistake. What I read in that article was something like: “I made some bad decisions about financing, but the wider system is a problem for the following reasons.” You’re right that from a technical point of view nothing was done wrong. A college student signed up to a loan, agreed to the terms, and was subsequently shocked by the extent to which it was difficult to pay it off. I disagree that she’s asking to be “let off the hook” but is instead using her case to highlight the wider problems in this system. There are wider-ranging options than banning loans or restricting them to older people. Making college more affordable, or regulating interest rates, or providing a government-backed system for college funding are all alternatives. At some point, if a huge number of people are struggling with a system, it’s reasonable to ask how it can be reformed - because this isn’t an isolated case. The focus on individual decisions risks missing out on a discussion about how that wider problem can be solved - that students feel the need to get into this debt in the first place.

matthewmacleod 8y ago

I don’t think I am making that mistake. What I read in that article was something like: “I made some bad decisions about financing, but the wider system is a problem for the following reasons.” You’re right that from a technical point of view nothing was done wrong. A college student signed up to a loan, agreed to the terms, and was subsequently shocked by the extent to which it was difficult to pay it off. I disagree that she’s asking to be “let off the hook” but is instead using her case to highlight the wider problems in this system. There are wider-ranging options than banning loans or restricting them to older people. Making college more affordable, or regulating interest rates, or providing a government-backed system for college funding are all alternatives. At some point, if a huge number of people are struggling with a system, it’s reasonable to ask how it can be reformed - because this isn’t an isolated case. The focus on individual decisions risks missing out on a discussion about how that wider problem can be solved - that students feel the need to get into this debt in the first place.