5 ms·

Maybe it's just old-fashioned thinking (you know, like Henry Ford or J.P. Morgan) but I had always been taught "Don't buy stuff you can't afford!" kind of like

Maybe it's just old-fashioned thinking (you know, like Henry Ford or J.P. Morgan) but I had always been taught "Don't buy stuff you can't afford!" kind of like this SNL clip: http://www.hulu.com/watch/1389/saturday-night-live-dont-buy-stuff http://www.hulu.com/watch/1389/saturday-night-live-dont-buy-... It's really too bad that students are sandwiched between the "Gimme everything now!" attitude and such a grim employment outlook, but since when should you not have to repay what you borrowed? It's almost like such easily available credit of the past few decades has caused us to forget what exactly a loan is: borrowing money with the promise to repay it in the future.

alphadogg 15y ago
The flipside is how much talent is squandered, on a national level, when that talent is not buying what they can't afford? Layer in that there's a problem with the disproportionate rising costs of tuition; college in the US is now three times more expensive, in inflation-adjusted real dollars, than it was in the late seventies. But the average person isn’t earning three times more money than they did back then.
lawnchair_larry 15y ago
It's easy to think this way if you aren't an 18 year old naive kid in front of predatory lenders and everyone else around you telling you that this is the normal way things work and you are worthless without a college education. Unfortunately, you don't get a second chance. How many things did you have to sign at 18 years old that will haunt you to your grave? As for when you should not have to repay what you borrowed, well, that is pretty common in business and no one plays the deadbeat card.
- firefoxman1 15y ago
  ...I am 18, well, almost 19. I chose community college for 2 years while I save up for the university I plan to attend. Yeah, people tend to judge when you don't choose a "real" college at first. It seems unambitious to everyone in my family except my grandfather (coincidentally he's the financial guru who got me into investing), but knowing I won't be in debt when I graduate is more than worth it. I completely agree that there is a lot of pressure to go straight into the most prestigious college you can. Between for-profit college TV ads pressing the importance of a degree, school counselors telling you to "aim high" and constant expectations of everyone around you it's much easier, socially at least, to go straight for the expensive university. It's nothing new, though; as Henry Ford put it, "Luring people into debt is an industry." Looks like that industry is still going strong. I didn't mean to come across as arrogant with my first comment. It's certainly hard to go against the current, and I think the main problem is schools and parents not encouraging an affordable college, at least for the first few years, as a viable option. People just tend to be blinded by hype and expectations, not wanting to disappoint the family name. There's certainly a lot of that attitude where I went to school.
breathesalt 15y ago
Don't you think getting a loan to buy something you couldn't have been able to afford in the first place is irresponsible? With that said, tuition is artificially high because of these readily available student loans, reducing the pressure to innovate in education.
- firefoxman1 15y ago
  Yeah I completely agree. It's a really educational experience to be in the middle of this college bubble. A lot of economics can be learned through all this.

alphadogg 15y ago

The flipside is how much talent is squandered, on a national level, when that talent is not buying what they can't afford? Layer in that there's a problem with the disproportionate rising costs of tuition; college in the US is now three times more expensive, in inflation-adjusted real dollars, than it was in the late seventies. But the average person isn’t earning three times more money than they did back then.

lawnchair_larry 15y ago

It's easy to think this way if you aren't an 18 year old naive kid in front of predatory lenders and everyone else around you telling you that this is the normal way things work and you are worthless without a college education. Unfortunately, you don't get a second chance. How many things did you have to sign at 18 years old that will haunt you to your grave? As for when you should not have to repay what you borrowed, well, that is pretty common in business and no one plays the deadbeat card.

firefoxman1 15y ago
...I am 18, well, almost 19. I chose community college for 2 years while I save up for the university I plan to attend. Yeah, people tend to judge when you don't choose a "real" college at first. It seems unambitious to everyone in my family except my grandfather (coincidentally he's the financial guru who got me into investing), but knowing I won't be in debt when I graduate is more than worth it. I completely agree that there is a lot of pressure to go straight into the most prestigious college you can. Between for-profit college TV ads pressing the importance of a degree, school counselors telling you to "aim high" and constant expectations of everyone around you it's much easier, socially at least, to go straight for the expensive university. It's nothing new, though; as Henry Ford put it, "Luring people into debt is an industry." Looks like that industry is still going strong. I didn't mean to come across as arrogant with my first comment. It's certainly hard to go against the current, and I think the main problem is schools and parents not encouraging an affordable college, at least for the first few years, as a viable option. People just tend to be blinded by hype and expectations, not wanting to disappoint the family name. There's certainly a lot of that attitude where I went to school.

breathesalt 15y ago

Don't you think getting a loan to buy something you couldn't have been able to afford in the first place is irresponsible? With that said, tuition is artificially high because of these readily available student loans, reducing the pressure to innovate in education.

firefoxman1 15y ago
Yeah I completely agree. It's a really educational experience to be in the middle of this college bubble. A lot of economics can be learned through all this.