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Author's experiences aside, the American government looks like it really went through some absurd mental gymnastics when designing their college financial suppo

Author's experiences aside, the American government looks like it really went through some absurd mental gymnastics when designing their college financial support policies. They intervened in precisely the manner they should not have intervened and got everything wrong, it's almost remarkable. How did any policymaker with common sense not point out that playing the loan game would only end up in disaster? That it's downright moronic to forbid college loans from being eligible for bankruptcy and give every bank essentially a free pass to hand out as many bad loans as possible, and the colleges a free pass to charge as ridiculously as possible? They could have done a hundred other things to make higher education affordable without landing in this mess - scholarships, price ceilings, subsidies... What the hell happened?

catlover76 3y ago
Lawmakers are elected on the basis not of wisdom or skill, but because they win elections. Once in office, lawmakers have to worry about getting reelected. They aren't subject to an incentive structure that would encourage them to think long-term, etc.
- dartharva 3y ago
  Even so, this is so ominous anyone would be excused to suspect something more nefarious than sheer incompetence. Whether or not the lawmakers made it with vested interests, there should still have been someone to point it out! If the democratic setup of the most powerful country in the world can allow such degrees of stupidity it is quite concerning.
  - catlover76 3y ago
    > If the democratic setup of the most powerful country in the world can allow such degrees of stupidity it is quite concerning. Well, it's a democratic setup, so its competence is unfortunately proportional to that of its voting public... edit: to be clear, my two comments in this subthread should not be construed to be the typical cynical "politicians are dumb and corrupt" opinion; many of them are smart and well-meaning, but the overall system is not conducive to allowing or encouraging anyone to do anything useful.
jayski 3y ago
I think the obvious answer is they were thinking of what's best for banks not students or society.
Gibbon1 3y ago
> How did any policymaker with common sense not point out that playing the loan game would only end up in disaster? This is your economy and government policies on neoliberalism. Students are obviously just self interested consumers and the proper polices entail extracting at much money from them as efficiently as possible. Loans that are insured by the government are a high quality asset. And loans like that drive up the price of education. So even more. What's not to like?

catlover76 3y ago

Lawmakers are elected on the basis not of wisdom or skill, but because they win elections. Once in office, lawmakers have to worry about getting reelected. They aren't subject to an incentive structure that would encourage them to think long-term, etc.

dartharva 3y ago
Even so, this is so ominous anyone would be excused to suspect something more nefarious than sheer incompetence. Whether or not the lawmakers made it with vested interests, there should still have been someone to point it out! If the democratic setup of the most powerful country in the world can allow such degrees of stupidity it is quite concerning.
- catlover76 3y ago
  > If the democratic setup of the most powerful country in the world can allow such degrees of stupidity it is quite concerning. Well, it's a democratic setup, so its competence is unfortunately proportional to that of its voting public... edit: to be clear, my two comments in this subthread should not be construed to be the typical cynical "politicians are dumb and corrupt" opinion; many of them are smart and well-meaning, but the overall system is not conducive to allowing or encouraging anyone to do anything useful.

jayski 3y ago

I think the obvious answer is they were thinking of what's best for banks not students or society.

Gibbon1 3y ago

> How did any policymaker with common sense not point out that playing the loan game would only end up in disaster? This is your economy and government policies on neoliberalism. Students are obviously just self interested consumers and the proper polices entail extracting at much money from them as efficiently as possible. Loans that are insured by the government are a high quality asset. And loans like that drive up the price of education. So even more. What's not to like?