4 ms·

I'm not sure what you mean by "half a decades debt". At some point people have to be treated as adults. If your parents aren't up to advising you on financial

by tsotha 14y ago

I'm not sure what you mean by "half a decades debt". At some point people have to be treated as adults. If your parents aren't up to advising you on financial matters you have to get outside help. Or you figure it out yourself. I refuse to accept the notion we should alter agreements freely entered into by adults in an effort to protect them from themselves.

zanny 14y ago
I don't think so either, I just don't think its an excuse to say colleges and universities (especially since they are all federally funded) can practice extremely predatory financing expecting a kids parents to know better for them. I agree you should not alter open agreements, but those agreements are already biased by federal dollars in the form of guaranteed stafford loans. We need to get rid of federal loan and grant guarantees that are not merit based limited funding that happens after acceptance (so that schools can't focus target anyone getting a federal scholarship).
- tsotha 14y ago
  I would get rid of GSLs. I would go further, too, and make the current financing process illegal. Imagine if you went to the local car dealer and he told you "Every car on the lot is $200k. But give me a detailed listing of your assets and income and I'll adjust the price such that you can barely afford to buy one if you take out as much financing as possible." That kind of price discrimination is illegal for your local car dealer, but it's exactly what happens when your kid goes off to college. Not only that, colleges collude so that you can't play one college off against another. Of course what they say is they're just making sure they have a "diverse" student body by cutting the less well off students a deal. But the net effect is the college takes in the maximum amount of money in tuition. It's the biggest driver of ever-rising tuition, and were I in Congress I'd go on the freakin' warpath against this industry.
  - tilgovi 14y ago
    Here you are talking sense.

by tsotha 14y ago

zanny 14y ago

I don't think so either, I just don't think its an excuse to say colleges and universities (especially since they are all federally funded) can practice extremely predatory financing expecting a kids parents to know better for them. I agree you should not alter open agreements, but those agreements are already biased by federal dollars in the form of guaranteed stafford loans. We need to get rid of federal loan and grant guarantees that are not merit based limited funding that happens after acceptance (so that schools can't focus target anyone getting a federal scholarship).

tsotha 14y ago
I would get rid of GSLs. I would go further, too, and make the current financing process illegal. Imagine if you went to the local car dealer and he told you "Every car on the lot is $200k. But give me a detailed listing of your assets and income and I'll adjust the price such that you can barely afford to buy one if you take out as much financing as possible." That kind of price discrimination is illegal for your local car dealer, but it's exactly what happens when your kid goes off to college. Not only that, colleges collude so that you can't play one college off against another. Of course what they say is they're just making sure they have a "diverse" student body by cutting the less well off students a deal. But the net effect is the college takes in the maximum amount of money in tuition. It's the biggest driver of ever-rising tuition, and were I in Congress I'd go on the freakin' warpath against this industry.
- tilgovi 14y ago
  Here you are talking sense.