Yeah, if I didn't have a safe place to sleep, I agree, taking loans that I couldn't clear with bankruptcy would be something I'd be willing to do. Again, your

Yeah, if I didn't have a safe place to sleep, I agree, taking loans that I couldn't clear with bankruptcy would be something I'd be willing to do. Again, your point that I've never been in any situation that desperate is quite true. I've never experienced anything like that. My real worry though would be that: >going to school and (hopefully) dramatically raising ones earning potential isn't exactly a worthless pursuit. especially if you are going to a for-profit school? I... really think that this idea that formal education means more money is a lie that we sell vulnerable children, and a lie we sell ourselves, because we don't understand how to end the cycle of poverty. Then we sell them loans they can't get out of. It really seems pretty terrible to me. I went to a pretty poor high school - I make a lot more money than most of the people who went to school with me who have gone on to get two year degrees or four year degrees from low-end institutions. I'm not saying that education for educations sake isn't valuable; it is. I'm just saying that when it comes to ability to earn a living, for me and most of the people I've known, for the people who did well after going to school? School was part of a life that meant you were going to be successful; if you took someone who otherwise didn't have that life and sent them to a low-end school? it doesn't seem to help them much. college doesn't seem to do it without the parents... and at least in my experience, if you have the parents, they will push you in to college, but if you resist, it doesn't seem to depress your earning ability much. See, my real worry would be that I'd go to school and at the end of those four years I'd be no more employable than I was at the start, and at that point I'd be way worse off, because I'd have this big bunch of debt. None of this, of course, invalidates your suggestion that you take out the loans and use them to live while you get a regular job again, doing whatever minimum work is required to keep the loans. Obviously, having a place to sleep, shower, and basic transportation is going to make getting a job way easier- so yes, your suggestion is a completely reasonable last resort suggestion. I think the pushback you are feeling is that I felt like your attitude towards those loans was that they were no big deal, and personally, I think they are a very big deal, especially if you are trying to live on the salary you get if you have a for-profit degree and nothing else.