Stalin
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Apr 4, 2008
- Messages
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Normally my posts get little or no reaction, even the ones that I choose to present a faintly "right-wing" message.
However, some of you may have a student loan, while suspecting that the majority do not.
"...
According to a federal government agency, student loan debt in the US surpassed 1 trillion dollars “several months ago.” The finding, reported by a spokesman for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to a banking conference in Austin, Texas on Wednesday, is “much larger” (in his words) than other recent estimates.
..
Total student loan debt has grown by 511 percent, or more, over the past dozen years. In the first quarter of 1999, a mere $90 billion in student loans were outstanding. That figure had soared to $550 billion in the second quarter of 2011, which may turn out to have been an underestimation. Between 1999-2000 and 2007-2008, private student loan borrowing grew four times, from $4.5 billion to $21.8 billion per year. The College Board reports that, adjusted for inflation, students are borrowing twice what they did a decade ago.
According to the Project on Student Debt, some two-thirds of college seniors graduated with loans in 2010. Those graduates also faced the highest official unemployment rate for young college graduates in recent history, 9.1 percent. The Economic Policy Institute estimates that between 2000 and 2011, college-educated men and women entering the workforce saw their inflation-adjusted earnings fall 5.2 percent and 4.4 percent, respectively.
A recent study by NERA Economic Consulting points out that the 37 million people in the US currently holding student debt are “concentrated in the younger segment of the population, as more than 60 percent of the total is between the ages of 18 and 39.”
The consulting firm adds, “One of the most worrisome student borrowing trends is the increase in the number of high-debt borrowers who carry debt loads far above $25,000, the national average amongst undergraduate student borrowers. Student debt loads of $50,000, $100,000, and $200,000 are still the minority, but those high figures are becoming more common, and with unknown consequences for the individual debtors or the economy as a whole.”
Moreover, private and public lenders have “broad collection powers, far greater than those of mortgage or credit card lenders. The debt can’t be shed in bankruptcy” (USA Today).
The New York Federal Reserve estimates that as many as one in four borrowers who have begun repaying their student debts are already behind on payments. The situation means, for many, postponing moving out from their parents’ residence (some 6 million people between the ages of 25 and 34 are still living at home), buying a house, marrying or having children.
Meanwhile, the cost of a college education has skyrocketed. The US Department of Education pointed out in August 2009 that while inflation had increased two and a half times over the previous 30 years, and medical costs six times, the cost of a college education had risen tenfold.
Average annual tuition at private universities in the United States is now more than $27,000 (room and board adds tens of thousands of dollars more). Harvard University charged students $600 a year in 1952 for tuition, or some $5,100 in 2012 dollars—the university’s tuition is presently $35,000. Although it may seem unbelievable to those of a certain generation, students attended the City University of New York for free until 1975.
more at http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/mar2012/debt-m24.shtml
Comrade Stalin
However, some of you may have a student loan, while suspecting that the majority do not.
"...
According to a federal government agency, student loan debt in the US surpassed 1 trillion dollars “several months ago.” The finding, reported by a spokesman for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to a banking conference in Austin, Texas on Wednesday, is “much larger” (in his words) than other recent estimates.
..
Total student loan debt has grown by 511 percent, or more, over the past dozen years. In the first quarter of 1999, a mere $90 billion in student loans were outstanding. That figure had soared to $550 billion in the second quarter of 2011, which may turn out to have been an underestimation. Between 1999-2000 and 2007-2008, private student loan borrowing grew four times, from $4.5 billion to $21.8 billion per year. The College Board reports that, adjusted for inflation, students are borrowing twice what they did a decade ago.
According to the Project on Student Debt, some two-thirds of college seniors graduated with loans in 2010. Those graduates also faced the highest official unemployment rate for young college graduates in recent history, 9.1 percent. The Economic Policy Institute estimates that between 2000 and 2011, college-educated men and women entering the workforce saw their inflation-adjusted earnings fall 5.2 percent and 4.4 percent, respectively.
A recent study by NERA Economic Consulting points out that the 37 million people in the US currently holding student debt are “concentrated in the younger segment of the population, as more than 60 percent of the total is between the ages of 18 and 39.”
The consulting firm adds, “One of the most worrisome student borrowing trends is the increase in the number of high-debt borrowers who carry debt loads far above $25,000, the national average amongst undergraduate student borrowers. Student debt loads of $50,000, $100,000, and $200,000 are still the minority, but those high figures are becoming more common, and with unknown consequences for the individual debtors or the economy as a whole.”
Moreover, private and public lenders have “broad collection powers, far greater than those of mortgage or credit card lenders. The debt can’t be shed in bankruptcy” (USA Today).
The New York Federal Reserve estimates that as many as one in four borrowers who have begun repaying their student debts are already behind on payments. The situation means, for many, postponing moving out from their parents’ residence (some 6 million people between the ages of 25 and 34 are still living at home), buying a house, marrying or having children.
Meanwhile, the cost of a college education has skyrocketed. The US Department of Education pointed out in August 2009 that while inflation had increased two and a half times over the previous 30 years, and medical costs six times, the cost of a college education had risen tenfold.
Average annual tuition at private universities in the United States is now more than $27,000 (room and board adds tens of thousands of dollars more). Harvard University charged students $600 a year in 1952 for tuition, or some $5,100 in 2012 dollars—the university’s tuition is presently $35,000. Although it may seem unbelievable to those of a certain generation, students attended the City University of New York for free until 1975.
more at http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/mar2012/debt-m24.shtml
Comrade Stalin
