Fucking THANK YOU. Jesus christ. This is why I don’t argue with people over the internet. Also, as someone who is trapped by student loan debt, big ol’ fuck you to Linda McMahon, who is a classless and tasteless loser who is only good at exploiting people, just like her monster of a husband.
Hopefully we'll come together as a society and help you with that ridiculous debt. I mean, billionaires don't have to pay their debts, so why should hardworking people? Thanks for your comment!
Yeah. Like all of it is predatory. I fucking hate it. “BUT YOU SIGNED UP FOR IT”, yeah, at 18. I’m 35 and have been paying it for over 10 years at this point. I paid what I owe. Unlike all the politicians who made up bullshit businesses to get free cash. Or all of the other outright waste, fraud, and abuse in that program.
No one should be allowed to have more than 79 million in personal finance. That is the GDP of the smallest nation. If they can do it, one fucking family can.
I 100% agree and I tried to address that argument in the article... but there are so many fraudulent arguments that get thrown at kids. All we have to do to make university free is make student loans dischargeable. It's so infuriating how the rich are able to wage class warfare against hardworking kids who only want to better themselves. We'll keep working this problem. If we keep speaking they'll have to hear us eventually.
Preaching to the choir. I work for Aetna so I get to deal with smug ass executives thinking an employee making less than 40k a year is going to be able to afford care with a 5K out of pocket deductible. Scumbags all around. I feel like these people never played the “why” game and really actually thought about why shit is the way it is and why it sucks.
I also find the delicious irony of Christians who gain massive wealth at the expense of the poor and marginalized who are trying to better ourselves.
Here’s a story to consider: my partner is a psychologist who has spent a good part of her career caring for our various social crises, notably at-risk girls and domestic violence support. Because of her commitment and service, she recently qualified for a State program meant to pay off her student debt. Facing a desperate shortage of qualified health care professionals, our State adopted an incentive program to retain our best.
She once asked me why, as professionals in our 50s, we can’t vacation in Europe each summer like the professionals of the generations before ours. I asked her how much her student loan payments had been for the last 20 years: $1200 a month. That’s the money those people saved to spend on summers in Europe, I told her.
There’s the difference. Even for the accomplished and productive among us today, a good deal of our income goes to service our educational debt. After all our hard work, nothing is left to bettor ourselves.
Now here’s the part that suggests an even worse problem: the State pledged to pay off her loans over three $50,000 disbursements. Yeah, it’s still that much after 20 years at $1200 a month. The principle has barely diminished. But with State relief she can continue to serve her community and maybe start saving to finally visit Europe.
The student loan servicer denies the payments. They simply won’t accept payments from the State on her behalf. Why? One guess might be plain incompetence: no one she speaks to seems to know how to arrange a third party payment. Meanwhile I can send a check from my account to her credit card servicer, no problem— just write the account number on it somewhere—but somehow her student loan servicer won’t accept a similar payment from a State agency on her behalf. How hard can it be to solve that problem?
Maybe they just don’t want to. Because each day they don’t post a 50k principle payment is another day they add hundreds in interest. And there’s the rub.
When I took out my own student loans I was 18 and hardly understood what it meant to sign such a commitment. I was a child. But I was assured my education was the most important thing, and that our goverment, our financial institutions, and our society were investing in me. Investing in us, and our collective future.
We were lied to and we were conned. They didn’t lie to us about the importance of a higher education; they lied to us that they cared about it. What they really cared about was creating income streams for themselves that a bunch of idealistic kids would never question, and could never revoke. Income streams immune to risk, as the government would underwrite any defaults. And then the government covered its own bet by decreeing student debts could not be relieved through bankruptcy. And so we became free money paid to the banks for the rest of our careers. We wre lied to and we were conned. Our government failed us by outsourcing our values to commercial entities that always meant to just steal from us.
It’s simple: my partner earned assistance to satisfy her debt while her debtors do everything they can to make sure she continues to send them $1200 a month forever. They don’t want to invest in us; they want to get rich off of us. Some version of my partner’s story is at the root of most all our stories of struggle to pay our loans. It’s just a mean fantasy that we are generations of con artists and crooks. It was con artists and crooks that set this trap.
Thanks for sharing that. The idea that banks won't take payments to clear debt is astonishing. It has to be in your name? Wealthy benefactors can't clear your debt either? I mean, if corporations can be considered people and make campaign donations because of free speech, why are there restrictions on who can pay off our debt? The contradictions make my head hurt. Thanks for sharing.
The rules thee is not for me as the rich say. They get all the breaks that they do not need. They do not help the little people. The greed is off the charts. There are some rich that do good with their money. People like the ex wife of bill Gates and also Brzos. Funny how the women seem to get it. Although Mark Cuban gets it as does it looks like Bill Gatesis going to do some good. But the others just want more and the rest offs can rot.
I'm afraid even the ones who seem to be doing good works are just engaging in performative actions. Every single billionaire exists because they stole our labor. It's really frustrating. Thanks for the comment Teri!
The billionaire class is in competition with itself. They get a high when they climb up above their next higher billionaire buddy on the Forbes list. Few, if any, will quote Bill Gates when he said, “People will say many things about me but they won’t be able to say I died rich!”
Thank you for this. I have argued with several people who say, “ I paid my loan. They should pay theirs.” I know of a loan that ballooned from 40k to 140k because the loan was sold several times, the recipient had a misfortunate few years when the loan couldn’t be paid. Now this recipient has had this over their heads their entire working life.
The these people believe in Socialism for themselves and Austerity for everyone else! A favorite host on MSNBC some years ago, Dylan Ratigan, identified them as exactly what they are… GREEDY BASTARDS.
I'm gonna apologize before laying out my pseudo-diatribe, Walter. I'm sorry, but this topic riles me up.
I agree with nearly everything you say - the cruel imbalance between how society treats students v. billionaires, and the systemic injustices baked into our educational financing model (which just totally sucks). But I take issue with one recurring theme - the infantilization of adolescents and young adults.
We cannot simultaneously champion education and act like young adults are incapable of understanding the stakes. That disempowers them and contradicts the very essence of what education should be: a tool for agency.
At 17 or 18, we’re told we aren’t capable of grasping complex financial decisions. But that’s not true - it’s that no one is actually teaching us how to. I signed for a $32k student loan, and I’ve now paid back $88k with $16k still left to go. Had someone clearly broken it down for me and had respected me enough to explain the long-term cost and what “capitalized interest” really meant - I absolutely had the maturity to make an informed choice. Would it have been 'better'? No idea. But I wasn’t incapable. I was kept uninformed.
That’s what I see as the real failure.
We have a responsibility not just to allow young people to dream, but to make sure they have the tools to decide well. We should teach them how the system works, not protect them from it under the false assumption that they “won’t get it.” They will, if we teach them. That’s what education is all about.
Yes, the system is broken, the loans are predatory, and forgiveness is long overdue. But infantilizing young adults reinforces the same cycle of disempowerment... that's why we have so many misinformed adults... we started that trend young. Let’s instead give people real knowledge and choices. Let’s make sure the fields they’re going into are employable, relevant, and valuable in the real world. That’s our obligation.
Yeah, personally, I want out from under this mess, but we need to stop underestimating young adults, and start teaching them instead. (Sorry!)
I address this topic a lot in my articles. I grew up in a rural red community and the schooling and indoctrination is deliberately designed to brainwash people. We don’t adequately teach our 18 year olds what they’re signing up for. People’s brains aren’t fully developed at 18, that’s a biological fact. Evil people have exploited this.
We can’t expect people to pass a Physics test if they havent been taught Physics. It’s not their fault when they fail. It’s our fault for not preparing them.
Thanks for your comment, I think this exchange helps illustrate the reality of the challenge we’re facing.
Fucking THANK YOU. Jesus christ. This is why I don’t argue with people over the internet. Also, as someone who is trapped by student loan debt, big ol’ fuck you to Linda McMahon, who is a classless and tasteless loser who is only good at exploiting people, just like her monster of a husband.
Hopefully we'll come together as a society and help you with that ridiculous debt. I mean, billionaires don't have to pay their debts, so why should hardworking people? Thanks for your comment!
Yeah. Like all of it is predatory. I fucking hate it. “BUT YOU SIGNED UP FOR IT”, yeah, at 18. I’m 35 and have been paying it for over 10 years at this point. I paid what I owe. Unlike all the politicians who made up bullshit businesses to get free cash. Or all of the other outright waste, fraud, and abuse in that program.
No one should be allowed to have more than 79 million in personal finance. That is the GDP of the smallest nation. If they can do it, one fucking family can.
I 100% agree and I tried to address that argument in the article... but there are so many fraudulent arguments that get thrown at kids. All we have to do to make university free is make student loans dischargeable. It's so infuriating how the rich are able to wage class warfare against hardworking kids who only want to better themselves. We'll keep working this problem. If we keep speaking they'll have to hear us eventually.
Preaching to the choir. I work for Aetna so I get to deal with smug ass executives thinking an employee making less than 40k a year is going to be able to afford care with a 5K out of pocket deductible. Scumbags all around. I feel like these people never played the “why” game and really actually thought about why shit is the way it is and why it sucks.
I also find the delicious irony of Christians who gain massive wealth at the expense of the poor and marginalized who are trying to better ourselves.
Here’s a story to consider: my partner is a psychologist who has spent a good part of her career caring for our various social crises, notably at-risk girls and domestic violence support. Because of her commitment and service, she recently qualified for a State program meant to pay off her student debt. Facing a desperate shortage of qualified health care professionals, our State adopted an incentive program to retain our best.
She once asked me why, as professionals in our 50s, we can’t vacation in Europe each summer like the professionals of the generations before ours. I asked her how much her student loan payments had been for the last 20 years: $1200 a month. That’s the money those people saved to spend on summers in Europe, I told her.
There’s the difference. Even for the accomplished and productive among us today, a good deal of our income goes to service our educational debt. After all our hard work, nothing is left to bettor ourselves.
Now here’s the part that suggests an even worse problem: the State pledged to pay off her loans over three $50,000 disbursements. Yeah, it’s still that much after 20 years at $1200 a month. The principle has barely diminished. But with State relief she can continue to serve her community and maybe start saving to finally visit Europe.
The student loan servicer denies the payments. They simply won’t accept payments from the State on her behalf. Why? One guess might be plain incompetence: no one she speaks to seems to know how to arrange a third party payment. Meanwhile I can send a check from my account to her credit card servicer, no problem— just write the account number on it somewhere—but somehow her student loan servicer won’t accept a similar payment from a State agency on her behalf. How hard can it be to solve that problem?
Maybe they just don’t want to. Because each day they don’t post a 50k principle payment is another day they add hundreds in interest. And there’s the rub.
When I took out my own student loans I was 18 and hardly understood what it meant to sign such a commitment. I was a child. But I was assured my education was the most important thing, and that our goverment, our financial institutions, and our society were investing in me. Investing in us, and our collective future.
We were lied to and we were conned. They didn’t lie to us about the importance of a higher education; they lied to us that they cared about it. What they really cared about was creating income streams for themselves that a bunch of idealistic kids would never question, and could never revoke. Income streams immune to risk, as the government would underwrite any defaults. And then the government covered its own bet by decreeing student debts could not be relieved through bankruptcy. And so we became free money paid to the banks for the rest of our careers. We wre lied to and we were conned. Our government failed us by outsourcing our values to commercial entities that always meant to just steal from us.
It’s simple: my partner earned assistance to satisfy her debt while her debtors do everything they can to make sure she continues to send them $1200 a month forever. They don’t want to invest in us; they want to get rich off of us. Some version of my partner’s story is at the root of most all our stories of struggle to pay our loans. It’s just a mean fantasy that we are generations of con artists and crooks. It was con artists and crooks that set this trap.
Thanks for sharing that. The idea that banks won't take payments to clear debt is astonishing. It has to be in your name? Wealthy benefactors can't clear your debt either? I mean, if corporations can be considered people and make campaign donations because of free speech, why are there restrictions on who can pay off our debt? The contradictions make my head hurt. Thanks for sharing.
Thought this might resonate: We extracted the divine from the land, turned medicine into management. Turned prayer into product. Turned community into content. https://thehiddenclinic.substack.com/p/the-myth-beneath-the-machine
The rules thee is not for me as the rich say. They get all the breaks that they do not need. They do not help the little people. The greed is off the charts. There are some rich that do good with their money. People like the ex wife of bill Gates and also Brzos. Funny how the women seem to get it. Although Mark Cuban gets it as does it looks like Bill Gatesis going to do some good. But the others just want more and the rest offs can rot.
I'm afraid even the ones who seem to be doing good works are just engaging in performative actions. Every single billionaire exists because they stole our labor. It's really frustrating. Thanks for the comment Teri!
The billionaire class is in competition with itself. They get a high when they climb up above their next higher billionaire buddy on the Forbes list. Few, if any, will quote Bill Gates when he said, “People will say many things about me but they won’t be able to say I died rich!”
Yeah, they live in a different world.
Toxic people are just evil and stupid ! They hate any and everything that they feel intimidated by!
Yup, and lazy.
I think you hit the nail on the head.
Yay for telling truth! Wish I could share this.
You should be able to share this. Thank you!
Nailed it, Walter.
Thanks!
💯
Thank you!
Thank you for this. I have argued with several people who say, “ I paid my loan. They should pay theirs.” I know of a loan that ballooned from 40k to 140k because the loan was sold several times, the recipient had a misfortunate few years when the loan couldn’t be paid. Now this recipient has had this over their heads their entire working life.
Preditory economics are not necessarily limited to capitalism but that is our system's worst case application.
The these people believe in Socialism for themselves and Austerity for everyone else! A favorite host on MSNBC some years ago, Dylan Ratigan, identified them as exactly what they are… GREEDY BASTARDS.
Well done. I certainly agree!
Thank you!
I'm gonna apologize before laying out my pseudo-diatribe, Walter. I'm sorry, but this topic riles me up.
I agree with nearly everything you say - the cruel imbalance between how society treats students v. billionaires, and the systemic injustices baked into our educational financing model (which just totally sucks). But I take issue with one recurring theme - the infantilization of adolescents and young adults.
We cannot simultaneously champion education and act like young adults are incapable of understanding the stakes. That disempowers them and contradicts the very essence of what education should be: a tool for agency.
At 17 or 18, we’re told we aren’t capable of grasping complex financial decisions. But that’s not true - it’s that no one is actually teaching us how to. I signed for a $32k student loan, and I’ve now paid back $88k with $16k still left to go. Had someone clearly broken it down for me and had respected me enough to explain the long-term cost and what “capitalized interest” really meant - I absolutely had the maturity to make an informed choice. Would it have been 'better'? No idea. But I wasn’t incapable. I was kept uninformed.
That’s what I see as the real failure.
We have a responsibility not just to allow young people to dream, but to make sure they have the tools to decide well. We should teach them how the system works, not protect them from it under the false assumption that they “won’t get it.” They will, if we teach them. That’s what education is all about.
Yes, the system is broken, the loans are predatory, and forgiveness is long overdue. But infantilizing young adults reinforces the same cycle of disempowerment... that's why we have so many misinformed adults... we started that trend young. Let’s instead give people real knowledge and choices. Let’s make sure the fields they’re going into are employable, relevant, and valuable in the real world. That’s our obligation.
Yeah, personally, I want out from under this mess, but we need to stop underestimating young adults, and start teaching them instead. (Sorry!)
I address this topic a lot in my articles. I grew up in a rural red community and the schooling and indoctrination is deliberately designed to brainwash people. We don’t adequately teach our 18 year olds what they’re signing up for. People’s brains aren’t fully developed at 18, that’s a biological fact. Evil people have exploited this.
We can’t expect people to pass a Physics test if they havent been taught Physics. It’s not their fault when they fail. It’s our fault for not preparing them.
Thanks for your comment, I think this exchange helps illustrate the reality of the challenge we’re facing.