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Originally Posted by Replaced_Texan
Anne Helen Petersen at Buzzfeed is one of my favorite longform authors, and she did a piece on student debt a few days ago.
It's not the first, or the last, but it is really compelling and does an awesome job at showing how fucked over we have become in thinking that we live in an every-man-for-himself society rather than moving together to invest in the collective good. |
That's a damn good article.
Generally, we need to break the stranglehold that big education is using to extort money from kids. At the same time, we need to get rid of the current student loan system.
Credentialism has gone way too far in this country. Kids study for the test so they can satisfy the criteria demanded by HR departments. Every position needs some moronic certification or degree, and most these certifications and degrees aren't worth shit. They're entirely academic and largely inapplicable to what one is doing in the real world. And yet, corporate America, lazy as it is, uses these silly measures to winnow out applicants.
Peter Thiel is wrong about a lot, but he's dead right in suggesting that many bright kids should bag college and go straight into the workforce. Tech seems to embrace the idea of talent over credentials as well. Hopefully, this trend will continue.
As to student loans, they should be dischargeable up to 50% in bankruptcy. No 18 year old should have to suffer a miserable existence because when she was immature she was allowed to take out a loan for $150k for a degree in social work or modern dance, or because she decided to do the right thing and get a STEM degree only to find that everyone else did that same thing and she found herself graduating into a job market glutted with STEM degree holders.
When the loans become dischargeable, you'll see the Feds act more prudently in lending. You'll see the private lenders exit the market entirely. This will force Big Education to provide value, rather than sushi bars in the student union. This might, if we're lucky, compel Big Education to run like an actual corporation -- to fire the dead weight on its employment rolls, stop wasteful spending on shiny new dorms to attract more govt backed loan money, and refocus on providing education at a reasonable price.
This will, of course, require a house cleaning of most of the management at universities as well. Having dealt with education professionals on projects, I can say, and would probably find much agreement here, that there is nothing more dangerous and clueless than a lifelong educator with an MBA. These people should be barred from all budgets and all funds save perhaps petty cash.
I believe Warren may make student loans dischargeable for at least millenials. That's one of the reasons that I like her, despite having strong reservations about many of her other policy prescriptions.
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