Well, I graduated college 15 years ago and I owed around 30k. I started paying the year after and paid about $250 a month ever since. My balance is now 40k. Does that sound fair? After paying on time straight for 15 years I paid -10k. I know it’s from the interest but how much fucking interest should the government be making on this loan that they encouraged me to take? I also pay higher taxes than I would if I didn’t go to college and have as high a salary so they are making a bunch of profit from me. I’m just over here trying to make a good life for my family.
Does that sound fair? Harsh, but fair, yes. That’s how compound interest works. When someone takes decades to pay off a loan, it’s normal for the amount of interest to exceed the initial borrowing amount. Calculating payments on compound interest loans is high school math.
If you pay higher taxes, it’s because you make more money. If you make more money it means the deal you made was a success – your investment in higher education enabled you to get a higher paying job.
There’s nothing about that that sounds predatory to me. Unpleasant? Sure. But, life is often unpleasant.
As for what the government should charge in interest, who knows. That’s a question for politicians and voters to answer. Many countries around the world want their population to be educated, and as a result higher education is public, not private. It’s also not for profit and is paid for in taxes paid by the entire population. Apparently the majority of US voters don’t want that kind of system.
Would you rather be in the situation where you chose not to go to university and instead went directly into the workforce? You’d have 4 more extra years of earning from the time you didn’t go to college / university, and you wouldn’t have loans to pay off. But, you’d probably be making less money. I’m sure there are some people who looked at the student loans and realized just how much they’d be paying and for how long, and decided the deal wasn’t worth it, that college / university wasn’t for them. But, imagine how one of those people would feel today when they see the possibility that people who did make that deal might just have the loans cancelled so they get the education that enables higher wages, but without having to meet their obligations to pay back that loan?
Well considering the generations before me didn’t have to take out the same kind of loans to get an education it does seem unfair. My parents told me to follow in their footsteps not knowing that the path had changed so drastically. The information given to students isn’t sufficient for them to understand the cost of these loans. I understand how loans work but the interest is too high on these loans to be fair. The government shouldn’t be changing any interest in my view because having an educated population is what we want. And going forward I would like to see them do the same for anyone going to college.
Just because you say that’s how compound interest works doesn’t change the fact that it’s an unfair amount of interest. The interest rate is severely times higher than my mortgage and I can never get away from it. I was told that was the right choice if I wanted to get a job but I could have this same job without a degree.
