A Bachelor's in Borrowing
A Bachelor's in Borrowing
Excerpt:
As Americans curb their spending and battle to keep up with credit cards and mortgages, another type of debt is starting to overtake people: student loans. Although the U.S. has experienced economic downturns before, never has one converged with such high levels of student debt.
Total borrowing for school has more than doubled to $85 billion in the 2007-2008 school year from $41 billion 10 years earlier, adjusted for inflation, according to the College Board, the research and testing concern. The percentage of private loans, which generally carry less-generous terms, has ballooned to 23% from 7%. Meanwhile, subsidized federal aid has remained relatively flat at about $42.8 billion per year.
Comment: Schools activity encourage new student borrowing!
I remember being amazed at the number of credit card offers I got when I started college in 1987. Didn't have to take out loans, but WOW.
ReplyDeleteGary North commented, I believe, that college is where people learn to really consume, go into debt, and get used to really boring tasks. Learning? Not so much. The authors of "The Millionaire Next Door" said about the same.
Who the heck can afford college at 20-50 thousand a year? And it keeps going up.
ReplyDeleteYou think GM has too much overpriced employee overhead to compete? We need to slash the costs of administration and professors at colleges.
There is nothing new but higher costs! Ridiculous!
JP, I think we had a discussion awhile ago about the price of college and whether high priced institutions really gave much of an advantage or not. I don't think they hurt of course, but on the other hand, there are many, many CEOs of well respected institutions in this country who went to places like St. Cloud State or some unknown little private college instead of an Ivy League or similar caliber school.
ReplyDeletehigh priced schools: My daughter went to Mankato State (MN) which is a L - O - N - G way from Ivy League. She worked her way through college (started working at 14!) and graduated in the top of her class (not # 1 but close). She has an "Ivy-League" job at 3M.
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