Raise your hand....then raise a ruckus.

[kyburg]

reannon hits one out of the park regarding student loans and being EVER so lucky to have gotten them. And how the LUCK just keeps on coming, year after bloody year.

The Cato Institute is at:

Cato Institute
1000 Massachusetts Ave, NW
Washington DC 20001-5403
Phone (202) 842-0200
Fax (202) 842-3490

And of course, you visit and you wanna 'contact them' - they have a pre-built form you can fill out.

You know what to do.

Comments

[marnanel.livejournal.com]

Not only that, but the feds get more than the interest and the capital back anyway because you're (generally) paying more income tax once you have the degree. Generous, my arse.

[reannon.livejournal.com]

Disclaimer: If anyone does contact the Cato Institute, please leave me out of it, as my commentary is solely my own responsibility and not connected to my professional work or my employer, blah blah blah. :)

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

Hon, if you're the only one - that might be a concern. I don't think so.

Jim was still paying his student loan for...get this...bartending school...when I met him. (Hey, it was an education, lemme tellya. *eyeroll*)

I think about my last years in college, working two jobs, living on cartons of milk and chocolate bars out of vending machines...splurging on a burrito from Del Taco while at work because I had tip money from driving airport shuttle (at LAX toots - I couldn't afford NOT to be fearless...)and I managed not to run up the huge tab in student loans, but still had $2,400 in them that took 10 years to repay (no, they would not allow me to do it faster. Can you say interest? Yikes).

My tuition for the last quarter was less than $500 for 20 units. That's all. And that was in 1984.

Someone tell me the correlation isn't there.

Oh, and Cliff managed to default me when he lost *his* job in 1987 - while I kept working. Oh, that was special.

[seamusd.livejournal.com]

They're a staunchly libertarian "think tank." My interest in them ends there. I think college education should be heavily subsidized by the federal government. Otherwise, and this is already happening, the ever-rising cost of higher education will keep it out of reach for a large majority.

[moropus.livejournal.com]

This would be why I never finished college. The loan horror stories kept me from getting a loan.

[nsingman.livejournal.com]

"Hits one out of the park?" Oh, I don't think so. Is the concept of living within one's means truly so difficult to grasp? Just as we should criticize, not subsidize, a $50K/year family that wants to buy a $400K house or a $70K car, so too should we criticize, and not subsidize to an ever greater degree (pun intended), a $50K/year family that encourages a $0K/year student to attend a $30K/year (or much more) college on credit.

That said, I wouldn't particularly care if some unemployable medieval history major takes $150K in student loans and then defaults. However, I am forced to, because the future deadbeat isn't only the lender's problem, but the taxpayers' as well. And though Cato isn't nearly libertarian enough for my tastes (they're much too pro-war and pro-empire), I support their efforts to oppose more of those sorts of wasteful subsidies wholeheartedly.

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

You know, I can remember when I was admitted to USC, back in the day.

I didn't go. Not because I didn't have the grades or they didn't want me - the financial aid office said no. In their words, I couldn't borrow enough money - in any fashion - and no, there was no scholarship that would provide a white female with a working mother anything that could help. Grants? *laughs*

They said no. And I went to Cal Poly Pomona where I put myself through - with that $2,400 worth of help. To be honest, I would insist that more colleges did the same - said no, that is. But they can't, y'see. They need to keep the doors open, too. Somehow.

Last time I checked, that pittance wouldn't even pay for tuition for one quarter, let alone four years. And they still made me pay it back over ten years - hell, I can even remember the payment amount. $74.41 a month. Chase Banks held the loan - I remember the payment book clearly. Light blue and white, about three inches thick. For ten years. You do the math.

Subsidy my ASS.