Not saying that isn't true, but we can't go taxing another 350 billion so that everyone gets to go to college for free. This is the type of bullshit that gets us in very deep shit.
Balance must be achieved, of course. Benefits must outweigh costs. But these things are debatable, calculable, and adjustable. Doing nothing amounts to getting nowhere. The effect on the economy must be seriously considered. A better economy and a more productive workforce will produce more tax income. The middle class is tired of only seeing huge tax breaks for the 1% or generous benefits for the poor. They want a piece of the pie as well and they seek politicians who cater to them instead of only the rich or only the poor. You may vilify Hillary all you want, but she ain't stupid.
And I have never said she was. This however is a terrible plan. I will put it like this, it's easy to grab a snake with another man's hand. Meaning none of this will ever affect her, but it will sure as hell take its toll on a lot of others
I can tell you this, college costs are crippling. My oldest gets TOPS for tuition, a $500 scholarship each semester and a $1000 scholarship each semester. She works 20 hours per week at OLOL in the ER (for minimum wage because it looks good on her resume) and I still have to pay her room and board. Her apt costs me $675/mo and utilities are another $75 or so. By the time you throw in sorority, car insurance, etc, she costs me about $1000 per month. I have another starting next year. Since oldest will go to med school. I will have 2 in at once for at least four years. Anybody got a spare 100 grand you can spot me? Oh, I hope to retire one day too.
I don't have the $100K but I do have an old ski mask I can give you in case you get that desperate. Just don't tell anybody where you got it. Student apartments are a ripoff. Instead of 3 or 4 students getting together to share the rent on a house or apartment the apartment complexes charge each tenant separately. If your daughter had a normal arrangement she could rent a nice 3 bedroom for about $1200 and each roommate's share would be about $400.
No doubt, and I think it's completely out of control. I'd rather see this be the topic than to have an enormous tax burden dropped onto the backs of the elephant our kids and grandchildren are already going to carry.
In the mid 90's I knew a guy who was 38 and still having his wages garnished over student loans. He had graduated at the age of 21. Free college sounds like a great idea until it come to how to pay for it. Instead of making college free maybe they could give interest free loans and have a system where after graduation a person could earn loan forgiveness points in some manner.
It is getting to the point where you can have a comfortable retirement OR reproduce. I could have never retired early if I had to raise a couple of kids and put them through college . . . or got alimonied a time or two . . . or had a high-maintenance wife. I know poor bastards who have had the trifecta.
The student loan business is one of the first things that need to be roped in. Kids aren't smart enough to know what they need. School cost X oh but look, they gave me X + X times y. PARTY!!! Then you graduate with a 40k education and a 100k bill.
This is true. I know a couple of "professional students" with over $100K in student loans that they will never pay off and they spent a lot of it on things not related to education, mostly paying off high-interest bank signature loans and higher-interest loan sharks. People who live at the edge of what they can borrow will never have a damn thing of their own and are one crisis from total disaster. They take loans to pay loans, which is throwing money away.
