cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/21841560
this post was submitted on 27 Oct 2024
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Do you honestly believe no debts are predatory?
Of course some are. Hell I'm married to a Soldier and I see predators preying on young Soldiers all the time. "Use your enlistment bonus to buy this cool Challenger! You'll only be paying 20%!" (I didn't believe those who take these loans should have them forgiven either).
I'm unsure that student loans can be placed in that category. Perhaps if you got a student loan for Trump University (or any other for-profit University) I'd consider it predatory. But most people know full well what they're doing when they choose to go to university, and choose to borrow to do so.
As I said in the post that you responded to, I think making the debt dischargeable in a bankruptcy would make lenders far more cautious about who they make a student loan to, and that would start solving the problem as university's would actually have some pressure on the price of the education they would like to sell you.
But as you pointed out above, children were (and are) being pushed into colleges whether it’s right for them or not. Hugh schools are measured by college admissions rates of their students, and so are pushing kids into this debt without any real voice on the other side telling the students they have other options.
Colleges are pushing new students towards financial aid without spelling out the true costs of those loans. All of this to people who often have almost no financial literacy or experience to understand the impacts. They are exactly like the soldiers you just mentioned. So by all means student debt is predatory.
Its clear you are not open to considering some debts as beneficial to discharge, so I won’t waste the time explaining the vast net benefits of infusing our younger and middle aged generation with cash flow that they would by every measure largely reinvest in their communities, making everyone better off. But can we at least agree that student debt is at least as predatory as shitty car loans to young enlisted recruits near bases?