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Tag Archives: college student debt

Student College Loans – Evil or Not? Part 3/5

16 Aug

How many college students are “deep” in debt, and what does “deep” in debt mean?

In 2007-2008, two-thirds (65.6%) of 4-year undergraduate students graduated with a Bachelor’s degree and some debt—the average student loan debt among graduating seniors was $23,186 (excluding PLUS Loans but including Stafford, Perkins, state, college and private loans).

Let’s compare that to the student loan I graduated with in 1973 when I earned my BA in journalism.  It took me more than a decade to pay that loan off and eventually I worked two jobs for three years to do it.

I did not complain, moan or groan about it.

In fact, I considered myself an adult responsible for the money I borrowed after my GI Bill ran out so I could finish my college education—it took me five years to graduate, not four and although I worked part time jobs for the first three years I attended college, I decided to focus 100% on my studies the last two years and took out more than one student loan before I graduated.

In 1973, that student loan was $7,000.  Compared to today’s average student loan debt of $23,186, it looks as if my student loan was a bargain.

Think again!

If you check the CPI Inflation Calculator, you will discover that $7,000 in 1973 had the same buying power as $36,178.96 in 2012.

How about a few more comparisons—in January 1975, the unadjusted average home value in the united States was $39,500—in January 2011 that average had increased to $275,700—a 700% increase. Source: US Census

Note: In 1975, my $7,000 student loan equaled about 18% of the value of the average house in America. However, the average student loan today is only 8.5% of the average value of a house in America.

How about the price comparison of a car, average wages, cost for a gallon of gas, loaf of bread, and hamburger meat?

Continued August 17, 2012 in Student College Loans – Evil or Not? Part 4 or return to Part 2

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of The Concubine Saga.

To follow this Blog via E-mail see upper right-hand column and click on “Sign me up!”

 
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Posted by on August 16, 2012 in Uncategorized

 

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Student College Loans – Evil or Not? Part 1/5

14 Aug

This morning before I started work on the final draft of this series of posts, I saw that the media painted grandparents as victims of evil student debt.

AnnaMaria Andriotis writing for the Wall Street Journal’s Smart Money said, “Tens of thousands of retirees have fallen behind on student loans—and the feds are coming after their Social Security benefits.”

I’m sure that many reading this will disagree with me but in my opinion, if grandpa signed for the loan and the payments come from Social Security, too bad. I do not care what the reason was for the loan. In most of these cases, parents/grandparents cosigned for the student loan of a child or grandchild in college. I have a sister-in-law that co-signed for $60,000 in student loans for her oldest son so he could attend Stanford (he spent some of this borrowed money on a trip to Europe).

If that had been my son, he would have started at a community college for the first two years and then transfered to a state college to earn his BA, and because I am a former US Marine and Vietnam veteran, the tuition would have been zero in California—one of the benefits of putting your life-on-the-line for your country.

If common sense were involved and the grandparent/parent wasn’t sure the child was making smart choices in college, what happened to the word “NO, I won’t sign! Get a job!”?

And then kick them out of the house or cut them off without a dime.

My parents grew up during the Great Depression and when I graduated from high school, I was told, go to college or pay rent, so I made a third choice and joined the US Marines and went straight to Vietnam after boot camp.

Maybe student loans are debt slavery (aren’t all loans a form of debt slavery?), but the grandparents/parents signed away their financial freedom and the law says it was legal.

Dragging grandparents into this debate is another example of the recent media hate binge against college education and student loans. From what I have read and heard and then discovered on my own, this has been mostly one sided—in short, propaganda but for what purpose?

Do not believe what you are reading/hearing from the media and in Blogs.  This issue is complicated and not easy to explain, but there are other numbers that tell a different story.

For example, in 1972, the population of the United States was almost 212 million. Today it is more than 310 million—an increase of 46%.

On August 2, 2012, there were 17.5 million students attending US colleges and Universities (private and public).

However, in 1973, there were 6.8 million students attending college (private and public)—an increase of 257%  since 1973. In addition, in 2009-10, 270,666 of those college students were military veterans attending college on a GI Bill (anyone may join the military and take advantage of whatever GI Bill is available for education).

Continued August 15, 2012 in Student College Loans – Evil or Not? Part 2

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of The Concubine Saga.

To follow this Blog via E-mail see upper right-hand column and click on “Sign me up!”

 
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Posted by on August 14, 2012 in Education, family values, government, Parenting, politics

 

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