America has created a student loan debt bubble that is inflating at a staggering pace and that is destroying hundreds of thousands of lives. For the first time in U.S. history, Americans owe more on their student loans than they do on their credit cards. Millions more young people are getting sucked in to the student loan debt trap each year. They are told that “an education” is the key to achieving the American Dream and that they won’t be able to get a good job without going to college. They are told that they should get into the best school that they can and that they will surely get a good enough job to easily pay off their student loans. In fact, most American high school students don’t have anyone warning them about the dangers of the student loans that they are about to commit to paying off. But they should, because the system of higher education in the United States has become a money making scam. Those who get sucked into the student loan debt trap often end up regretting it for the rest of their lives.
Perhaps it wouldn’t be so bad if there were plenty of good jobs available for college graduates and if the education our college students were receiving was of a decent quality.
But unfortunately, most colleges in the United States are a total joke. I know. I have three degrees. I have an undergraduate degree, a law degree and another degree on top of that. I went to what would be considered “good” schools.
But the education that I received (and that millions of other young Americans are receiving) is of such poor quality that it is almost unimaginable.
Most college students spend two to four hours a day in the classroom and maybe an hour or two outside the classroom studying. The rest of the time they are out drinking beer, partying, chasing after sex partners, going to sporting events, playing video games, hanging out with friends, chatting on Facebook or getting into trouble.
For most Americans, the most free time that they will ever have is when they are in college.
On top of that, the actual “education” that goes on inside college classrooms is absolutely and totally pathetic. Take it from someone who spent close to a decade in those classrooms – even a trained monkey could pass most of those courses.
Today, going to college is all about having a good time and getting that piece of paper that says you are a college graduate so that you can put it on your resume.
Shockingly little actual learning goes on inside America’s college classrooms in 2010.
Meanwhile, big financial institutions are making an absolute killing on the massive amount of student loan debt that Americans keep piling up.
The following are 15 reasons why young Americans should do whatever they can to avoid getting sucked into the student loan debt trap….
1 – We are constantly warned about the evils of credit card debt, but nobody ever warns us about the evils of student loan debt. But the truth is that it can be even more devastating, and the mountain of student loan debt that Americans are accumulating is absolutely staggering. Americans now owe more than $849 billion on student loans, which is more than the total amount that Americans owe on their credit cards.
2 – A college degree does not guarantee you a good job. Today’s college graduates are entering the worst job market in a generation, and many are now wishing that they had never gotten into so much student loan debt in the first place.
3 – In fact, many recent college graduates have not been able to find jobs at all. Approximately 17% of all Americans between the ages of 20 and 24 do not have a job, and about two million recent college graduates are currently unemployed.
4 – Record numbers of college graduates now find themselves waiting tables, working in retail stores, tending bar, delivering pizzas and working next to (or subordinate to) people who never even went to college.
5 – Even many of those college graduates who are able to find decent jobs are finding themselves disappointed. Starting salaries for college graduates across the United States are down in 2010.
6 – A high level of student loan debt can actually keep you from getting a job. More employers than ever are checking the credit history of job applicants, and so a lot of student debt can actually be a huge negative.
7 – You could be in debt for the rest of your life. Do you actually want to spend the next 30 or 40 years working to pay off a subpar education that isn’t doing you that much good anyway?
8 – College has become insanely expensive. Tuition at some universities is now running more than $30,000 a year. That is before you even factor in living expenses. Shouldn’t students figure out if it is worth it before enrolling at such expensive universities?
9 – While you are in college it is easy to rack up tens of thousands of dollars in student loan debt without even realizing what is happening. The Project on Student Debt estimates that 206,000 students graduated from college with more than $40,000 in student loan debt during 2008.
10 – Sadly, most of the students piling up student loan debt do not even graduate with a college degree in four years. Federal statistics reveal that only 36 percent of the full-time students who began college in 2001 received a bachelor’s degree within four years.
11 – Financial institutions love to get America’s young people locked into debt slavery. Over three thousand dollars more student loan debt is added to the national total every single second.
12 – After all those years of study and after all that debt, most college graduates end up moving right back in with mommy and daddy. A recent survey of last year’s college graduates found that 80 percent moved right back home with their parents after graduation. That was up substantially from 63 percent in 2006.
13 – Unlike almost every other kind of debt, you cannot discharge student loan debt through bankruptcy. Once you have signed on, there is no escape – student loan debt will haunt you until you are able to eventually pay it off. No matter how destitute or how desperate you become, the student loan collectors will always be after you. Is that what you really want to commit yourself to?
14 – Unless you have a very low interest rate locked in on your student loan debt, you could end up paying back to the bank several times what you originally borrowed.
15 – It is just not worth it. In the vast majority of cases, the “college education” that you are going to receive is going to be really crappy. The “good jobs” you were promised after graduation are very few and far between. While it is true that attending college is a lot of fun, do you want to spend the rest of your life in debt slavery just to pay for that four years of fun?
The reality is that student loan debt is very cruel and very painful and it is ruining the lives of hordes of young Americans. For much more on this topic, check out the following video news report about student loan debt from RT….