Editorials & Other Articles

marmar

(77,081 posts) Wed Jan 25, 2012, 09:19 AM Jan 2012

Will the Young Rise Up and Fight Their Indentured Servitude to the Student Loan Industry?

AlterNet / By Bruce E. Levine

Will the Young Rise Up and Fight Their Indentured Servitude to the Student Loan Industry?
The solution to class exploitation and abuse is always the same: Get conscious, get angry, get energized, and get organized.

January 24, 2012 |

In October 2011, the White House announced, “Currently, more than 36 million Americans have federal student loan debt.” By the end of 2011, student loan debt had exceeded $1 trillion. Two-thirds of college seniors graduate with student loans, including over 62 percent of public university graduates. According to the Project on Student Loan Debt, they carried an average of $25,250 in debt in 2010, but many have far greater debt than that average. And nowadays, with high unemployment, even higher underemployment, the inability to pay bills, and accumulating interest and penalties, the lives of student loan debtors can quickly turn into financial nightmares.

Indentured Servitude? I’ll be paying for my student loans for the rest of my life....A large portion of my earnings goes to the Wall Street elites that have commoditized and securitized my loans....I knew at the time I signed the student loans (again and again) that I would be responsible...what I didn’t figure was the cost to my children —Jeff Vincent, AlterNet

How outlandish is it to say that the spirit of indentured servitude has been revived in the United States? What can young people and their parents do to prevent student loan debt servitude, and what can all of us do to help liberate student loan debtors who are currently doomed to decades of financial misery?

Colonial Indentured Servants and Modern Student Loan Debtors

In colonial America, historians estimate that between one-half and two-thirds of white immigrants arrived as indentured servants. Indentured servants in England were in servitude typically for one year, while indenture in America was typically four to seven years. Today in the United States, student debt is an even longer debt commitment than colonial indentured servitude. The standard Stafford federal loan is, for example, 15 years, and with waivers and refinancing, it is not uncommon for Americans to be paying off student loans well into middle age. ....................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/education/153879/will_the_young_rise_up_and_fight_their_indentured_servitude_to_the_student_loan_industry/

6 replies

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Will the Young Rise Up and Fight Their Indentured Servitude to the Student Loan Industry? (Original Post) marmar Jan 2012 OP

Du rec. Nt xchrom Jan 2012 #1

the problems isn't the banks backwoodsbob Jan 2012 #2

The problem isn't only the banks and the high cost of education meow2u3 Jan 2012 #4

Occupy Groups from Coast to Coast are already organising on this issue FreakinDJ Jan 2012 #3

Also impacts those of us supernova Jan 2012 #5

A lot of parents are making the payments on these loans LiberalEsto Jan 2012 #6

xchrom

(108,903 posts)

1. Du rec. Nt

Reply to marmar (Original post)

Wed Jan 25, 2012, 09:22 AM

Jan 2012

backwoodsbob

(6,001 posts)

2. the problems isn't the banks

Reply to marmar (Original post)

Wed Jan 25, 2012, 09:36 AM

Jan 2012

the problem isn't the banks,it's the outrageous cost of going to college

meow2u3

(24,764 posts)

4. The problem isn't only the banks and the high cost of education

Reply to backwoodsbob (Reply #2)

Wed Jan 25, 2012, 10:30 AM

Jan 2012

The real trouble is more than that: the de facto license the banks have to gouge former students; the inflated cost of a college education; and the Federal law forbidding even private student loans to be discharged in bankruptcy.

FreakinDJ

(17,644 posts)

3. Occupy Groups from Coast to Coast are already organising on this issue

Reply to marmar (Original post)

Wed Jan 25, 2012, 10:15 AM

Jan 2012

supernova

(39,345 posts)

5. Also impacts those of us

Reply to marmar (Original post)

Wed Jan 25, 2012, 10:36 AM

Jan 2012

in middle-age who would like to go back to school. Cost of loans has been the chief factor on my shying away from applying.

I'll be 50 in July. There is no way I'm signing up for a loan that I have no way of knowing for certain that I'll be able to pay off. And I don't have the resources to pay for it outright.

*Sigh*

edit: I'd be applying for a graduate degree.

LiberalEsto

(22,845 posts)

6. A lot of parents are making the payments on these loans

Reply to marmar (Original post)

Wed Jan 25, 2012, 11:20 AM

Jan 2012

We are paying over $630 a month on or daughters' loans. One is working as a nanny; the other is unemployed. Neither finished college.

This is why we are unable to build up any kind of savings for emergencies of retirement.

The thing that really pisses me off is that originally the interest rates on their multiple loans were much lower.
Then came the big propaganda push: consolidate, consolidate, consolidate.

I went through the whole lengthy q and a process of consolidation, only to discover at the very end of the process, that the combined loans would have higher interest rates. This caught me completely off-guard, and like a fool, went ahead with it. What I should have done was to tell the consolidation loan person to fuck off and cancel the process.

So now we are paying more interest than the original loan agreements carried.

AND despite my having been unemployed for over 3 years, I can't afford to go back to school because we can't afford it. Because of the loan payments.

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