Debt Dodgers: Meet the Americans Who Moved to Europe and Went AWOL on Their Student Loans

Dropped out of college my freshman yr... no loans.. I make 100+ a yr. College = Fools gold

Depends on what your career goals are

Some careers absolutely require college. You just need to have a plan when going to the college. Just going to college can't be the plan
 
At the end of the day any and all debt I have is my fault.

-My fault for not crushing high school and getting a full ride to anywhere I wanted.
-My fault for not making sure I was 100% informed
-My fault for not crushing undergrad and making sure I was in a position to pay all my loans off immediately post grad.

At the end of the day personal responsibility plays a factor, you put yourself in the hole. No one made me sign anything my signature can be found on all those loan docs.


Why is it that virtually every other debt is discharged in bankruptcy? Why does the law that say that 17 to 22 year old's word is iron clad but a CEO of a fortune 500 company can take on enormous amounts of debt and have it easily discharged in chapter 11.

Also why is that when a company files for chapter 11 or chapter 7, the folks in the press never talk in terms of morality, they talk in terms of business. When a story about student debt and default comes up, suddenly, debt is viewed through a moral prism. Why is that?

Does debt only have a moral component when asset poor young adults take on debt but debt incurred by the well informed and powerful does not carry this moral weight?
 
At the end of the day any and all debt I have is my fault.

-My fault for not crushing high school and getting a full ride to anywhere I wanted.
-My fault for not making sure I was 100% informed
-My fault for not crushing undergrad and making sure I was in a position to pay all my loans off immediately post grad.

At the end of the day personal responsibility plays a factor, you put yourself in the hole. No one made me sign anything my signature can be found on all those loan docs.


Why is it that virtually every other debt is discharged in bankruptcy? Why does the law that say that 17 to 22 year old's word is iron clad but a CEO of a fortune 500 company can take on enormous amounts of debt and have it easily discharged in chapter 11.

Also why is that when a company files for chapter 11 or chapter 7, the folks in the press never talk in terms of morality, they talk in terms of business. When a story about student debt and default comes up, suddenly, debt is viewed through a moral prism. Why is that?

Does debt only have a moral component when asset poor young adults take on debt but debt incurred by the well informed and powerful does not carry this moral weight?

Word. People got Stockholm Syndrome for days. It's the same bunch that raise their brows at welfare recipients but don't bat an eye at TARP and big business "subsidies."
 
At the end of the day any and all debt I have is my fault.

-My fault for not crushing high school and getting a full ride to anywhere I wanted.
-My fault for not making sure I was 100% informed
-My fault for not crushing undergrad and making sure I was in a position to pay all my loans off immediately post grad.

At the end of the day personal responsibility plays a factor, you put yourself in the hole. No one made me sign anything my signature can be found on all those loan docs.


Why is it that virtually every other debt is discharged in bankruptcy? Why does the law that say that 17 to 22 year old's word is iron clad but a CEO of a fortune 500 company can take on enormous amounts of debt and have it easily discharged in chapter 11.

Also why is that when a company files for chapter 11 or chapter 7, the folks in the press never talk in terms of morality, they talk in terms of business. When a story about student debt and default comes up, suddenly, debt is viewed through a moral prism. Why is that?

Does debt only have a moral component when asset poor young adults take on debt but debt incurred by the well informed and powerful does not carry this moral weight?
All the points you made are valid and I wouldn't dispute them, but you're arguing points that I never made.

All I said was that if someone comes out of school with debt and are in a position where they can't pay it a lot of that is their fault and they need to own up to that, and that if you take on debt you should try and pay it back.
 
All the points you made are valid and I wouldn't dispute them, but you're arguing points that I never made.

All I said was that if someone comes out of school with debt and are in a position where they can't pay it a lot of that is their fault and they need to own up to that, and that if you take on debt you should try and pay it back.

I disagree because the labor market is capricious, especially for new graduates. Changes in technology, changes in patterns of global trade, the emergence of recessions and changes in political economy can make a "safe" degree into a "useless" degree. Those forces can make "basket weaving" into something "god tier" and vice verse. For example, if the US drastically reduced its defense budget, the engineer would not be making as much money and may lose his job. Meanwhile, let us say we moved some of that freed up money into a massive program to treat PTSD and we were hiring a half million counselors, BA in social physiology and sociology preferred. Suddenly, the "soft" major is more lucrative than the "hard" major.

I believe that the state should pay most of the cost of education from kindergarten through grad school but that is a topic for another time. If we are to proceed with a loan and debt based system of financing college, the lender should share in some of the risk. Risk, on the part of the borrower and the lender, is just a part of loaning and borrowing money and the legal ability for a student to get bankruptcy relief should be reflected in our laws.

People have far less control over economic outcomes than you would like to believe, Should students and graduates be responsible? Of course, they should be. My contention is that the adults, the lenders, are being shielded from responsibility. Since we expect high school seniors to be master risk assessors, we should expect the same from the lenders who measure risk for a living.
 
I would still make the point that the majority of control is in the hands of the student. Regardless of what they choose to pursue, if they do what they are supposed to do during their time in college, then they will place themselves I'm a ideal position to obtain employment. I've seen history and sociology majors land jobs in investment banking, people can land jobs outside of their field of study, and while I agree that the concept of what is an easy and hard major is can change, what can't change is someone proving their competency which if they did everything they were supposed to do in college and high school for that matter they wouldn't have a problem landing a job because they would have proved their competency and made themselves an ideal hire.

I would say that there is risk on the part the lender, not as much as you would like but people are running from their loans on a daily basis, that's the risk they assume. If the lenders started to adopt a more risk conscious basis of lending, what would end up happening is that less student loans would be given out and then we would be having a totally different conversation about how hard it is to get financing for school and thus putting a glass ceiling on people's lives.

If we're going to advocate for a change in the system it should be for the cost of college itself. The lenders are just reacting to the changes that the institutions make. There is no reason why any non ivy league degree/a school that doesn't have a top 25 program for a certain field of study should cost more than 20k a year. The institutions are more at fault than the lenders who are really doing people a service by providing people with a means to go to school who otherwise would never be able to afford to.

Or we could just have the government pay for the majority of it like you suggested but that is the wildest of dreams.
 
Thank god it only took 1 semester at a university before I realized college ain't for me. Still ended up having to pay back like 8k. I was mad as hell until I met someone who makes 38k a year and owes 80k. That 8k is light work compared to that, now we both make around the same amount of money an I'm the college dropout. Last dude a sucka leaving that on his folks. U sign your name on that line u need to have a plan.
 
These dummies aside, what's the breaking point with student loans? My roommate, back in the day, was 1/4 mil in debt by the time he finished law school. He's got a job with Deloitte, but I don't even want to imagine what his monthly payment is looking like once interest is factored in.

Something HAS to give. Folks gonna wind up 6 feet under and still have a balance on their loan. **** is crazy.

I'm SO happy that my cousin is choosing the community college route and then transferring into USC after he wraps up his associates degree.
 
It still blows my mind that so many people refuse to look at going to community colleges. Had 2 years of college paid off before I even went to a university. There have been so many of these crazy student loan debt stories out there and so much information online that there is no excuse for anyone with access to the internet to not understand the loan processes and how dangerous they can be.

This. I went to Atlanta Metro my first 2 years of school. Paid $636 bucks a semester for a full load. Got my associates degree then got my bachelors from Southern Polytechnic University in Computer Science.

Sometimes I regret not going away to college for the experience but coming out of school with no loans was great.
 
Haven't read the article nor any other posts (besides the OP) but most people going to college are going for pointless degrees.

Yeah, you might absolutely love history but being able to write a 10 page term paper on what caused Napoleon's demise ain't going to get you paid in the real world, bruh.

If it ain't a STEM degree you minus whale avoid going to college altogether & look into a trade or something.

Also, **** going to a university for a full 4 years. Go to a CC for your general ed & prerequisites & then transfer out. Save a ton of money that way.
 
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I totally agree the price of college creates the biggest problem. Also I feel like hs are somewhat at fault bc the dont educate kids on how college works. I had remeber taking a college prep class in hs and never once did my teacher mention student loans or cost effective ways to way to go to college. It was all about how to study for college.
 
I got no problems with paying off my loans. My problem is with the crazy interest rates for peoples' education.

I consolidated them/refinanced and *lowered* them to 6.8%.

People taking out loans for their cars for 2%. Yachts 1.5%. House 4% right now for 30 year loan.

Clinton and Sanders going to lower the interest rates.. 
 
Jack boys going to school hitting licks on insured money and graduated from robbing the plug? I'll allow it.

Can someone translate this please? 

Young men of questionable character are going to school in order to improve their situation by means of stealing money insured by government, thus elevating the caliber of their intended targets from petty criminals to well established institutions? I'll allow it.
 
I totally agree the price of college creates the biggest problem. Also I feel like hs are somewhat at fault bc the dont educate kids on how college works. I had remeber taking a college prep class in hs and never once did my teacher mention student loans or cost effective ways to way to go to college. It was all about how to study for college.

Truth, I'm the first person in my family to go to college outside of my uncle who went for a semester back in the 60s or 70s. I aint know nothing about nothing and the internet wasn't as vibrant as it was back then. My counselors didn't really help, family didn't know anything, and there wasn't anybody in the hood to come back and share the knowledge; I made a vow to change that once I got through it all and share whatever knowledge I have w/ whoever will listen.

Cost of college is ridiculous no matter how u slice it. Cats could work part time at night and fund their education, now that part time gig will barely cover books.

I got a lot of student loans, most due to me being stubborn and ignorant.
 
I got no problems with paying off my loans. My problem is with the crazy interest rates for peoples' education.

I consolidated them/refinanced and *lowered* them to 6.8%.

People taking out loans for their cars for 2%. Yachts 1.5%. House 4% right now for 30 year loan.

Clinton and Sanders going to lower the interest rates.. 

I agree I have a few 6% school loans a few 4% and some 3%. My car loan is 1.99% and mortgage is 3.75% it makes no sense man.
 
I didn't take out any loans for college so I can't say I know how its like to have student loan debt, does it really make that much of a difference on everyday life when you pay these monthly?
 
I didn't take out any loans for college so I can't say I know how its like to have student loan debt, does it really make that much of a difference on everyday life when you pay these monthly?

Strong Username to Post ratio :lol: But it does. Look at it like having a crazy mortgage or multiple car loans all at once.
 
Odious debt, predatory lending? Ok I'll play devil's advocate

These kids were born into a society that promised them that if they went to college everything would be gravy. 100k in debt later and with no career opportunities in sight, I'm surprised more graduates haven't gone AWOL. I guess it comes down to whether you have the balls. :nerd:

That or you come from upper class household
 
I would still make the point that the majority of control is in the hands of the student. Regardless of what they choose to pursue, if they do what they are supposed to do during their time in college, then they will place themselves I'm a ideal position to obtain employment. I've seen history and sociology majors land jobs in investment banking, people can land jobs outside of their field of study, and while I agree that the concept of what is an easy and hard major is can change, what can't change is someone proving their competency which if they did everything they were supposed to do in college and high school for that matter they wouldn't have a problem landing a job because they would have proved their competency and made themselves an ideal hire.

I would say that there is risk on the part the lender, not as much as you would like but people are running from their loans on a daily basis, that's the risk they assume. If the lenders started to adopt a more risk conscious basis of lending, what would end up happening is that less student loans would be given out and then we would be having a totally different conversation about how hard it is to get financing for school and thus putting a glass ceiling on people's lives.

If we're going to advocate for a change in the system it should be for the cost of college itself. The lenders are just reacting to the changes that the institutions make. There is no reason why any non ivy league degree/a school that doesn't have a top 25 program for a certain field of study should cost more than 20k a year. The institutions are more at fault than the lenders who are really doing people a service by providing people with a means to go to school who otherwise would never be able to afford to.

Or we could just have the government pay for the majority of it like you suggested but that is the wildest of dreams.
great post 
 
I didn't take out any loans for college so I can't say I know how its like to have student loan debt, does it really make that much of a difference on everyday life when you pay these monthly?

When you don't pay back student loans your credit gets wrecked and wages garnished.
 
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