[ejnulls]

You used to be able to discharge student loans through bankruptcy and guess what?? The sky didn't fall down.

However, that was also when a year of college could be paid for by a minimum-wage summer job. Now it's egregiously expensive AND they've got you by the balls.

[leetcrew]

the last time you could discharge student loans in bankruptcy without satisfying special conditions was 1976 in the US. but that was a time where an undergrad degree was relatively cheap, and not many people took out loans in the first place.

I don't disagree that something is seriously messed up in this country's higher education system, but the discharge exemption for student loans is probably one of the few things that keeps the system even slightly economic. like I said above, you cannot just lend huge chunks of money to kids without making any risk assessment and also allow them to default whenever. at least, you can't do this unless your intention is to lose money.

if I had to have a guess, I would say that the main contributor to our outrageous education costs is the government making all these uneconomic loans in the first place.

[StudentStuff]

Plus, remember that all these banks "offering" student loans aren't actually financing them, that is the domain of the federal government.