[twblalock]

The really crazy thing would be to end the student loan system without providing an alternative. If you do that, only kids with rich parents get to go to college.

The current system is far from perfect but it enables kids to attend college regardless of their parents' wealth. Any replacement system needs to enable that too.

[ben940830298432]

The private market would just require people to be more responsible about taking out loans. If people that take out loans for basket weaving often don't pay them back nobody would give out a loan for basket weaving. If someone is on their 5th major or college without completing any credit they won't get any more loans without having some backing.

[twblalock]

The private market wouldn't issue loans at all.

We are talking about 18-year-old kids with no assets and likely no income, who have potentially never had a job, asking to borrow thousands of dollars because they believe (but cannot prove) that they will graduate college several years from now and make enough money to pay it back. Any banker who would give them a loan on normal terms would be an idiot.

The only reason this works is that student loan terms are uniquely different from the terms for other loans. That is what makes the risk acceptable to lenders. Change that, and guess what -- nobody gets loans.

[brewdad]

Do we really want a world where the bankers get to decide what a person studies? Bankers have never gotten anything wrong before.