I'm sure you're already mad at me after reading the headline. But hear me out.
If student loan rates double, it could mean the birth of a new student uprising in America similar to the one that's changing Quebec. And an energized student uprising is exactly what America needs to wake up Americans to this corporate state's war on the 99 percent.
As most folks know, if Congress does nothing before July 1, the interest rates on Stafford student loans will double from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent. This means millions of students and graduates already burdened by a crushing economic climate with very few jobs, and even fewer good-paying jobs, will be forced into defaulting on their loans. This means the student loan debt bubble, which has already dwarfed credit card debt by surpassing the $1 trillion mark, will soon burst like the housing bubble did.
This means easy access to student loans will be over, and nobody except the very rich will be able to afford the alarmingly high cost of college education. The college presidents who happily raise tuition every year, of which most of it gets paid for by these same student loans, will suddenly see their endowments drop to a record low. And with no borrowed money from students to finance schools, professors will inevitably lose their jobs, colleges will cut entire courses and programs from their curriculum, and higher education will be flattened.
Mark Cuban made a reference to "The Coming Meltdown" in a recent blog post, where he compared the student loan bubble to the housing bubble that burst in 2008. "House-flippers" who used borrowed money to buy vacant property for pennies on the dollar, fixed it up and sold it for twice as much as they bought it to pay off the borrowed money, suddenly lost that property to the banks when there was no more borrowed money to be had.
Students getting a degree with borrowed money likewise do it with the expectation of landing a good-paying job to pay off that borrowed money. But with a youth unemployment rate of up to 17 percent, a lot of those graduates are being forced to default on their loans as they have no income to pay off their debts. If/when those students who defaulted do find a job, collectors can legally garnish 25 percent of their wages. That certainly won't help that student move out of their parents' house when the costs of rent, food and fuel are still astronomically high. And unlike credit card debt, student loan debt can't be discharged through bankruptcy. It's literal financial enslavement for so many at a time when the economic climate is on the precipice of disaster.
Under such circumstances, It isn't hard to envision a society where a well-rounded education and a good-paying job will be a commodity available only to the most privileged young people in the top 1 percent, while everyone else is relegated to unaccredited institutions and life of low-wage work that will reinforce the wealth gap between those at the very top and everybody else. This is exactly why Congress allowing the Stafford student loan rates to double for so many who are already struggling could spark the youth-led revolution that America desperately needs.
The CLASSE movement, or "Maple Spring," continues to bring hundreds of thousands of young Quebecois into the streets. While originally instigated by a proposed increase in tuition, has now become a collective youth-led resistance to government austerity measures, cuts to social welfare programs and preservation of preferential treatment for the wealthiest of society at the expense of the next generation. And the government's attempts to suppress the student movement has only thrown gasoline onto the flame.
If student loan rates double on July 1, it will be a perfectly-timed call to action for America's current students, unemployed graduates, and anyone already struggling to pay off a mountain of student loans, just before school starts back in session. It will be American Youth's opportunity to prove wrong the members of elder generations who say we're nothing but a generation of Facebook addicts and Kardashian groupies.
And with the elections just months away, it will be a perfect opportunity for students to vote out all members of Congress who voted to keep student loan interests rates low only by raiding health care funds, instead of responsibly demanding that corporations and the wealthiest 1% pay their fair share. It will be our time to sway the direction of this country by calling for new leadership, and holding them accountable for their actions.
Please, please double the rate, Congress. It could be just what this country needs to wake up.
Follow Carl Gibson on Twitter: www.twitter.com/usuncut
Sounds dumb, doesn't it?
It is time that people in America realised that fair and accessible education (and health) systems are what make a country strong. Until they do America will continue to languish at 21st in education and 37th in health (even though in terms of money spent on both of these they are no.1 by a mile)
How ironic to make an awful mistake in the first sentence in a post about education!
There are multiple problems here, chief among them that Americans do not understand what the value and purpose of education is. The academic things you learn in college give you a foundation on which, hopefully, you can build a career. College in America will NOT make you work hard. It will NOT teach you people skills. It will NOT teach you to listen, to think independently, or to partner with others to find real innovative solutions to society's problems.
College for everyone, is a nice idea, a great political talking point, and it's a natural extension of the egalitarian education system. But college is a tool. If you don't have a clear understanding of why you're there, then you don't belong there, and I certainly don't want my tax dollars being used for you to scribble in your notebook. I want our colleges turning out engineers, scientists, business professionals, teachers and yes - artists who have a true passion for what they do and who are ready to go out and change the world.
College students as well as post grads need to be very focused on their goals and vision for the future. They will need a hard core work ethic both in college and out. Sometimes you need to dig your heels in, get in the spirit of adventure, and figure our what programs are out that allow you to work and pay off your student loans and get it done. You will find these jobs rewarding, they look great on your resume, and you will grow as a person and have more to offer when looking for work.
Education should be accessible for all, not only people who can afford it. This is what separates the countries at the top of the world in living standards from others.
You're not going to be able to trick the average young person into joining your crusade. You have to legitimately offer them a path to a better life. If that means throwing the liberal academics and public sector unions under the bus, so be it.
Let the bubble burst.. and maybe then we will get the reform that has been needed so badly.
Get out of here. How about, stop subsidizing people that can afford college without loans?
You know as well as I that in America 2012, the chances of a widespread and powerful rebellion related to student loan interest rates just isn't gong to happen. No, the real fight - the one that has a chance of winning - is one that needs to be preemptive, before July, not after the S*#t has hit the fan.
I mean, look at the OCCUPY movement, ---- and any and all movements in this country. There has been few that have any real teeth as the are all discredited by the spin attacks on the part of the wealthy folks that control the messaging in America.
Any type of movement would be ultimately watered down by every human rights protest, every PETA protest, the Veterans who are under funded and falling through the cracks, every other expression of dissatisfaction that inevitable gets sucked into protests in America. No, this could never become a rebellion focused enough to change the inequities in this country.
Once it is done, it is done. People, please do no listen to this. Sounds good, but stop and think of any examples of such actually happening and being at all successful in this country. We'd never be able to put together enough mass to get momentum going. I don't see any examples of how this could happen...