Quote Originally Posted by Gregg View Post
Saudi Arabia managed to reduce their public debt in 8 of the past 11 years and overall has reduced it from 103% of GDP in 1999 to under 10% in 2010. It took a lot more than loan forgiveness to do that, but if we can produce those results I'd be happy to write off all kinds of debt.

The real deal is jobs; if it hit us in the face any harder it would break our nose. If college graduates had a strong job market to enter and could earn a good return on their investment (aka tuition) we would not be having this discussion because this bill would never have been introduced. Another typical, high priced, bureaucratic, nonsensical government band-aid placed on a severed limb. Oh but wait, treating the disease instead of the symptom would reduce dependence on Nanny G. We can't have that.
There you go again...sigh... Do you really really believe the government, our government, WANTS people on welfare, in debt and standing on the street corner hat in hand? Honestly? To what end or purpose would they (we) WANT that? Could it just maybe possibly be that the government started backing student loans because they simply wanted to make a college education available for all? Does it always always have to be some nefarious, evil plot by THE GOVERNMENT to enslave us? Good intentions gone wrong are still, at their core, good intentions. And I think, by and large, students are paying back their debt. And government backed loans has opened up higher education to so many who would otherwise not have it available, just as medicaid/medicare have helped thousands (millions) who would have never had access to health care of any kind without it. The fact that a very small percentage may abuse this doesn't change the fact that it has done overwhelming good.

Strong jobs market isn't all the story though. Too many jobs with very average or even below average salaries too often require higher degrees to an almost ridiculous level. My daughter, for instance, had flirted with the idea of being a librarian, until she found out you needed a MASTERS to do this! A masters! to be a librarian. I'm not dissing librarians, mind you, but here is something you could learn all you possibly needed to know in a 2 year degree, much less a masters. And there are so many other career paths like this. Not pie in the sky career paths, but everyday career paths that really shouldn't be so out of reach.

Education, at least some, beyond grade 12 is becoming a necessity if you want to do anything beyond basic service type jobs