Posted On: Tuesday - September 24th 2019 6:28AM MST
In Topics: University Global Financial Stupidity Media Stupidity Socialism/Communism
I stepped on a USA today at the hotel again ... OK, no wait, they don't seem to put em outside the doors of the guest rooms anymore to demonstrate a high circulation. There are piles in the lobby now, probably 30 or more, and I suppose they are included in "sales" numbers. The headline above caught my eye.
Peak Stupidity has not delved into one of the most devastating forms of stupidity, the Global Financial Stupidity in quite some time. We need to get back to it. Yes, of course, the article was about student loans outstanding in the US and it's USA Today, not World Today (more on the latter in another post, come to think of it). America's economy still has a huge influence on the world's, so when bad things go down here, I doubt too much of the world will come out unscathed.
The number in the headline I saw was > $29,000 owed in student loans per student. Because USA Today is one of the dimmer bulbs in the already dimmed-out world of journalism, the article did not make it clear if that was per student graduating with a BS, or per student graduating with a BS with any loans to begin with. Maybe it's me, so here:
About 2 in 3 members of the class of 2018 graduated a little deeper in debt than the classes before them. Last year’s graduates with a bachelor’s degree averaged about $29,200 in student loan debt – a record in the USA. [They love that "USA" thing - they've been doing that since that newspaper came out.]Maybe it IS me, as the assumption could be that one absolutely MUST go in debt to get through colleges. Back in the 1980's only medical students had serious amounts of loans (maybe $50,000 - $100,000 in '80's dollars which WAS a lot), while my recollection is that only 1 in 3 other students had any at all. If they did, it was in the range of a few thousand bucks upon graduation.
Anyway, the number is 2 % higher than last year, and the total debt outstanding is now up to $1,600,000,000,000 - that's 1.6 Trillion bucks. It's a fun number to keep up with, just like "our" national debt, up to ~ 23 Trillion now. What's the powerball lotto up to? If there were a way for even just 10% of us to win, we'd be ALRIGHT. Come on, anyone? anyone? ... Chief Warren? ... Bernie?
Oh yeah, we see how The USA Today feels about this. There's no talk about maybe getting the Feral government out of the guaranteeing business, causing that moral hazard. No, if fact, the article (I guess it's not an opinion piece - it doesn't SAY that) urges the States to pony up more dough. It also speculates on which one of these generous Blue-Squad candidates will be more forgiving. We are supposed to be forgiving, per Jesus, but, Jeeeze , I don't think he meant with OTHER PEOPLE'S MONEY! "Robbing Peter to pay Paul" is I believe what it's called.
Yeah, per that huge-selling The USA Today newspaper, the solution to this growing student loan piece of stupidity is to ramp it up. Forgive the students, never mind the frugal ones who ended up owing only a few thousand or nothing. We're all gonna pay up together, as fellow taxpayers to make these loans good. Whaddya' mean, the banks?? No, the banks never lose. Uncle Sam can take the loss. Look in the mirror taxpayers - you and I may not be wearing those red/white/blue top hats, but "Uncle Sam, that's who I am. ... been hidin' out, in a rock&roll band.
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