Double our rate today

If you are lucky enough to not have any outstanding student debt, you may have missed today's news and what it means for millions of us.  Even if you are part of our unfortunate lot, you may have missed it.  Today is, however, the day on which student loan rates are set to double if Congress does not act, which in light of the laughable members of which it is comprised, is about as likely as the world ending before dinner.

Two articles are out today worth a quick read, despite their questionable publications of origin.  One is by Joan Walsh of Salon, while the other appeared in USA Today online and was shared via social media by Senator Bernie Sanders' staff.  Both are sobering to say the least, and to be quite frank, I would actually discourage you from reading either one of them if you feel as though your emotional and mental health are anything short of rock solid these days.

The hard truth is that the numbers do not lie, and a college degree - especially an undergraduate degree - may not even be worth it anymore.  This of course flies in the face of the past few decades' conventional wisdom.  Young people have been told for years things like "it will all be worth it in the end" and "it's an investment".  That may have been honest advice when the debt assumed in undertaking one's studies was under five digits and the lifelong benefits were measured by almost exponential gains in income.  Now, and indeed for some years leading up to now, this "investment" argument has become disingenuous, as debt burdens have creeped into the tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars while the increases in lifelong earning potential have stagnated.  What was sound advice for students of the past became something akin to fraudulent inducement.

I will not launch into a preemptive rebuttal of the obnoxious "personal responsibility" argument today, as I am about as short on time as I am on money.  I will say, however, that if we truly had a meritocratic system of education in America, this would not even be an issue.  Instead, we have a system where the hard workers have to not only work hard, but also go into debt, all while a lucky few are given an education, whether they work for it or not.

Bear in mind also that this is not typical debt.  It can no longer be discharged in bankruptcy, and very often cannot be refinanced.  Your wages can be garnished, you can be harassed, and you have little if any recourse for any injury you suffer.  Your lender can sell your debt away and force you to deal with another party with whom you never had an agreement, but try to tell them you have sold your end of the deal to a third party and see what happens.  This is the the closest thing we have to indenture in the modern era.

If any of this has made you feel compelled to give your Representative on Capitol Hill a piece of your mind, you can find all the contact info you need here.  Best of luck.