Most countries in the world have public health care available for permanent residents. In many cases, access to good health care might be better than in the USA.
12 Likes
It’s harder for regulated professions like doctor or lawyers, but overseas education is only a minor impediment or none at all for most jobs. Although the more “not like the US” the place you come from it the harder it is: it’s a lot easier with a degree from western Europe than southeast Asia or Africa. Russia is somewhere in the middle.
A lot of people on this thread are talking about the precarious state these people will find themselves in when it comes time to retire, but, as a US citizen with permanent residency in Japan, I can tell you that it isn’t that hard to get permanent residency here. And even without permanent residency, you can still take part in the Japanese national pension system as long as you live and earn here for enough consecutive years. Not all countries are like Japan, of course, but, considering the cost of living in the US versus the benefits you would get if you stayed there, I think that you’d be foolish to stay in the US, student loans or no.
4 Likes
There should be a program where foreign-trained doctors are recruited to small midwestern towns to work as medical examiners, which would be a significant step up from (zero-qualifications) coroners currently doing the work. Combine this with some kind of credit program toward finishing their degree translation and licensure and viola! a better America.
3 Likes
Same. I only owe $10,000, but I have owed that $10,000 through 20 years of depression, anxiety and underemployment. And yes, I often paid more than I could afford, only to have the balance skyrocket again the next time I was fired or ended up in the hospital. Right now, I what I am able to pay will literally never pay the balance, and I’ll be paying until I die unless the Dems do something about it (not holding my breath).
11 Likes
“It’s not that bad a price for college” and “everyone who has this much debt should be able to pay it back relatively easily” are not remotely the same.
And if you could pay back $20,000, then yes, you have some blessings. Possibly just good health or mental health or being able to be promoted in a job are ‘blessings’ that not everyone has access to.
12 Likes
I’d be curious to hear more about how such a debt accrued? No judgment, just wondering. Here in Canada, I went to university for 11 years, had $5-10k of student debt after 5 years, paid that off in grad school (meaning I made enough to do so). No outside help or prior savings (again meaning the system and loan/grant/work programs at the time were … civilized).
And a hard cap on how much interest such a loan can accrue. If these are “special” loans with a special moral hazard that deserve special bankruptcy exceptions to avoid them on the part of the borrowers, there need to be protections that offset that by preventing usury moral hazards on the part of the lenders.
2 Likes
If anyone here needs help paying off student debt, I sincerely recommend Ramsey’s cheesily-titled book Total Money Makeover. Using the methods described there, a particular friend has gone from crippling credit card and loan debt to only holding a mortgage while saving for retirement over the last few years.
1 Like
Long story but here are some bullet points: School was for profit with no interest in accurately representing income potential in my field , wife was(now ex-) in medical school, talked me into buying a home at the top of the pre-crash market (an ARM), wife got sick during medical school and had to take a leave meaning her loans went back into repayment, so even though I was working full time while going to grad school, I had to borrow extra to cover mortgage, loan repayment and medical expenses. Among my numerous “miscalculations” was that my ex-wife’s greater income potential as a physician would help pay back those loans later (while my profession is not so lucrative unfortunately). But instead in my last semester (and right after graduation) I was: hospitalized for appendicitis, divorced, home foreclosed, filed bankruptcy.
3 Likes
What also helps paying back student debt is, in order of best to worst (multiple can be applied):
- being born rich
- making high wages
- living rent-free with parents
- being white
- born straight
- bring married
- owning a house outright
- robbing poor people (see: “car salesman” or"loan officer")
- being straight
11 Likes
Yeah I’m in the same boat here and I haven’t even come out IRL. It’s just a sad situation that I know I can’t afford to own even a shoebox home with a small yard. Like I thought the whole idea of getting my degree was to make me financially independent but it’s clear that capitalists had other ideas. >:C
9 Likes
Sadly, the “K” in 401-K doesnt mean “1000”. It doesn’t mean anything.
2 Likes
American citizenship is a liability if you are living abroad and never intend to live in the US. It adds an extra filing requirement at tax time, and even if you never owe anything, failure to file taxes and FBARs for any of your accounts can result in massive penalties even if unintentional. This is a significant part of why I’m no longer a US citizen.
6 Likes
I think @LorenPechtel is talking about the loan, not the payments to the school. This would hit the lender’s (bank) bottom line, not the school’s.
I would suggest there should be a cap on the total interest accrual for a student loan. What’s a reasonable expected return on an inescapable loan? 10%? Where student loans really go off the rails is the interest, and the interest-on-top-of-interest. Max out the total interest to 10% of the original loan amount, and it completely changes the game. Maybe you can’t get rid of the debt, but once it hits that 10% mark it can’t grow.
There’s a huge difference between a $20k debt that grows like an annuity and a $20k debt that maxes out at $22k.
4 Likes
Probably need to post this to /r/aBoringDystopia …
1 Like
I beleive you forgot:
- winning the lottery
- being straight
7 Likes
3.1) being a man
3.1.1) being a cis man
7 Likes
I’ve got plenty of friends with huge student loan debt. One of them has two kids and confessed to me that he completely gave up on his loan, deciding to start putting his loan payments towards his kids’ college funds instead, and doing what he could to avoid creditors. Another, with a masters’ and doctorate, has shuffled between military & government jobs to defer his loans for as long as possible. And another went to China to teach English.
The real killer with loans is delaying the inevitable. Way too many people decide “well, I’ll just ignore my payments while I get my first apartment, my first car, get married, etc… I swear I’ll start making payments after all those things are out of the way.” Once they start actually doing so, interest is so insane that it’s nearly impossible.
6 Likes
Being male helps, too, if you’re looking for that good wage.
6 Likes
