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Comment by merinowool | Hacker News Reader

You forget that there are also ignorant people who just take the loan whatever the deal is regardless if what they do makes sense - it just "feels" right for them. Then when the time comes to pay it back, they'll just try to moan it away. If there is enough people with such attitude so that it could be a good number of voters, there will be a politician willing to climb on it and force companies one way or another to waive the loans. Ultimately people should be taught to take responsibility and not that ignorance pays off.

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You act like all of these kids (and that’s what they are when taking loans, kids) have a support structure and education that’s taught them how to make good long term financial choices. Not everyone has good parents who taught them finances, never mind long term life planning.

No, but they all went to college, so they should have learned calculus, and derivatives. Even a debt that high should be payable with sweat and some deferral of immediate enjoyment, a situation that would have become obvious with just a little bit of math.

How did they go to college before they were making the decisions about taking a loan in order to go to college?

The decision is about how to pay off that loan.

Not every college path includes calculus.

> No, but they all went to college, so they should have learned calculus, and derivatives.

I've been out of school for ten years, and haven't used calculus in about twelve. How exactly do you think knowing calculus would have helped here? Be careful assuming everyone learned the subject as you did and knows how/when to apply it to various situations.

Personally, I learned about interest rates in middle school. I used that knowledge, combined with additional research on subsidized loans, to decide to take out loans. I also had the advantage of learning the downsides of debt collection from my brother's mistakes.

Not everyone is a rational economic actor. Children/young adults ages 17-22 definitely aren't the most rational amongst us.

> Ultimately people should be taught to take responsibility and not that ignorance pays off.

You mean like the people who keep lending money to students who aren't going to be able able to pay it back?

Absolutely. Both lenders and borrowers shouldn't be able to bailed out.

(Somehow -- through mechanisms that are still beyond me -- this is exactly what happened in 2008. Absurd.)

No one said democrat policies were responsible.

Seriously though it's obviously by design. Ever wondered why they don't teach financial responsibility in school? Give people incentive to work as much as they can to keep economy rolling. Capitalism at it's finest.

You forget that repaying a loan for something like the postmodern conveniences of a University Science Education may be the wrong thing to do, especially given that the Universities generally don't require vocational training as part of general education.

When people take the loan it's because they feel like they have to, and when they don't want to repay it, sometimes it's like, "No, look: if the people around me needed this so that I could live, something's wrong, and I don't want to continue collaborating with them."

The U.S.A. may also be experiencing an ongoing violent revolt against compulsory literacy in the high schools, so the problems don't really start with the loans and the college application process.

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