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Comment by scarface74 | Hacker News Reader

As you said, you got the benefit of having parents that are able to afford to send you to college debt free...

Maybe you think that the only people who save and pay for their kids' college are rich people. Probably that they can "afford" not to be the beneficiaries of generosity like this as well.

Far more common is for middle class (and immigrants) to be in this situation, not even to mention the 2-shift-a-day poor parents who paid outright to stay out of debt, worked overtime, scrimped, and planned ahead. They get nothing. I'm sure they can afford not getting any gift...

As I said, I don't begrudge a generous benefactor's actions that help people. It's his choice.

It would be a wholly different matter if government took this approach. In that case, you'd better be dammed sure that someone else getting something and you nothing, isn't going to remain at "be grateful for what you have".

Cf. that company experiment a few years ago (or think through if it applied at your job) that everyone got paid the same. You're probably not so eager in that case.

From a purely logical standpoint, why struggle to put your kids through college when student loans are available? They have a longer time horizon to pay the loans off than you do as a parent.

Almost every financial planner says that you should put your own retirement before your kids college for the same reason.

If you can afford to save for your own future and pay for your kids to go to college then of course that’s different.

I have a step child that I haven’t saved a penny for them to go to college. But, between cash flowing what we can and loans he will have the opportunity to go. Yes, I plan to help her pay the loans after she graduates or probably pay most of them myself - but not at the expense of our retirement.

Wow, well that's probably a story worth a thread of its own.

A convergence of demographic shifts, generational priorities, economic policies (interest rate + cheap money), and personal circumstances.

Lots of lower middle class families have been deep in debt at some point. They know how tough it can be trying to pay off debt, especially with an entry level job right out of college. Since they know how tough that is, they want to sacrifice for their children to give them the best possible chance at living a good life. That's why some people struggle to put their kids through college even though there's "free money" available. It's not hard to understand, because "free" loans aren't free, even if the college graduate does have a decent chance at being able to pay them off over the next decade.

I'm not saying that parents that let their kids take the loans are bad parents, but it shouldn't be hard to see why some parents don't want their kid to be saddled with debt upon graduation.

I understand the emotion of it. But, your kids can borrow money to go to college. You can’t borrow money to retire and it’s a lot harder to borrow money if $life_happens to you as a parent especially for lower middle class families.

If you as a parent want to help your kids after they graduate to pay off their loans once your own situation is secure, help them pay for their loans out of a combination of current cash flows and savings you might have for it.

If $life_happens as a parent and the child can’t pay their student loans, they can get deferments, income based repayments etc.

If the parents don’t have savings because they were trying to avoid student loans and then they lose their jobs or are unable to work, then what?

Some of the students who took loans might also have parents who are able to afford it, but the students decided to take loans instead.

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