Comment by doctorwho | Hacker News Reader

Comment by doctorwho | Hacker News Reader

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Dear Broke Snowflake,

Do you know who used to go to university before they became degree foundries? The very rich or the VERY smart. Why? They could afford it or they got sponsored because someone realized their future potential and how they might benefit the world at large. Smart people who loved learning went to university. To learn. NOT to secure a job at the other end.

Do you know who goes now? People who don't have a clue what they're doing, because they could get a loan and it was easier than thinking, planning or getting a job. So, people who don't think more than 5 days into the future (weekend!) are getting loans without any idea of the long term consequences. And then whining about it. Nobody forced the loan down your throat.

Somewhere along the way, universities realized they could make LOTS of money if they started selling dreams to the masses. So they did. That was their dream and you're paying for it.

The whole system is pooched but if you're one of the many lost snowflakes who got a degree you can't use or don't know how to use it and a loan you can't afford, it's too late to cry now. Declare bankruptcy. The university won't ask for your degree back and in 7 years your credit score will recover - that's a helluva lot sooner than you would have paid back the loan anyway.

Student loans aren't removed in a bankruptcy (in the US, which is what is under discussion here).

Also, while 'Nobody forced the loan down your throat' might be sort of technically true, for most Americans born after 1980 their entire life was to a drum beat of college prep. "Getting students ready for college" is the sole purpose of middle school and high school. Every parent, teacher and adult that you trust and interact with has been telling you that you need to go to college since you were in kindergarten.

At best, smart millenials realized they should major in something with decent job prospects (STEM, business, etc) but I can easily forgive those who didn't. Many were told to do what they loved and the money would follow or that as long as they had any degree jobs would be easy (this was a common belief in blue-collar America in the 90s). Many saw how easy white-collar boomers lives were and didn't realize the rules had changed.

Correct me if something has changed, but student loans are not dischargable through bankruptcy.

I guess it depends on where you live. In Canada you can have the loan discharged when you declare bankruptcy, after 10 years. One more thing that a young general arts student should look up before taking on a loan and joining a frat.

In the United States, student loans are almost impossible to get discharged, even in the case of bankruptcy. That is a large part of why people taking on massive student debt is so oppressive. But the original point I agree with even more due to that fact. People in their late teens and early 20s usually don't know enough about the world and where they want to be in it to sanely commit to the amounts and terms of these loans.

Also middle class aspirations. Formerly most Uni students were upper class, so middle class sons/daughters stood an excellent chance of marrying into an upper class family and at least making some upper class social / business connections. Now that its a mostly middle class thing, its not quite as appealing.

I was thinking more about a time when universities were really a place you went to learn, not to kill time while you figured out what to do with your life. I was thinking 500 years ago not 50 years ago. Not everyone is cut out for it, but today everything thinks they are. Because they're told (sold the idea) that they can do/have whatever we want. Nobody looks at the price tag.

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