Big news regarding student loans and corruption

[WorldonaString]

Hi all!

I'm passing this message I recieved from Allan Collidge of StudentLoanJustice.org. News you can use!

From Allan:

This is the most important news item we have broken. More important than the WSJ story about student loan debt surpassing credit card debt, and more important than the default undercounting story. By far, I would say, and I would hope that most of you realize that I never exaggerate on this issue.


http://www.studentloanjustice.org/

To help you understand the significance of this story, Consider for a moment the subprime home mortgage crisis that we now face. All would agree that there was large banking malfeasance involved with this, as well as horrible government oversight, etc.

Well, imagine if it came out that Bank of America and Citibank were actually making, not losing money on these defaulted loans. In fact, imagine that the banks were actually making more on these defaulted subprime loans than they would have had the loans remained in good stead. That would be a big news story, right?

...Now, imaging that not only was this occuring, but that even Fannie Mae, and the Federal Housing Administration were, astonishingly, MAKING money on these defaulted loans...and making MORE money then if these loans had remained healthy, and on time.

Think that would be a big story? I think there would be riots in the streets, and bankers and government staff being dragged from their homes if this turned out to be happening.

Well, this is precisely what is happening with defaulted student loans. Read the piece. Take it seriously. Spread the word. Ask me the hardest questions about it.

I have never been wrong, or even inaccurate with any significant claim I have ever made on this issue. This is no different.

But please stop writing to me on Facebook. My email address is:

justice@studentloanjustice.org


...and please, send in a token of your support:

http://www.studentloanjustice.org/pac.htm

[outspoken]

do you really live in China??

[Legend1104]

My wife took a trip to Xiamen china a few years back.

[outspoken]

As a student with pretty massive loans, I can attest to the fact that the student loan industry is pretty dirty. When I was in grad school, they used to take out a couple percent of my loan just for transferring the money from the fed to me as a middle man. One of the more rediculous things I've seen. I have heard they have since made payments direct. People don't realize how much college and graduate students are coming out with. NYU med/dental school costs 400K for 4 years and that is just grad school. Many of our country's professionals are drowning in unservicable debt, especially lawyers. There is a tidal wave coming....

[WorldonaString]

Yes, student loans for undergrads and graduate students alike are way out of hand. Peter Schiff covers this really well in some of his speeches and interviews. I've been subscribed to StudentLoanJustice.org for over a year now. Its mostly the work of one guy, Alan Collidge. He's nonstop working his but off to get in front of congress, get the word in the media etc... In this last year, he has made a lot more progress than I actually expected. I'd actually say there is a legit chance that we could push congress to restore basic consumer protections to student loans within the next congressional session.

I'm sure most either are or know of someone who is in a serious bind because of the predatory lending encouraged by our current system. For anyone whose concerned about this issue, I highly recomend getting involved with StudentLoanJustice.org. :cool:

Personally, I'm proud that I've worked hard and managed to keep up with payments for the 2 years since graduating, but the reality is the system is rigged and I know deep down my piece of paper (degree) is worth a lot less than what I'm paying for it. My management degree has done next to nothing for me.

The only real value that came with college was probably the fact that my school (eckerd college) was really big on pushing for travel abroad. At another school, I may not have ever considered it. Truth is, I didn't need a 70k degree to discover China but I gotta take the positives where I can. Now I'm over here teaching english, spreading libertarian ideas, and working on my mandarin. ;)

[outspoken]

are you free to speak about your libertarian ideas??? I would the state wouldn't be too happy with people preaching liberty in China...

as for the college rates and loans stuff, the reality is that money is too easily accessible and those that do go to college end up with completely worthless degree from liberal studies to psychology to philosophy. While interesting studies, they do nothing to prepare a person for a career which is the ultimate purpose of college. Easy access to loans has also cause tuition rates to sky rocket. Colleges know they can get the gov to cover the money and so they don't fear loosing students willing to pay. It's a vicious cycle. I think 2011 is going to be a blood bath in terms of the economy holding itself together. Obama pushing unemployment for another 13 months might extend the pain to 2012 but it is coming.....

[WorldonaString]

Maybe surprisingly, I've had really good results in China. I'm in my second year teaching for Xiamen University and am pretty happy with the freedom they've given me for my courses. During the regular semesters I have a listening class for sophomore english majors. Theres probably just under 100 students I'm responsible for. They had homework regarding wikileaks recently, and I've slipped in some peter schiff interviews for listening practice before. The best courses are in the summer though. They're 5 week courses that are electives for any major but obviously taught in english. I had total free reign last summer to develop 3 courses. I went with: Austrian and Keynesian economics: a comparison; American History: the Revolutionary War; and Technology and the Future.

I may take advantage of the new blog features and go in more detail with this later, but all three courses were a lot of fun to teach with absolutely zero hassle from administration. Of course, thats likely a good chuck due to laziness up above. The economics class may have surprised me the most. Only about a dozen students, but most from finance and economic backgrounds, and they had a pretty good idea of the history behind mises and hayek among others. Still, once a week they were subject to 3 hours of discussion and mises.org videos. I would love to share some of their final papers. The history class was the most popular class for any teacher all summer and most enjoyable for me to teach. A packed house (over 80 students) watched highlights from HBO's john adams and I would lecture before and after to bring it all together. Lots of girls in the class and they really identified with Abigail. The technology one is the only that probably would have ruffled feathers had administrators known what was going on. It was a class dedicated to the possibilities of social networking. Twitter, QQ, facebook were all discussed plenty, but I also introduced them to videos regarding Ron Paul being the first internet candidate for president (showed parts of For Liberty), Meetup.com, Kickstarter.com and TED.com.

All in all a lot of fun and hopefully got some folks thinking outside the box. If I don't make it home this summer to campaign for Ron...I'll be in China doing it all again.