Hopelessness May Discharge Your Student Loan
08-31-2012, 10:27 PM
#1
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Hopelessness May Discharge Your Student Loan
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/01/bu....html?_r=1&hpw
Maybe I'm old fashioned, but I would probably kill myself first before I go in front of a judge and describe my certainty of hopelessness. My fellow judicial officers, fellow lawyers, law students and even the not so savvy client all think I'm old fashioned. After all, I still have and use a landline.
Maybe I'm old fashioned, but I would probably kill myself first before I go in front of a judge and describe my certainty of hopelessness. My fellow judicial officers, fellow lawyers, law students and even the not so savvy client all think I'm old fashioned. After all, I still have and use a landline.
09-01-2012, 03:02 PM
#2
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Vagabond, you're old-fashioned in that you have a sense of shame. Unlike, say, this lawyer discussed in the article you linked to:
"In 2008, a federal bankruptcy judge in the Northern District of Georgia expressed barely disguised disgust in deciding a case involving a 32-year-old, Mercedes-driving federal public defender with degrees from Yale and Georgetown. With nearly $114,000 in total household income, the woman’s financial situation was far from hopeless, despite her $172,000 in student loan debt."
That being said, there are a lot of people out there who got sucked into shelling out incredible amounts of money for dubious degrees. Congress has set the bar for discharge of student debt far too high. There needs to be a more reasonable balance between "certainty of hopelessness" and making student loan debt as easily dischargeable as any other unsecured debt. Congress also needs to get the taxpayer out of the loan guarantee business. The higher education bubble is at the bursting point, and the fallout will be ugly.
"In 2008, a federal bankruptcy judge in the Northern District of Georgia expressed barely disguised disgust in deciding a case involving a 32-year-old, Mercedes-driving federal public defender with degrees from Yale and Georgetown. With nearly $114,000 in total household income, the woman’s financial situation was far from hopeless, despite her $172,000 in student loan debt."
That being said, there are a lot of people out there who got sucked into shelling out incredible amounts of money for dubious degrees. Congress has set the bar for discharge of student debt far too high. There needs to be a more reasonable balance between "certainty of hopelessness" and making student loan debt as easily dischargeable as any other unsecured debt. Congress also needs to get the taxpayer out of the loan guarantee business. The higher education bubble is at the bursting point, and the fallout will be ugly.
09-02-2012, 07:20 AM
#3
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Posts: 381
If it were not for all these student loans and grants the cost of college would be lower. How else can tuition go up 7-8% a year when inflation is running at 3% or less. Ecomomics 101, when you subsidize something you get more of it.
09-02-2012, 07:54 AM
#4
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Position: Ending the Backlog one claim at a time
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Other shenanigans
The school's love the extra cash they can make administering the loans too. For instance, my school sets the tuition due date ahead of the loan disbursement date thereby collecting a deferred payment fee on every loan. They love GI BILL users too: the payements from the VA are frequently late generating the deferred payment fee
As far as debt discharge, some states and several municipalities are bringing back debtor's prisons creating a cycle of judicial system induced debt that is impossible to recover from.
As far as debt discharge, some states and several municipalities are bringing back debtor's prisons creating a cycle of judicial system induced debt that is impossible to recover from.
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