Student loans.

[WayneF420144]

I know oldsters beyond my age got essentially a free ride, but I am at the leading edge of people who have massive student debt with little chance of paying this off. When will AARP take note and begin working for relief?

[DawnS379070]

I SO agree.  My husband and I are 65 and have 200K worth of parent plus loans.  Until a student is 24, Fed loans only give out a small fraction to the student themselves, and the parents get hit with the majority of the cost.  Example:  U of I engineering program costs 38K / year.  My son received 12K, and we had to get a parent plus for the rest for each of his 4 years.  This is a huge problem.

[Tempest332]

Root problem was the costs of higher education has went up exponentially, cause apparently it was something you needed & looked down upon if you didn't have.

Institutions took blatant advantage of this.  I paid as I went on a part time basis, & was able to on my $5/hr job at the time, but I didn't consider it unreasonable at the time, now it is. 

Now the folks getting out of school will demand such a high wage, & feel entitled to it.  Correct on the fact higher education has become a scam of sorts.  

[EricC28201]

Truly do feel for ya @WayneF420144 .  Still had to kudo @TomD857140 's reply.

There is no denying that 'Education Financing' has become an enormous scam.

The real discussion that needs to take place is, How do we do away with the distinctions between Private and Public educational institutions?  And provide no-cost, individually appropriate education to All as an investment in the development of Humanity as a whole.  Instead of letting Education be used as a surreptitious vehicle of Eugenics.

[TomD857140]

Free ride?  Many of us "oldsters" worked our way through college.  "Pay as you go".  It took a few more years to earn a degree, but we never considered incurring a debt we couldn't pay off.

[sktn77a]

Yes, I wish Uncle Sam would step up and give me some mortgage relief/forgiveness.