
U.S. Student-Loan Delinquencies Hit Record - pseudolus
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-02-22/u-s-student-loan-delinquencies-hit-record
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ericpauley
It should be noted that the delinquency rate is staying roughly constant, it's
just that there's more debt to be delinquent on. Rather skewed reporting on
Bloomberg's side not including this fact.

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GarrisonPrime
It sure would be nice if there was solid data on the ROI from government
subsidized education loans (beyond the economic stimulus of the colleges
operating off of those funds, I mean).

~~~
romwell
What's an ROI on a subsidy?

The most problematic thing about college loans is not subsidy, anyway (that
only applies to _interest_ ; the students are responsible for the loan amounts
anyway), but the inability to write these loans off in a bankruptcy as you
would with other debt.

This makes these loans special; it takes the risk away from an inherently
risky activity (investing/lending).

Of course, this screws the whole ecosystem up. The banks are willing to give
these loans to pretty much anyone, and the universities are incentivized to
increase tuition because they won't see a drop in admissions since the
students are all able to take on more loans - and will do so because one can't
get anywhere without education these days. It's a positive feedback loop.

We shouldn't have this for the same reasons that we don't have debtors'
prisons anymore. It's a net loss for everyone in the long run.

~~~
deogeo
> we don't have debtors' prisons anymore.

Sadly, the US brought them back:
[https://www.thenation.com/article/prosecutors-and-judges-
hav...](https://www.thenation.com/article/prosecutors-and-judges-have-brought-
back-debtors-prisons/)

