Why Students With Smallest Debts Have the Larger Problem – The New York Times

Source: Why Students With Smallest Debts Have the Larger Problem – The New York Times

Everyone seems to be looking everywhere but right in front of their nose.  By that, I don’t mean that every problem isn’t important, I just mean that there is an elephant in the room that most people are ignoring.

Here is my comment on this piece.

How about linking loans to education? Here is what I mean by that.

You shouldn’t be able to get a loan for a home without a valid appraisal of the borrower AND the home.

That was before the days when almost everyone believe any investment in any home will make you money.

Once everyone believed in homes, everything went south.

What made things infinitely worse was that people who knew where this had to end were more than willing to hire and promote those that were willing to do whatever it took to make the big bucks. The cream of the corrupt rose to the top.

As a former professor who has seen this going on for years in higher education, I can’t overemphasize how much worse it is in education, something far harder to appraise, and the sellers know that.

Anybody willing to look in just a little depth can see what is happening. My blog is available for that. (inside-higher-ed ) But, for now, just look at the following use of data in this piece.

“…Over the past 50 years, workers with graduate degrees have enjoyed the largest gains of any education group…” Sound like “Home values always go up”

“…The unemployment rate for four-year college graduates is currently 2.6 percent…” (probably using figures for ALL graduates, not just recent ones)

I will end with what David Riesman wrote. (in 1980!)

“…advantage can still be taken of [students] by unscrupulous instructors and institutions…” (See my blog for the reference.) is D