[zx10guy]

To put this out there upfront, I paid back ever cent of the money I took out as loans when I went to college. When I graduated and had to find work during the 92 recession, I had to figure out what to do with the student loans I had. Working temp jobs wasn't going to cut it. So I read the the rules of the student loan programs. Of the three I had, two were subsidized and allowed me to defer payment with no interest accruing if I went back to school before the 6 months grace period ended as long as I was enrolled as half time or 6 credit hours. This would reset the grace period to allow me another 6 months after the end of the semester I was enrolled half time. I would continue to do this until I was able to fine gainful employment ie where my job was an actual career. At that point I paid back all of it. The enrollment at the community college was cheaper than the loan payments and I picked up extra knowledge as I was taking a bunch of programming classes.

All the ones screaming about wanting this handout are just plain lazy and won't do what it takes to pay the loans. Either do what I did, or suck it up and get a second job if you can't pay it with your first job. As others have stated, no one held a gun to your held to take these loans out. There was a study about what happened during the pause in student loan payments. Most of the people with student loans spent the money that would have gone to payments into frivolous things such as useless stuff or vacations.

The flip side of this is if the system is this broken, then put a stop to originating any new student loans. For me the solution is obvious to fix this mess. Take away the government backing and have the colleges/universities absorb any loan forgiveness. These institutions are awash in huge endowments/trust funds. Why should they be let off scott free when they contributed to the problem. It's on them to provide proper guidance to students as to career path and if it makes sense to pursue a particular degree given the employment picture after graduation.