DarkBladeX
21086
686
25
Jul 27, 2026 2:01 PM
DarkBladeX
21086
686
25
UncleRat
The one-lane education system in the US, where you go from public education to a college or university with no real alternatives, has done more overall damage than just about any other social convention.
DWolf
This is why businesses pressured government to turn student loans over to them. It's perpetual profit.
Before getting to free college/trade school for all, the first step is to put a cap on student loans -- once they're repaid 1-1/2 times over, payments end. It'd be hard to argue that a profit of 50% is hardship or a loss.
They built this system bit-by-bit since Reagan. They played the long game with a plan. We need to do the same.
SavageDrums
Public education should be free, full stop.
bikergeek6249
Student loans are just indentured servitude with extra steps.
ThrowAwayAcct0000
Indentured servants only had to work for seven years. These student loans have been following my husband for over 20.
MoopsyLD
I do feel like he should have done more research but understand that the internet was just kicking off in a big way. You can move to another country and not even worry about student loans. just leave the US. He likely would have gotten a good job not in the US. with an option to give up citizenship. and no you don't have to file/pay US taxes if you leave and don't plan to live here again. rarely anything happens.
TheBlackSonOfTheHonestMan
All the classes and books are available online, we should just set up a free university and use the free books and videos for the courses. Have free online universities with real degrees for everyone, it's doable.
DOcelot1
Wow, just figured that out, eh?
Ultratoxic
I have a friend that graduated medical school a half a million dollars in debt. If she hadn't been able to find a high paying job in her specific field, she would have taken her own life. She told me as much and she was 100% serious.
Gorglax9
I don’t know how people who work in collections sleep at night
PorneliusHubertII
Like babies, because they lack enpathy.
NKato
They don't. Not out of conscience, of course.
YoureWaifuAShit
on piles of money, probably
icantbelieveistillhavetoprotestthiscrap
Jobs like that tend to attract sociopaths
Blachovich
I work in the industry, not as a collector. Most of those I work with are nice and understanding, and very few are aggressive or what you think of. Most agencies are willing to work with you. It's rough, for sure, but there's a lot more flexibility than you may think. Sadly, it's not universal.
Terran81
Some of them, it’s all they can get. High turnover. The ones who are successful and stay are sociopaths. They get abusive on the phone and say things that would make your stomach turn to get results. I know this because I’ve known people that have done that job. The ones who left as soon as they found a better job btw. I don’t make friends with sociopaths. Sociopaths have no trouble sleeping knowing they’ve hurt people. Many of them enjoy watching hurt people squirm.
causality
Why did you fabricate a story about a suicide note? Jason Yoder left no note.
NawaraVen
Why are people using twitter still? Why are we posting images of text on imgur instead of posting text on a text-based platform? Many questions abound.
jamiedBreaker
I also couldn't find any info about a note. Indeed, why?
causality
Probably because the evidence that his suicide was due to student loan debt is pretty shaky. It's really only his mom who said that, and student loan debt is kind of like financial herpes: impossible to get rid of, but not a huge burden on your daily life. Worst-case scenario is someone goes into default and gets their wages garnished for 15% of their take-home income. Which is bad, but not "kill yourself" bad.
clonedeeznuts
The assholes at the top get bailed out while regular people get hung out to dry. What a pathetic society.
CobainsSarcoma
'you should have learned a trade then' - boomers after pushing you into unaffordable university instead of .... yep you guessed it - trade school
Snooj
Twenty years after graduation my brother landed a job in a tech industry pre-IPO, got stocks and made bank. It was then that he finally paid off his student loans. TWENTY YEARS after graduation and only thanks to a huge financial windfall. It's fucking crazy.
Navrodel
...yeah, not me staring at the pile of collection notices, and the looming deadline from the IRS to start making payments while I'm at 2.5 years of failed job hunting with my for-profit degree sitting worthless on a shelf downstairs, having outlived the college I got it from...
Late 30's and feeling unemployable isn't a great feeling... Hard not to think about how empty the fridge is, or how large the threat of eviction looms...
At most points suicide is just Social Murder.
UpNorthAndFreezing
I mean, ya it is. Yet there are still Americans who will argue with the devil on their doorstep that America is the "best country in the world". Not even by a longshot.
pgdave
There is no "best country in the world" unless you specify a particular metric. The US is pretty great in some ways for most people here, compared to the rest of the world. The US is *really* great compared to *most* of the world (but for some reason people don't like to compare the US to any countries they think are "worse"). The US is terrible in some ways compared to most of the industrialized world. And the US is particularly bad in some ways for some people compared to most of the world.
astrangehop
Not arguing, but what does that even mean?
Caughtintheconcentricelipsesofchaosanditsinnatemadness
It means "American exceptionalism" is in a lot of ways bullshit. Like the "American Dream" it is attainable for some and others not so much. Like generational wealth, if you have a good foundation than that dream is more plausible.
MentionSignificant
Assuming you're not from the US, it means that they were made to Pledge Allegiance To The Flag every morning, their history classes consisted solely of all the good thing the US did, and they don't hear any news that isn't run through Fox. It means the propaganda worked.
astrangehop
Oh, I get that, I just never heard "argue with the devil on the doorstep" before
TheGlow
Nothing comes close to the rollercoaster I experienced when they said my loans would be forgiven, then wasn't.
LangleyofMappe
And yet America has billions to give to 'Israel' every year. Why aren't more Americans upset about this ?
grschaef
😢
TheMemeRecycler
Anytime I start to feel anxiety over retirement or my future as a senior I'm currently 35. I just remember my retirement plan, the only one that will ever actually work. I call it the 9 mm retirement plan, and if that horrifies you well. I Live in America, there's no retirement or future just day to day.
justadude41123
Capitalism and socialism should NOT be in bed together ever. It always breeds corruption. Education should be socialized. But when the socialization is tied to the capitalist market, the market makes it a profit first margin. So the very education the social order seeks funds sports which fund the market. It turns people into a commodity, just like slavery.
relsky
I'm in my mid 40s, and I just got an email that I have $50k of student debt.
Fuck that. Fuck you. I ain't paying shit.
ThinkThisOut
This is a tough read. His university should’ve connected him since it’s such a high demand career. Both my cousin and current boss are in/from that field… it’s wild, $250k right out of school. A single phone call would have changed the entire existence of that bloodline
Yoshimaster
Biggest mistake I've made was letting people convince me of quitting my pretty decent paying job (for a bachelor anyway) to go back to school and finish my degree. All it did was increase my debt substantially, and now I can't find any work. At all. Not even just in my field, but fucking ANYTHING. I have absolutely zero hope for my own future. I'll never own a home. I'll never be out of debt.
DeepIntoDragons
🎵"American dreams, American lies
We′re trying to see through the smoke in our eyes
So give me the truth, don't tell me your lies
′Cause it's harder to breathe when you′re buried alive
By American dreams" - Papa Roach
ThrowAwayAcct0000
It used to be that education was how you made sure you had a good life. That's why boomers pressured millennials to go to college. But now, college is so expensive and wages have stayed so low, that even getting a degree is no guarantee of making a decent living. I keep trying to tell my son's boomer grandparents this, but they won't listen.
Jisp
murica is a third world nation in denial.
pgdave
Which third world nation would you compare it to?
Pokegeologist
Russia.
pgdave
Sure - let's compare. 1/3 Education - comparison is tough to find, but Russia is generally in the top 15-30 in the world, and the US is generally in the top 5-35 in the world (much wider band based on our top-tier universities and our fairly-average public schools, though Democrat strongholds fare much better than our national average). https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/">-country">https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/pisa-scores-by-country https://www.topuniversities.com/system-strength-rankings/2018
pgdave
2/3 Healthcare - the US's healthcare ranks relatively low, particularly on efficiency, but Russia's typically ranks lower. The average person in the US is likely better off than the average person in Russia particularly as they age. https://ghsindex.org/global/dataal/data/">https://ghsindex.org/global/data/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC26951">/ h">al/data/">https://ghsindex.org/global/data/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2695168/ https://www.nationmaster.com/country-info/compare/Russia/United-States/Health/Quality-of-health-care-system
pgdave
3/3 Economy - the US blows Russia out of the water. The median income in the US is multiple times that of Russian median income (when adjusted for purchasing power, not just nominal). Most striking is disposable income (i.e. take-home). Russian median is ~$12k/year. US median is about $40k. So even if someone in the US had an extra $10k a year in healthcare expenses, they're still more than twice as well off as an equivalent Russian.
Khanamana324
Always has been.
NumptyDumptyLump
Ooh! Waterfall property in Wisconsin!
Shoutrr
an american problem where there's "nothing they can do" (while other countries less rich did something about it)
magus200342
Ya, but if we did pay for it, where would we get money to pay the mic for what we need to blow up people in the middle east? Or south America? Or the pacific? Won't you think of the shareholders and the politicianswho need the kickbacks to go on vacation for the 4th time this summer??
BarryTheCyborg
Yeah, pretty much "nothing we can do" means that we're not willing to tell the rich cunts at the top to go fuck themselves. We could easily put a cap on health insurance, student loans, etc., but it would mean a couple rich cunts can't get richer, which isn't allowed. These people need to be dragged out of their ivory towers and hanged in the public square.
SalmonMax
This is unmitigated tragedy, eclipsed only at how deep and widespread the causative factors really are. It's not just student loans; that's the surface symptom. The hard, cold reality is that the United States of America was founded on a lie. The lie was 'we're a democracy.' Right from the founding, the government was designed to minimize the power of people, to protect wealth. It's always been about preserving profit and property above all. This is yet another expression of this deep rot.
BrdCdn
The founding fathers were all Oligarchs and many made most of their money off slavery. The abolitionist movement was on the rise and they saw the writing on the wall. Also didn't want to pay taxes, but still wanted British trade protection on the high seas (Royal Navy was massive and expensive as fuck to run at the time). It was never about freedom.
SalmonMax
They were quite open about their fear of 'the tyranny of the masses.' When you look at the United States Constitution, the people only vote on Congresspeople. The President and SCOTUS were both effectively appointees (the President via the route of appointed electors). The much vaunted 'checks and balances' was always to make sure that Congress, as the only directed voted governmental branch, could never enact true reform. It was always a sham.
EveryoneSaysEverythingHereisAI
This! This is it! - https://discipleofMessiah.org/txt/rigged.txt
SalmonMax
Pretty surface level skim done by an LLM. What I'm talking about goes quite a bit deeper.
WhatAmL
Wow that's comprehensive can I save it?
EveryoneSaysEverythingHereisAI
It's public info, and it's not mine, so I'd say help yourself! Anything published online, esp. if it's not saying it's under a copyright, is public-use data.
MaybeIllDisappear
So I was talking to a coworker this weekend and he was complaining about never having enough money for things. We work in the same department and we make similar amounts. They confessed they pay close to 4k a month on student loans with almost no hope of ever paying it off. I am paying around 400 a month with a similar degree, but I am probably 10 years older and graduated earlier. What this administration is doing to you all is insane, punishing you for getting the education you need.
backrideup9
Must be nice, you both have $50k a year in disposable income and can still complain about being broke. That $4k they pay monthly is more income than 90% of this country live off of.
Skizzlesnap
It’s hardly just from this administration. While he certainly hasn’t helped, EVERY administration since the 70’s has had their hand in screwing our promising youth over.
ghostly69
The notion of America as a land of equal opportunity is just a myth....and a joke
prosper020
Two asturnughts in space, one pointing a gun at the questioning other.
torokunai
I finished college in '89 and it cost me ~$6000 in tuition, total.
OtterlyMagnificent
That was my monthly tuition back in 2012.
Raziel420
Fun fact, they punish you just as hard for not taking out the loans and getting that education. No education? Good luck making anything more than minimum wage. No student loans? Good luck building your credit from scratch.
StellarJay77
Those in power don't want an educated populous, they only want their kids to be able to have access to those advanced degrees. Smart people are too hard to manipulate into taking slave wage jobs that allow those same people in power to maximize profits for themselves. It's working exactly as they designed it to.
Solkin
The education they /claimed/ we needed- my degree has only ever cost me opportunities for being overqualified; it has never opened a door once
mrsparkle001
It's absolutely unreal how much higher education costs these days. It's very big business and won't be easy to fix (as in it won't be happening in our lifetimes).
modus0
Because a significant portion of the politicians and rich *don't* want people getting education at all - they'd rather have stupid serfs that don't know how much they're being exploited over people who not only have knowledge, but the critical thinking to resist that exploitation.
CheetoDustedMalcontent
One of the biggest indicators for leftist political views is high education low wage.
ThrowAwayAcct0000
Its cheaper to move to another country and just not come back to the US, than to pay back student loans.
miked854
"This administration" barely makes a difference. They've been building this problem for 40+ years.
GroverKerr
You're ignorant and dumb as fuck.
brownribbon
How so?
GroverKerr
I'm not taking your bait, eat shit.
brownribbon
No u
marsilies
Biden did several attempts at student debt relief, but the GOP attempted to block him every time. They did block his more general student debt relief plan, but he did get several more specific debt relief programs though. https://www.nasfaa.org/news-item/35444/Biden_Administration_Announces_Final_Student_Loan_Debt_Relief_Approvals
marsilies
That said, loan forgiveness is only a band-aid, although meaningful to those that could get it. We need systemic reform making state college free/cheap again, and dialing back predatory student loan programs.
LoudBirb
"Barely" is a real strong fucking word for people seeing their interest rates and loan payments triple or more.
Like, I get the point you're trying to make, but that's an extremely out of touch take. The kind that only someone whose payments didn't triple because they're either lucky or they don't have any loans would have.
Yes, the source of the problem is well beyond the scope of any one administration, but don't minimize the pain people are feeling due to the actions of this one.
MaybeIllDisappear
Almost tripling the interest rates under this administration?! Seriously, they told me they are paying 18% and can't get a refinance.
I am trying to sell my house and the interest rates are almost 7% so no one wants to buy. I feel bad for Gen Z who may never own a house if this continues.
This admin has made a bad situation unbearable.
brownribbon
Interest rates aren’t set by the executive branch.
ostensiblystupid
It’s easier to think of the 40+ years of building up to this like a launch pad. The US built out all of the back alley corrupt procedural infrastructure needed for the Trump Administration to launch modern society into a dysfunctional orbit.
Corrupt business procedures that were never properly addressed grew and gave bad actors the ability to brag about the slow motion breakdown like it’s part of the process, instead of an act caused institutionalized raccoons creating garbage to steal from.
BigDaddysMeatWagon
Yeah, no, this admin literally changed the payments and interest. My payments skyrocketed with the new law changes. I'm to the point I have to choose between groceries for my family or student loans. Groceries win.
brownribbon
Student loans are fixed interest.
BigDaddysMeatWagon
You know, you might be right. What I can definitely tell you is my payment amount still skyrocketed because they got rid of income based repayment, at least heavily neutered it.
sfrinlan
I'm quite behind on mine. There's just nothing I can do or is worth doing with them. I've paid back the amount I borrowed, but there's still at least that much left. I'll try to straighten it out at some point, but it's not worth it for me now.
pgdave
How high are the student loans that 4k a month, almost 50,000 a year, won't pay them off within 10 years?
Nanoline
Interest changes everything. The interest is now up to 18% in some cases annually.
So, let's say that they had 100K in student debt, with 18% annual interest. That means each year, that total generates 18,000 more debt via interest. Which means that at 4K a month, the first 4.5 payments of the year are JUST THAT YEAR'S INTEREST.
Assuming they can continue to afford 4K a month in payments, and assuming no job issues or financial changes/payment every month, they could ultimately pay $163,000+.
freemab
True but the 32k in principle paid off every year pays that off in culled six years
ProbablyPoe
Don’t forget they calculate and make you pay down the interest first, and, fun fact, during the ‘pay off student debt’ scare most if not all student loans were sold as blocks, meaning you got no benefit to paying early after, if you had a 20yr loan and got lucky and tried to pay it off early, you still had to pay the full interest calculated for the original 20yrs.
pgdave
Let's use your numbers. At 100k, 18% interest, the monthly payments are $1800 - less than half the 4k a month. After the first year, you'd have paid down 4k of the principal and it'd be fully paid off in 10 years at $1800 a month. For a 100k loan you'd need an interest rate of *45%* to get close to 4k owed per month.
Nanoline
Other person beat me to it, but the 100K was a simple “100 / 100%” example number that is well below what a masters in most fields would cost now. Many medical degrees now for example run from $150K to 250K to 300K+ (a major reason why the Trump admin declaring them “non-professional” matters, as it caps govt loans for those masters degrees at 100K and the rest have to be sourced via private loans-which the admin also rolled back & eliminated almost every safety regulation on so you get fucked)
pgdave
Sure, but that's why I asked how much the loan was for that it could be 4k a month and not paid off in 10 years or so, what payment schedule is the person on - I'm just following the math.
OtterlyMagnificent
That 100k is a 'for easy math' number. 100k is a Bachelors, at best. For a Masters you're looking at closer to 250-300,000. So the interest is actually going to be closer to 5000/mo.
pgdave
And that's why I was asking how high the loan is - most people with student loan debt owe under 50k. To get to 200k+ in loans you're looking mostly at people like doctors and lawyers, people who expect significant returns pretty reasonably (I know some, and yeah - the debt is high but it's manageable at their salaries, even the government workers). And even then those are loans which will all be paid back in 10 years. For it to be 4k and more than 10 years for repayment there's something weird.