The Inhumanity of Student Loans

I know this post is off topic for my blog, but student loans are the reason I didn't post anything yesterday.  The Boyfriend and I both had the day off, and we spent all of it assembling paperwork for a lawsuit involving his student loans.

For those unfamiliar, student loans in the United States are one of those debts that you cannot discharge, even in bankruptcy.  For those unfortunate folks who went to college, and didn't find a decent-paying job after graduation, the loans become an ever-ballooning albatross.

In The Boyfriend's case, he got out of college, and couldn't find work that paid a living wage.  For 90% of his life, despite working multiple jobs, he has not earned more than the Federal Poverty level.  While the Federal Government offers all sorts of so-called "flexible" income-driven payment plans to help people stay out of default, the fundamental problem with all of them is that they do nothing to stop the ever-accruing interest from ballooning the loan balances out of control.

During the 10% of The Boyfriend's life when he earned barely above the poverty level, he still didn't make enough to pay even the interest on his student loan.  His income was so low that even at the highest, he still would have qualified for food stamps and Section 8 federally-subsidized housing, had he applied.

What started out as a modest amount of debt 20 years ago, has now quadrupled in size.  It represents an amount that is nearly ten times his annual salary.

Every year, he receives a notice from his loan servicer demanding he re-certify his income.  Every year, he must prove he is destitute, and it serves as an unpleasant reminder of how worthless his Bachelor's Degree was.  He went to school, studied, and worked hard for nothing.

He graduated from college, applied for work, and nothing came of it.  His job applications to professional positions were unanswered.  The only positions offered him were the same menial jobs he found before he went to school.  So much for the promise that a degree is the golden ticket into the middle class.

He is far worse off than if he had never gone to college at all.

This year, he was reminded that the "standard" loan payment, which would get him out of debt the quickest, amounted to 97% of his monthly gross pay.

How can anyone be expected to repay a debt of that enormity?  As it is, The Boyfriend can't afford to buy a decent used car, or keep the wheezing POS he has on the road.  Completely in debt and discouraged, he filed for bankruptcy.  As part of that proceeding, he filed an additional lawsuit, called an adversarial proceeding, to attempt to discharge his student loans.

While student loans are not normally dischargeable in bankruptcy, there is one exception.  If you can prove something called undue hardship, then you can get out from underneath them.

Anyway, The Boyfriend and I have spent an enormous amount of our free time assembling papers, typing narratives, and putting together documentation to support his case that repaying a debt the size of Texas is unreasonable.  I hope it works.

As for how all of this relates to my diet -- it doesn't.  However, it's time I join the millions of other voices who are screaming about the inhumanity of the current student loan system.  It is inhumane to create a system that dooms people to a lifetime of debt slavery.

The Boyfriend is not the only person I know who has had their life ruined because of student loans.  He is among the millions who haven't married or had children because of student loan debt.  He will likely never buy a house, have any assets for retirement, or hold any of the trappings of a normal, middle class life.

As for Elizabeth Warren's plan to cancel up to $50,000 from everyone's student loan balances?  That's great, but it doesn't do much to help those with extremely high balances.  Bottom line, we need to reform our bankruptcy laws such that student loans, for those who really aren't able to repay, can be discharged.

But even more importantly, we need to reform the system so that people don't end up in this mess to begin with.  It should be our country's priority to have a highly-educated workforce.  Whether someone goes to school to be an artist, a rocket scientist, a doctor, or a teacher, they shouldn't get out of school with an amount of debt they will never be able to repay.

Anyway, 'nuff said on all of that.  Back to dieting...