Tens of millions of Americans with federal student loan debt have had a financial reprieve for more than three years as a pandemic-era repayment pause was extended multiple times since March 2020.
Now many face a new reality on Sunday, Oct. 1, when they are due to resume making payments, all while struggling with nagging inflation and rising interest rates.
More than 45 million borrowers together owe approximately $1.6 trillion, according to President Joe Biden’s administration, which tried to cancel up to $20,000 in student debt for tens of millions of eligible borrowers, only to have the Supreme Court kill the program in June.
Personal responsibility gets all screwed up by math. I know school was a long time ago for you but you can use a calculator.
I graduated over 20 years ago. I paid for it all by myself as I was on my own at 17. My schools annual tuition/fees books was around 3.5K. Lodging/utilities/etc cost me $5,000 (roommates and no car). So a total of around $8.5K/year. I worked 25hrs per week at $7.25/hr for a gross income of around $9,400. I ended up $3K in debt. It took me 5 years to pay it off after I graduated. I started out at $27K.
My sons a sophomore this year at a the same school. Tuition is 9.7K lodging/utilities, etc around $14,000/year. So around $23.7K/year. Minimum wage in the state just went to $13.20. At 25hrs per week this is a gross income of $17K.
So my son would end up $30k+ in debt doing the exact same thing I did.
I start out my career making 27K with 3K in debt. Only 11% of my gross . Itwasn’t that hard to pay it off and was never a major concern.
My son would start out making around 45k/year with more than 30K in debt. 66% of his gross income.
Nothing you said supported your thesis statement.
Personal responsibility is choosing to take on debt and then paying it off. The money amounts are not relevant, especially not a difference as small as you presented. Even the fact of it being a college loan doesn’t matter, any sort of investment borrowing would apply.