Comments on: Is College Debt Worth It?

By: lifetime learner

lifetime learner — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 14:42:29 +0000

You and your son sound like self-made entrepreneurs who have been lucky enough to have the time, skills and earning power or even the tasks worthy of your labor, to beat the educational system—-most people are not in a position to do that. So I commend you for being that privileged.

If your son just passed the bar without going to law school, and earned the money to do so through legitimate employment rather than through gifts above and beyond the standard rate for his labor, then I’d say he is (and you are) very lucky to be surrounded by very well healed, generous neighbors, friends and relatives who would trust a young person enough to allow him the opportunity to identify a problem that he could solve, hire him to solve it without any of the requisite credentials and pay him enough to finance an education on his own in this day and age, then he and you have something so rare that nobody else can emulate. Its a one-in-a-million story that sounds great, it would be nice to learn more about how you did it.

By: Russell Turner

Russell Turner — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 23:15:24 +0000

Some of the basic reasoning in the article is flawed. i.e. A car is surely not an investment even when used for a job. Having an education and having a degree is not the same. Many well educated persons do not have a degree. Nor is a degree necessarily a great insulation against unemployment.

Why not set the goal at earning a degree (if you want or need one) without incurring a debt? I happen to have two bachelor degrees and two associate degrees but have never used one in seeking a job. My son has a bachelors degree and has just become a lawyer with a total debt of slightly over $4000. Do not take on debt to earn an education but work at tasks for the education you receive. If you can solve problems for others, adequate finances will follow if you apply common sense and a sound work ethic.

It is relatively easy to draw poor conclusions from statistics. Decisions made from many “studies” are poor. Education is extremely important if it is directed by an intelligent person. I know many businessmen without degrees or ones who have received degrees very late in life who are among the most competent persons I know.

An honest man with no debt is free but a man with debt is servant to the lender often an great cost,

By: Jim

Jim — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 07:11:07 +0000

NO if you get one it’s not supposed to be more than your 1st years salary for you degree or what you are majoring in. The interst rates are a killer.

By: Voice of Reason

Voice of Reason — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 23:13:37 +0000

Two investigative questions:

(1) How have states with lotteries that pay the student’s tuition controlled their rise in tuition rates v. states without lotteries?

(2) If we enable future student loan debt to be cancelled out at bankruptcy (and not survive as currently written), wouldn’t that force the student loan market to make loans to those students who would have a better income after graduation instead of an elementary English teacher’s salary from Harvard?