On Sat, 21 Aug 2010 18:13:42 -0700, Julian Vrieslander wrote:

> In article >,
> notbob > wrote:
>
>> On 2010-08-20, Julian Vrieslander > wrote:
>>> Thinking of going to culinary school? Read this first.
>>
>> When reading this thread, recalled noticing a Frontline episode on
>> for-profit schools. I watched it awhile ago. Damn scary stuff!
>>
>> http://video.pbs.org/video/1485280975/#
>>
>> The really scary parallel I noticed was the federal student loan situation.
>>
>> "This debt is almost impossible to escape. [...] If you default on a
>> federal student loan, you will be hounded for life. [...] It is the
>> most collectable kind of debt there is. It is non-dischargable in
>> bankruptcy, they will garnish your wages, they will intercept your tax
>> refunds, they will sue you in court, you become ineligible for federal
>> employment or any other kind of federal benefit, and many states are
>> now piggy-backing those prohibitions...."
>>
>> The piece went on to say this federal student loan debt is beginning
>> to become huge, as in 750 BILLION $$!! It's beginning to become the
>> same looming specter as the bank bailouts. Oh swell, another one.
>
> This was the part of the article that was most disturbing to me. The
> author also discovered that many of the culinary school loans were being
> marketed by financial entities associated with Goldman Sachs and other
> Wall Street megacorps. The same ones who made monster profits from
> mortgages sold to buyers who had no realistic chance to repay them, and
> then sticking taxpayers with the bill when the loans went into default.
>
> They are apparently still at this game. Of course, there are some
> politicians in the US who think that these problems are easily solved.
> All we have to do is reduce the regulations on these scoundrels and give
> them more tax breaks.

for republicans, tax cuts are the universal solvent. times are good? then
the government doesn't need the money. times are bad? then people need to
keep more of their income.

it's a reverse catch -22.

your pal,
milo