America’s student loan and debt culture: a growing burden on today’s youth
Photo credit Startup Stock Photos
By Dean De Lucia, Contributing Writer
Student loans within our nation have been a growing problem for many years now. Students are in need of assistance in order to attend school, but when it is time to pay it all back it seems “never-ending.” Young adults are the main group affected by this, and those in their 20’s and early 30’s are the ones usually still paying off their student debts. The decision made by these people whether to use student loans or not are very important to our economy.
These people play a huge role because they are just beginning to delve into the actual economy. They need to have money available to spend before they can actually make an impact on the economy, but if they have to spend it all on loans from college, they cannot do this. With that being said, loan borrowers will eventually begin to affect the economy as they live independently, search for a job and slowly gain spending money, but the longer it takes the less they can help grow the economy.
Student loans have become an “evil necessity” in today’s world. They are designed to help students pay for university tuition, books and living expenses. There are benefits to these loans. Some hardworking and determined people just do not have the money to pay to go to the schools that they deserve to attend. Therefore, student loans make going to college a real possibility for average people. However, those students still have to pay back the money that they borrowed, and most loans have interest attached to them as well. This creates a large amount of debt for students after college that many simply cannot afford to pay.
Maybe colleges should come up with one flat rate; some money goes to the school, and another amount goes to the loaners. If students are in need of loans they must pay it back but with no interest rate. Schools are also not giving enough financial aid to most students which is also building up more issues within the school industry.
Although students may be born into more fortunate families that does not mean it will be easier for them to pay off the debt when they get out of college, or that they are more likely to be able to pay off school right away. All students should be benefited with some financial aid from the school. The problem that is going to happen is that as inflation rates keep increasing is the student loans interest is going to keep increasing, making our money value less than what it was the year before, and the cycle will continue to grow.
The economy is already bad enough, and it is very difficult for students right out of college to find jobs. Students should not have to worry about anything else but getting a job and surviving in the real world once they graduate.
The college degree has given graduates many opportunities for careers which has lead them to be successful, but now college seems to be less beneficial than it was years ago.
