The Disturbing Curves of College Costs vs. Future Earnings

By Tim on 11/30/2012 in Debt, Our Culture

Via this item at the Fiscal Times (where they’ve really kicked things up a notch or two as the fiscal cliff debate evolves into the fiscal cliff crisis) comes the chart below from a recent Citigroup report depicting the grim prospects for any high school senior contemplating a four-year degree.

Of course, the only requirement for financing your college costs via a student loan from Washington, is to, well, be in college. So, for most people, money isn’t a big obstacle, however, for many students who either don’t graduate or are underemployed after getting their sheepskin, paying the loans back is.

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One Response to The Disturbing Curves of College Costs vs. Future Earnings

  1. Steve White December 1, 2012 at 9:01 AM #

    Student loans will become dischargeable in bankruptcy soon. As huge numbers of college students become unemployed/underemployed adults who vote and cannot pay their student loans, the pressure on Congress will be too much to bear. Once again, the taxpayers will bail out the banks who made bad loans and the people who signed up for them.

    At that point, the federal taxpayers will have bailed out the mortgage, auto and higher education industries (which industries did I forget?) while we continue to pour money into the health care industry with massive payments for medicare/medicaid that vastly exceed receipts. Of course, all the while, the defense industry consumes gargantuan sums of money. Most of this is done with borrowed money.

    What could possibly go wrong?

    Reply

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