Student Debt Free Argumentative Essay

An education is one of the most important tools a person can acquire. It gives them the skills and abilities to obtain a job, earn a wage, and then use that wage to better their lives and the lives of their loved ones. However, due to the seemingly exponential increase in the costs of obtaining a college degree, students are either being driven away entirely from earning a degree or taking out student loans which cripple their financial prospects well after graduation. Without question, the increasing national student loan debt is one of the most pressing economic issues the United States is dealing with, as students who are debt ridden are not able to consume and invest in the economy. Therefore, many politicians and students are calling

The United States needs to look to other nations that have figured out the necessity of higher education to be at an affordable cost if not free. In 2015, college graduates are facing on average just north of $35,000 in student debt (Berman). In part, the government has reduced the federal funding that each college receives each year. Therefore, colleges have constantly raised the

Here in the United States, there are many forms of consumer debt, which help contribute to the large sums of debt countless Americans find themselves faced with. Directly effecting many college students is student loan debt. Student loan debt is now the second largest form of consumer debt behind housing” declares the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (Grisales). This is due to the fact that student loan debt grew 7.1% in 2014 to $1.2 trillion (Grisales). If this statistic alone is not worrisome this next one is sure to be. The amount of debt in the housing market that helped to spark the last recession was only $1.3 trillion (Grisales). Due to the increased amount of debt required by students to attend college many students are feeling the wrath. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, “In 2014, 11.7 percent of females and 17.7 percent of males between the ages 25 and 34 were living with their parents” (Grisales). The fear of obtaining massive amounts of debt is driving the current generation of student’s to put off many future hopes and dreams. While causing them to move back home to save money. The current student loan crisis is crippling the economy and ruining the lives of American students.

Student debt is becoming a big issue that is affecting many individuals in the United States, some having to decide between going to school or being in debt for years after they have finished their education. Most people want to have a great paying career and need to go to school for many years but do not have the financial means to pay for college or qualify for financial aid, seeking other options to get their education such as applying for student loans or credit cards. College students should not be worried about how much debt is being accumulated and how it can affect them in their future. This paper will examine the possible solutions to student debt such as student forgiveness, allowing bankruptcy, or eliminating private lending agencies. Having these options will help students with a good paying career from living paycheck to paycheck and become more financially stable.

Each semester the student loan debt increases, and the scary part is that in some cases students will never be able to pay off their debt. Previously, young people would attend college to increase their chances of success in the future; however, now a days it seem like it is more of a financial burden than an investment for the future.{If something is not done to manage the increasing student loan debt, the economy as a whole will also fall into a financial crisis}. Something needs to be done about the student debt in the United States. A proposal should be done to insure that the number of students who fall under student debt have a way to come up from it without the struggle of increase interest rates and a bad credit score. Student loan debt is increasing every year, and some students don’t understand the burden that could come from borrowing money to pay for college. Student loan debt is not just harming students, but also families and the United States economy as a whole, a solution to this problem would be to cancel student loan debt.

An estimated 20 million Americans attend college each year, and 60% of those students borrow annually to pay for it (qtd. in asa.org, “Student Loan Debt Statistics”). Moreover, citizens continuing to pay off debt after schooling brings the overall number of student-loan-borrowers to about 40 million- with a collective 1 trillion dollars in debt (McCarthy, “10 Fun Facts About the Student Debt Crisis); a fourth of these borrowers owe over $28,000, a tenth owe over $54,000, 3.1% owe more than $100,000, “and 0.45 percent of borrowers, or 167,000 people, owe more than $200,000” (Haughwout, “Grading Student Loans”). While some view this predicament as the result of laziness or carelessness, the bulk of this substantial group are not at fault.

While higher education continues to grow in popularity as an important investment in American society, the student loan debt that accompanies this education also continues to grow as a burden to the American economy. Although the plethora of debt most commonly applies to graduate students and college dropouts rather than undergraduate students, student loan debt has accumulated to $1.2 trillion and continues to grow. Student loan debt made up 13% of the debt accumulated for adults between the ages of 20 and 29 in 2005, and has grown to account for 37% of the age group’s debt in 2014. Even though the government made $66 billion in profit on federal student loans from 2007 to 2012, the American economy shows very little positive feedback if any at all. About ten million federal student loans are taken out annually with an average loan balance of $15,900 in 2005 and up to $25,500 in 2014. The debt accumulated from these loans has made a larger gap in economic inequality, has limited entrepreneurship, and has prevented future loans from being taken out because of damaged credit ratings. Student loan

It is no big secret that, in America today, most high-paying jobs require a college degree. Thomas C. Frohlich of USA Today stated that “graduating from college is a prerequisite for the vast majority of high-paying jobs”(2013). With the cost of a college degree increasing in unison with demand, few can earn a degree without the help of student loans. The American Student Assistance website reports that of the twenty million students enrolled in college, about sixty percent are attending with the help of student loans (2014). Obviously, student loan debt affects the individuals that obtain them. However, it also has severe effects upon the nation’s economy.

In the year 2007, 18.2 million students enrolled into college. About thirty-nine percent of those students were between the ages of eighteen to twenty-four (Marcus). College is seen as something one must do to be able to have a successful life or career. Student debt is almost guaranteed for anyone that goes into college. Seventy percent of bachelor's degree recipients graduate with student debt. Student loans in just the U.S. alone are up to 1.2 trillion dollars, this is the second highest level of consumer debt, just trailing behind mortgages (Snyder). Student debt has been an issue for anyone thinking about going into, that is attending, and graduating or leaving college. How to solve this issue is very simple, which is to save money, lower

In the United States today, the number of students graduating college with student loan debt is quite astonishing. In the article titled, “How the $1.2 Trillion College Debt Crisis Is Crippling Students, Parents And The Economy”, we will examine and break down the student loan debt crisis by the numbers. Today, almost two-third’s of students graduating college are graduating with an average of $26,000 in debt. For most students, $26,000 is a lot of money when the average annual income for a first year graduate is only in the mid $40,000 a year range. According to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, student loan debt has reached a new milestone, crossing the $1.2 trillion mark (Denhart, 2013, Introduction, par. 2). With student loan debt levels

A higher education has long been a staple of the American Dream. Millennial students, however, have been rudely awakened to find their dreams turn into nightmares. Millennials have been forced to lease their livelihoods to the federal government in hopes of obtaining a better future. They find themselves being scolded by politicians and citizens alike for being, ‘lazy’, ‘entitled’, and ‘ungrateful.’ They are blamed for the trend of increasing student loans and default rates because of their ‘carelessness’ when the root of the problem originates from the decades of government recklessness and public neglect. Students are forced to take out loans to finance their education because of perpetually decreasing federal funding which is fueled by the fact that upon graduation students who are fortunate enough to be employed simply don’t earn enough. Without well-paying jobs, graduates cannot pay back their student loans and thus find themselves in a perpetual cycle of indebtedness; a cycle which can lead to not only the next economic recession, but can also lead to a social regression. In order alleviate the student debt crisis and revive the American Dream, the government must reform the federal student loan repayment program by extending coverage to all students and by extending the time students are given to repay their debts.

Student loan debt has overtime become an unpleasant part of life for millions of Americans and especially borrowers. It is possible to identify the types of people who went through college and borrowed financial loans from those that went through college and did not go to college or those that went but did not borrow. The debt crisis directly affects the families of the borrowers, those with high debt burdens and advanced degrees. Despite the increased length in loan payment, the average monthly payment has barely increased (Hansend, 2010) .This essay focuses on the problem of student loan debt and offers a number of viable solutions towards the subject. The emphasis in addressing the issue intendeds to suggest policies that focus on the immediate needs of the students

In other words, higher education is valuable but expensive. Most would agree that higher education encourages ingenuity and critical thinking—attributes which are valuable in any profession. Though people like to cite Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg as not finishing college but finding once-in-a-lifetime success, the rule remains that those individuals are the exception, not the rule. Having a college degree makes attaining a higher paying job possible. Clearly higher education pays off, but there are some people who do not have enough money to pay for college. Only thirty percent of Americans have earned a college degree. This number does not seem staggering, but when compared with college tuition debt to credit card debt, the results are stark. In general, Americans have more college tuition debt than credit card debt (State of the Union). When considering an average college graduate and his or her consumer/credit debt, it is easy to see why the student loan burden is one that students find increasingly difficult to confront. This is worsened by the current state of the economy, where educated men and women have difficulties finding jobs because of the market. As a result, they are straddled with student loan debt. This debt, coupled with consumer debt and dim job prospects, are a burden which can easily become overwhelming for the average 22 year old (Federal Student Aid).

In 2016, an accumulation of almost 1.4 trillion dollars of student loan debt was outstanding in America (Kess). Students from all over the nation, and the world for that matter, are going to higher education without the financial ability to do so. One of the few options for financial aid available to these prospective college students is to take out student loans to pay for the high tuition of most universities and colleges. While these loans are a modality for attending higher education, they often come with strings. Along with being several thousand dollars in debt, interest also accumulates into the total amount of the owed financial total. Until these loans are repaid the interest keep accumulating and the debt grows. With debt still affecting students negatively well after they finish their higher education, the price of college tuition should be abated.

As the time goes by, politicians and economists begin to be more concern about increase in student debt and its interest rate. High percentage of freshman drop out of college without receiving an official degree that could help them to pay their student loans back. It causes unpaid balance to increases in its value over the time. Analytics expect recession that could be caused by such students. The student debt exceeded credit card debt, auto loans, mortgages, and passed the $1 trillion mark. Also, due to threshold balance, for a regular person student debt slows down the process of purchasing the house, buying an auto and it brings financial burden for the next 10 or even more years. The main reason of such massive student debt are not a six-digit loan borrowers who pursue career in medical, law, or engineering fields, but first year students who dropout without receiving an official degree, and are not able to pay their loans back at a given time. Without having a real college life experience and the idea of what profession is best for them, students take loans, enroll in college, and because of the pressure of responsibilities and college work, they are leaving institution after a year or even a semester. Such problem could be solved by making first year of college for free. It will allow students to understand if college life is for them and if a college they are currently in will provide them with education they desire. Such policy will