{"id":25878,"date":"2015-06-21T12:17:41","date_gmt":"2015-06-21T16:17:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/?p=25878"},"modified":"2015-06-21T12:17:41","modified_gmt":"2015-06-21T16:17:41","slug":"im-sorry-i-find-this-attitude-offensive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/?p=25878","title":{"rendered":"I’m Sorry, I Find This Attitude Offensive"},"content":{"rendered":"

On June 6, Lee Seigel posted an article in The New York Times<\/a> explaining why he defaulted<\/a> on his student loans<\/a>. I’m sorry, I lack sympathy for his plight.<\/p>\n

He states:<\/p>\n

Years later, I found myself confronted with a choice that too many people have had to and will have to face. I could give up what had become my vocation (in my case, being a writer) and take a job that I didn\u2019t want in order to repay the huge debt I had accumulated in college and graduate school<\/a>. Or I could take what I had been led to believe was both the morally and legally reprehensible step of defaulting on my student loans, which was the only way I could survive without wasting my life in a job that had nothing to do with my particular usefulness to society.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I chose life. That is to say, I defaulted on my student loans.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The article concludes:<\/p>\n

There would be a national shaming of colleges and universities for charging soaring tuition rates that are reaching lunatic levels. The rapacity of American<\/a> colleges and universities is turning social mobility, the keystone of American freedom, into a commodified farce.<\/strong><\/p>\n

If people groaning under the weight of student loans simply said, \u201cEnough,\u201d then all the pieties about debt that have become absorbed into all the pieties about higher education<\/a> might be brought into alignment with reality. Instead of guaranteeing loans<\/a>, the government would have to guarantee a college education. There are a lot of people who could learn to live with that, too.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I agree with the writer that college tuition<\/a> is too high. I wonder if he understands that the rise in tuition has been parallel to the amount of money made available through student loan programs (generally government-funded). In recent years, colleges have had no incentive to keep tuition low–students just keep taking out loans to pay the increased amounts.<\/p>\n

As for the government guaranteeing a college education. Where in the world is that written in the U.S. Constitution<\/a>? Why in the world should the government be responsible for anyone getting a college education? It sounds to me like the writer of the article is simply looking for a free education at the expense of the American taxpayer. The American taxpayer will eventually pay for all the loans that have been defaulted on, but I really don’t think those of us who paid for our children’s education should have to pay for everyone else’s children also. I little personal responsibility<\/a> would be really nice. If graduates pay back their loans, there will be money available for students who are just entering college. Learning the responsibility of paying back you student loans should be part of your college education.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On June 6, Lee Seigel posted an article in The New York Times explaining why he defaulted on his student loans. I’m sorry, I lack sympathy for his plight. He states: Years later, I found myself confronted with a choice … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[9131,9129,9130,2204,8558,1501],"class_list":["post-25878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-default-finance","tag-graduate-school","tag-lee-siegel-cultural-critic","tag-student-loan","tag-the-new-york-times","tag-united-states-constitution"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25878"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25878\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25879,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25878\/revisions\/25879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}