Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Dude Ranch]

[roknroll]

[morrisonhotel]

[Moldy Rutabaga]

I think about this a lot and I've talked too much about this on other threads. It's funny how we all have blind spots in life. I think I understand some things quite well. But I've never understood what I'm supposed to take in university. How is anyone to know what will get them a job nowadays? Everything seems to be the wrong choice. You're nineteen and the university is telling you that employers will respect an English degree. You find out too late they don't.

I don't understand why university is so freaking expensive. More people attending university should make costs lower because of economies of scale. I think what has happened is that partly because there is so much demand, and because there is so much government aid, universities have not felt a need to be efficient. There seems to be so much useless administration and support staff at the places I have attended. This is not a condemnation of government aid, because without it very few of us would be able to attend.

I think the student loan system in Canada is a national disgrace. You give students few or no options, and tie ridiculous demands to the repayment system. I graduated with some $60,000 in loans, and a few months later the bank is demanding $750 a month, based on interest at prime-plus-five. I didn't make that much. A sane system would tie payments to wages, but it seemed to me the intent of the system was to deliberately drive people into default so that banks can dictate terms. The result was people like me, who after being chased and threatened by bank collectors, came to Korea because we had no money and we could get an advance flight, and took decades of productivity out of the country. I've paid up but it's made me bitter about Canada.

Nevertheless, whether or not we can do it, not paying your student loans is wrong. Stiffing a bank or utility for a hundred dollars over a service fee or some other petty gouge is one thing. But running out on a government loan makes it harder to students in the future to get loans, and, at least in my case, would have meant a loss for the taxpayers who finance such loans-- your parents, family, and friends. Is this something we want to do, let alone brag about?

[TheUrbanMyth]

[Julius]

[morrisonhotel]

[D.D.]

Nothing crazier than a moralist. Morals mean nothing if they are programming from the very system that tries to enslave you. It amazes me how middle class morals seam to benefit the rich at the expense of the people who live their lives by morals. Wake up suckers do you actually think the government manages your money in a responsible way. The system wants to keep you in fear so you consume and don't have enough free time to question it. The curent economic problems come from the people at the top, not the little guy that doesn't pay back his student loan.

Check out countries like Australia that used to offer reasonable priced education and a cheap way to pay back your student loans. Compare that to a country that throws expensive costs at you for education and then charges you 10% interest on a student loan.

If you really want to get into finances start asking why you who live in Canada see very liitle benefit when we have so many resources to sell. The system is corrupt from top to bottom and some church freak throws out the moralist obligation quote and a bunch of other believers in state and god do the plus 1 thing after it.

[morrisonhotel]

[furtakk]

[Moldy Rutabaga]

If we are not willing to accept abstract moral arguments for paying back student loans -- rightness or wrongness -- what about the practical consequences of not paying back student loans?

1. You can be thirty with a terrible or no credit rating back home if you choose to return.
2. Your refusing to pay your loans will make things harder in the future for younger students beginning university.
3. What do you intend to tell friends and relatives back home when they ask you why you're not repaying the loan that they paid for with their taxes?

[hellofaniceguy]

If someone owed YOU money, you sure as hell would want it back!
In the U.S., passports are denied or canceled if one owes child support or student aid money from a federal source. I know of three esl teachers who owed child support...the state department canceled their passports and of course they were then illegally in korea, located and deported. All 3 owed between 10~17K each. A far cry from 60K.
If you borrow it, return it. No one forces anyone to borrow money for schooling, etc.
The taxpayers have to foot the bill now...I am so they would not be happy....

[Julius]

[Julius]

Debt may be a good thing for Europe.
Stefan Theil, Newsweek, Published Jan 2, 2010

Big government, however, has run into a wall faster than anyone expected, thanks to an unprecedented run-up in public debt and deficits. In Europe, several governments are on the brink of a deficit crisis, including Ireland, Greece, Britain, and Spain.

And that's a good thing. The likely turn of events is that all this pressure on government spending will boost the cause of economic reform in Europe, to the surprise of everyone who hoped for (or feared) a renaissance of state power. That would come as welcome news for Europe's future competitiveness, on which jobs, economic recovery, and so much else depends.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/229091

[conrad2]

As an American tax payer, I have tried to lobby my governmental representatives to spend tax dollars on things such as health care, education (including college fees) and other things that would benefit the little guy. Instead my government chooses to spend money on unnecessary wars and bailing out Wall Street. There is nothing I can do to change this. If I still had outstanding student loans from the government, I would feel no guilt in not paying them back given the current state of the US government.