Dear Mr. Bernanke and Mr. Paulson:
My student loans are too big and it is hurting the economy. Can I have a bailout, please? I need $92,000.
Thanks.
The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood 
Copyright © 2009 by The Atlantic Monthly Group. All rights reserved.
Copyright © 2009 by The Atlantic Monthly Group. All rights reserved.
Hell, mine are only about 62K. You can even round down to an even sixty and I'll be ok with that. Just think how much extra money I'll be putting into the economy once their cleared. Now multiply that by about two million. It's a long-term investment, I tell you!
I'm afraid both college and law school really took it's toll on me, a humble son of a millworker (ok, inner-city teacher, but it sounds less romantic). I'd appreciate a suitcase filled with unmarked, $100 bills in the aggregate of $160,000. In order to maintain confidence in the fundamentals of my personal economy, I will need said infusion to occur within the next few weeks lest I default on my primary obligations to my Chinese lenders...
Yeah, that was a clever letter. I'd have no problem with the government giving that letter writer the same deal it gave AIG (provided it were enforceable): a loan with an interest rate of Libor + 8.5% with the government taking 80% of the kid's future earnings (in lieu of taking an 80% ownership stake in him like it did with AIG).
Doesn't sound so clever anymore, does it?
To make the analogy accurate, the kid's loans would have to be so crushing that he would have to declare personal bankruptcy and liquidate all of his assets.
I'm sure there are plenty of people who would be willing to declare bankruptcy to escape their student loan obligations. Wasn't a law enacted in the 90's specifically to prevent this.
As a bankruptcy attorney I can safely say that it's damn near impossible to discharge one's student loan obligations by way of Chapter 7. One would have to demonstrate a severe hardship in order to overcome the exception. Chop off a couple of limbs and lose your tongue, and then we'll talk.
All I can say is god bless the GI bill. I don't want to crow but undergrad is paid for with no debt. I plan on joining the peace corps to pay for grad school.
Not so bad when you grow up on a reservation.
As my dad used to tell me "Son even a broken clock is right twice a day"
The student loan racket has gotten out of control though. Seriously, welcome to the new gilded age.