Are We Raising Our Children to Be Slaves?

“You can’t make it without an education!" "Go to college!" "Graduate from high school, go to college, get a good job." How many of us heard these mantras while growing up? How many of us have said these mantras to our children? Other people's children? Despite the fact that getting a  college degree today paves the road to debt slavery  where the chains and fetters are invisible and the wealthy, powerful owners, anonymous.

“Slavery is likely to be abolished by the war power and chattel slavery destroyed. This, I and my European friends are glad of, for slavery is but the owning of labor and carries with it the care of the laborers, while the European plan, led by England, is that capital shall control labor by controlling wages." -- Chas. Hazzard, The Hazzard Circular, 1862

As we start 2018, student loan debt is close to $1.5 trillion, where an estimated 44.2 million Americans have one or more student loans on file.  Student loan debt surpasses total U.S. credit card debt by approximately $659 billion. It is the second largest financial asset on the federal government's balance sheet, making up 51.8% of total assets. Only mortgage debt is higher. Not to mention, according to the Federal Reserve is the only form of consumer debt that continued to grow in the wake of the Great Recession.

Parents and students have little understanding of how this loan program operates.   They don't understand that there is an entire "ecosystem feeding on federal student loans."

“The companies making those calls are just one part of an ecosystem feeding on federal student loans. There are also debt servicers, refinance lenders, firms that help former students stay out of default and for-profit schools that make money as borrowers try to repay more than $1.2 trillion in government-backed education debt.

They don't understand that the cost of living is rising faster than income that make it increasingly difficult for people to keep up with the everyday expenses of life. They don't understand that a four-year degree is no longer the golden ticket to full time job with benefits and job security. They don't understand that the "four-year" degree actually takes five, six or even more years, which, of course, costs even more money.

When will we catch up with reality?  What was true 40 years ago doesn't make it true today.  What was true for baby boomers is not true for millennials and/or generations x,y,z, etc. 

“It’s not unusual for me to talk to a couple that between them has $200,000 in student loan debt now. It’s not unusual at all. I talk to them almost every day on this show. And they’re 32 years old, they’ve been out of school for four, five or six years and they’re just treading water. They’re stuck because no one in their life—no supposed high school counselor, no parent, no financial-aid officer—smack you silly. Financial aid is $200,000 in student loan debt. Give me a break. Nobody looked at you and said, “You know, when you bring that baby home from the hospital, there’s a possibility you may want to use your education to raise your children.” -- Dave Ramsey

Links:

Student Debt Crisis

Hazard Chronicle Documentary Evidence

Student Debt Relief

Student Debt Slavery: Bankrolling Financiers on the Backs of the Young

Narrow bankruptcy laws make it nearly impossible to discharge student debt: From the The Cost of Opportunity: A series chronicling the student loan debt crisis in Wisconsin series


Rising Tuition Costs and the History of Student Loans