The Guy In Charge Of Overseeing $1.5 Trillion In Student Loan Debt Decided "Fuckkkkkkkk this job, see yaaaaa!"
AP News - The government’s top official overseeing the $1.5 trillion student loan market resigned in protest on Monday, citing what he says is the White House’s open hostility toward protecting the nation’s millions of student loan borrowers.
Seth Frotman will be stepping down as student loan ombudsman at the end of the week, according to his resignation letter , which was obtained by The Associated Press. He held that position since 2016, but has been with Consumer Financial Protection Bureau since its inception in 2011.
“You have used the bureau to serve the wishes of the most powerful financial companies in America,” Frotman wrote, addressing his letter to Mulvaney. “The damage you have done to the bureau betrays these families and sacrifices the financial futures of millions of Americans in communities across the country.”
——–
$1.5 trillion dollars in student loan debt. Sounds bad! I love looking at graphs of student loan debt, they blow my freakin’ mind:
Needless to say, it appears the fact that college is more expensive than ever, coupled with the fact wages aren’t increasing at even close to the same rate, and coupled with the fact more people than ever are going to college because you can’t even get an entry level job without a college degree, has caused student loan debt to go through the roof. And the person in charge of overseeing it all decided “yep, this is a disaster, I am OUT!”
What a thankless job that must be. You just sit at your desk all day, watching college loans default, the debt getting higher, college presidents getting richer, and not a thing you can do about any of it. And it’s only getting worse!
In 2016 I wrote a very good blog about what a load of shit college is. How you pay thousands upon thousands of dollars for classes you don’t need, buying textbooks you’ll never use, and eating overpriced glorified jail food. But unfortunately, a college degree is still a requirement for pretty much every job. I’m not here to give answers, but obviously at some point something will have to give, as I wrote in that blog:
What needs to be done? The cycle has to break at some point. Right now, you might be hearing a lot about the “student loan bubble”. Basically people aren’t paying off their loans because they took out so many loans to get a worthless degree. They were told they could do anything, but unfortunately “anything” doesn’t pay the bills, nevermind the crazy high interest rates on the loans. So then what happens? Everyone’s credit score goes to hell, so they can’t buy a house. Which I guess could be good because that means people can’t default on both their loans and their mortgage, but it also means nobody is buying homes, new cars, or anything. Not great for the economy. I’ve read a decent amount about this, but what’s become clear is nobody really knows exactly how it’s going to end. Colleges will keep making money. The government will keep handing out college loans. Fewer poor people will be able to get college degrees, which will continue the separation of the upperclass and lowerclass. It goes deeper and deeper than that, but for now we’ll leave it there. There’s plenty to read about it on the Internet if it’s as interesting to you as it is to me.
Last year on my birthday I was lucky enough to have paid off my remaining student loans. I went from around $30k to $0 in 7 years, not too shabby. A lot of people I know haven’t been as fortunate, and many of them have taken on even more debt in grad school. It’s crazy how the system works like this. And that’s why that dude just peaced on out. Someone else’s problem now.