Posted on by Californiacontrarian

Compromise ?

Right from the git-go let me state that some of you will not like this attempt at compromise. However, our President wants us to strive for unity, and it seems to me that unity can only be achieved through compromise. Those of us who are older might remember the compromise between the Republican President, Ronald Reagan, and the Democrat Speaker of the House, Tip O’Neill. The result back in the 1980s was that things got done.

So this attempt at compromise involves the Student Loan quagmire. Before you start screaming, hear me out..

First of all in general, I do not think that we should punish stupidity. Let’s face it some of us are born with lower IQs and some of us are born with higher IQs. Why should we punish those with lower IQs? It’s not their fault that they are not very bright. 

Let me give you a hypothetical example:

If someone says to a prospective college student, “In order to go to a four year college you will need to borrow $100,000 over four years. Granted while that may seem like a lot of money, you can get loans at a mere seven percent interest rate. With a payment every month you will probably be able to pay this off in twenty or so years.”

Now while this sounds almost too good to be true, only someone who is extremely naive or has been born with a low IQ is going to jump at this offer. Should we as a “unified” country punish those students who borrow that $100,000 and come out with a degree that is basically unmarketable because they are stupid? That is not compromise.

I would propose that while a naive student should not be completely forgiven for his/her stupidity, it is the one that is selling this p.o.s. to the student that should bear the financial burden. This entity is the college or university who had gently persuaded that naive student to go forward and “just borrow the money.” This is now beginning to sound more like a compromise, and perhaps if these bastions of higher learning have some skin in the game, they will be a bit more cautious about advocating loans as solutions.

Should the government as the representative of we the people pay part of this student loan debt? If we truly want unity and compromise the answer should be “yes,” as a lot of these deadbeat student loan borrowers will likely never be a part of the American dream because basically they will never be able to pay off these loans. Remember the key word here is “compromise.”

My solution would go something like this:(these figures are negotiable to some degree as long as the basic principle remains intact).

  1. For junior college: student = 50%, school= 25%, gov’t = 25%
  2. For a four year college: student =25%, school = 50%, gov’t =25%
  3. For graduate school: student =75%, school =25%, gov’t =0%.

This compromise solution insures that those unethical salesmen (the schools) now must pay for their shenanigans. The student pays his/her fair-share, and those who get graduate degrees pay more, as they are likely to have higher IQs and are going to earn more. Those who owe money because of junior college alone are mostly those who will never get a degree (drop out), but owe a debt nonetheless. Most of these will be those who should have never gone to school after high school, and I would guess have the lowest IQs. 

Now I realize that some of you may be asking why the government should pay any of the student debt. “Come on, man, compromise,” as it’s all for unity.

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