The Log

In the United States of America we have a massive student loan problem. As of 2019 the student loan debt has toppled to 1.9 trillion dollars and the debt is only going up. College tuition over the last 10 years has spiked 63 percent and has been the highest its ever been. U.S student loans make up the largest amount of U.S non housing debt, more than credit card debt and auto loans. The problem is that tuition prices in America are skyrocketing but wages are are not following the spike in prices. You have millions of these young inspiring college students that leave college with a negative price tag of thousands of U.S dollars on their heads. With the wages for their jobs not rising at the same rate as college tuition, you see people struggling to pay bills and struggling to put food on the table.

The problem comes due to the loan created between the student and the government, higher demand for college and an inelastic demand for university prices. The universities have portrayed that without a college degree you can not get anywhere in life, so the demand to go to college will always be high. With this the universities can continue to increase the price of tuition because they know people will never stop going to college. The colleges and universities are taking advantage of the system and profiting from it. I do not care if you are Republican or Democrat this is a serious problem and we are seeing it affect thousands that are barely surviving to pay off the debt and live a decent life.

The solution we have to come to is that universities and colleges are not being regulated whatsoever. The government can not afford to keep losing money, the default rate for student loans is at 11.5 percent and the rate is only increasing. If I was in government I would create a system that would benefit the government and the students. The system would be a student applies for a student loan, he/she does 4 years of college and after tries to find a job that the universities promise you will receive. If the graduate student can not find a job or finds a job that does not meet the salaries the universities advertised, I would have a tax on those universities to cut the student’s loan amount so that the government does not lose money and the student is not living in poverty. Another key solution to stop this huge debt would be to eliminate the government in the equation for loans and just make student loans between student and university. That way debt does not pile within the U.S government and with all student loans negotiated between university and student this would create a supply and demand equilibrium price where eventually tuition will go down.