The student loan pause has greatly affected my life. Once I was paying around $1000 a month for loans which I’ll have to be paying off for decades. When the pause went into effect, I was able to start saving money each month to the point that I could purchase a home. It felt great to be free, and it still does. But the point at which I’ll have to pay these loans again still haunts me.
The idea I have about loans is that it’s a new form of indentured servitude. Where we use these loans to gather knowledge and pay it back after we graduate and find a “good job”. Yet not all employment for post-graduates pay enough to allow us to payoff the loans we borrowed and still live the life we want. Sometimes to the point where there are no savings at all and just living paycheck to paycheck. As an engineer, I find myself wanting to start my own firm, yet it’s a risky business to start with nearly no capital and with the loans that I have now. I believe the student loan crisis has crushed American technological entrepreneurship. It favors those who were able to receive full scholarships to schools and those who did not go to college at all, which I would guess is a small percentage of people who are actually able and have the motivation to create for America. Yet, as Nassim Nicholas Taleb once said, “The three most harmful addictions are heroin, carbohydrates, and a monthly salary. You won’t get rich working for someone else.” If this is true, then we can expect Americans will not become prosperous working for someone else along with paying off their student loans. Student loans are hindrance to our nations ability to compete in the world economy, where the rest of the world does not possess the same student loan crisis that we have. Why? Perhaps because of an understanding that the education of citizens is an invaluable asset, and the fact that Americans have to deal with an egregious value slapped onto their education is an example of price-gouging and servitude towards masters that control their ability to pay towards that terrible value.
Edit:
Made clear the point I was trying to make about who’s able to create businesses.