Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program

[OrionGrad]

Obviously your loan company will have more specific info, but based on the article it sounds like you should still be ok until they sign these new rules and put them into effect. Even then, the changes probably wouldn't happen until the next year when you filed. (So that might still be a couple years away.)

[MAPPLEBUM]

It just sucks that they can suddenly make and change laws like that when so many people are making big life decisions based on them. Yea, I know this happens in bigger arenas (like social security and marriage laws) but still.

[ides]

When I was exited about this before we discovered that we don't qualify dh said - it will be nice if its still around when it times for the amounts to be forgiven. - I see this program as not having a long life. I think his skepticism may be right.

[MAPPLEBUM]

When I was exited about this before we discovered that we don't qualify dh said - it will be nice if its still around when it times for the amounts to be forgiven. - I see this program as not having a long life. I think his skepticism may be right.

Well especially the law that if you haven't paid it off in 20 (or is it 25?) years your loans will be forgiven. Student debt is a HUGE problem and I fear how it will affect the economy in 20 odd years when people start wanting to cash in on the forgiveness.

But of course what we're really talking about is education cost. (Which I expect to be a huge political platform in coming years.) I definitely agree with the last psychiatrist.com (from the blog, "Hipsters on Food Stamps") that Generation Y'ers were encouraged to go to school and accrue student debt if need be, because going to college / grad school is what's necessary to win good jobs. As the economy has changed, however, the cost of education has gone up while the value of it goes down: coming out of these higher degree programs young professionals can no longer expect to 1) win a job in their field, and 2) have a stable career. But while the value of the education has down, i.e. it's way more difficult or maybe even impossible to find a job in your field, at this point the degrees are still necessary in order to even be considered for the job.


What our economy will have to tackle in coming years is the number of college graduates with student debt who find themselves either slinging coffee or working in their field but part time. Sure, it's the American attitude of "well, if you didn't get the job you didn't work hard enough." Or, "not winning your dream job for some people is inevitable. Eat or be eaten." The issue is that PHD graduate of Creative Writing serving your coffee can't afford to pay off her 150k in loans. (I stole that from the blog)

I think I just ran full circle with that argument.

[ladymoreta]

I agree. I think that student loans will be a major market bubble pop soon. It's definitely not sustainable.

[WolfpackWife]

Agreed, MB and LM. That's what people don't get about the whole US v. European doctors. They think the US doctor salary issue is just Americans being consumerist assholes who think doctors should get paid huge salaries when according to their argument "doctors in the UK or Sweden or France get paid far less than the average US doctor salary" (specialty dependent, of course). Right, but doctors in Europe aren't saddled with hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars or school loans, at sickeningly high interest rates. I'm sure doctors would be much more open to having lower salaries if they didn't have to worry about mitigating loan payments each month.

[MrsC]

Agreed, MB and LM. That's what people don't get about the whole US v. European doctors. They think the US doctor salary issue is just Americans being consumerist assholes who think doctors should get paid huge salaries when according to their argument "doctors in the UK or Sweden or France get paid far less than the average US doctor salary" (specialty dependent, of course). Right, but doctors in Europe aren't saddled with hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars or school loans, at sickeningly high interest rates. I'm sure doctors would be much more open to having lower salaries if they didn't have to worry about mitigating loan payments each month.

I think you'd be surprised at the amount of Europeans who are aware of the cost of education here. The UK is quickly catching up with increasing tuition rates. What a lot of people are not aware of is that you have to complete an undergraduate degree before med school in the US, compared with entering med school straight out of secondary school. Although, doctors in Ireland and the UK don't reach consultant/attending level nearly as quickly as they do here, and they are better paid during training. Very different systems. And both are hugely flawed.


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[WolfpackWife]

I think you'd be surprised at the amount of Europeans who are aware of the cost of education here. The UK is quickly catching up with increasing tuition rates. What a lot of people are not aware of is that you have to complete an undergraduate degree before med school in the US, compared with entering med school straight out of secondary school. Although, doctors in Ireland and the UK don't reach consultant/attending level nearly as quickly as they do here, and they are better paid during training. Very different systems. And both are hugely flawed.


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Interesting, I did not know that, MrsC! To be clear, though, I meant that people in the US are usually the ones comparing US doctor salaries to European doctor salaries, to bolster the argument that US doctors are allegedly "overpaid". Though that is great information. So many debates I hear on the US side always cite that European doctors are able to live comfortably without expecting what US doctors "think they are entitled to" (seriously, that's the phrasing I've seen used). But usually the people making these arguments have no idea how much either education cost but especially have no idea just how much crippling debt US medical students take on.

[PrincessFiona]

It's too bad. It removes some of the incentive that people had to go and work in under-served communities.
I hear the "doctors in Europe make x dollars" argument at least once a month it seems. It probably isn't that often, but it feels like it. I think the general public is not educated on the costs of medical school in America. If we're going to cut reimbursements and add more people to Medicaid, we're going to have to have a serious conversation about the cost of medical school.

Kris