Senior Citizens Have $36 Billion In Outstanding Student Loans

This is a good companion piece to the post I made yesterday about CNN being in denial that there may be a crisis in the student loan industry. It's bad enough that many young adults are carry huge education-related debt burdens, but now it also appears that student loans are going to follow some people right into the grave. Here is Yahoo News with the story:

New research from the New York Fed shows Americans 60 years and older owe a collective $36.5 billion in outstanding student loans. More than 10 percent of these indebted seniors are delinquent on their loans, which means they may field calls from persistent debt collectors and be forced to offer up parts of their Social Security checks to satisfy their decades-old debts, the Washington Post reports.

Most people with student loans are under 40, but because this type of loan cannot be discharged in bankruptcy, the debt can follow a person around for life. The average amount due from all student loan borrowers is $23,300, according to the New York Fed's data, while the median amount is $12,800. On average, college graduates make significantly more over their lifetimes than high school graduates and face a lower unemployment rate. But college costs have skyrocketed over the past 30 years, and the potential payoff of a college education varies widely, depending on which subject a person majors in and the value and reputation of the college.

Notice how that last bit almost perfectly mirrors the propaganda put forth in the CNN story? It almost like the media collaborates in the lies it tells the public. Who would have ever thought?


Bonus: "Old man, look at my life...I'm a lot like you were (or maybe are now)"