I had student loans and it took me about ten years to pay them off after I graduated. I have a very negative opinion about them and the student loan program. They almost seem cleverly designed to keep students who are poor or of modest financial backgrounds right where they are in life. It took me several years to suddenly realize that the difference between a student who had managed to pay her own way and save some money and a student who had financed their education via student loans were much further apart at the starting gate than just the value of the loan.
Here is how it works. Lets say a student graduates and ends up with a student loan of $30,000 ( I am taking this example from wikipedia and it sounds about right) Over the ten year term they may pay about $400 a month for 114 months for a total of just under $46,000.
Now lets say that another student works while going to school and or has more financial help from the family. They graduate out of the gate with say $5000 in their savings account and no debt.
Both graduate with the same degree and the same marks and both get a job working for the same large company and both stay with that company for ten years -the term of the loan. The well off student banks the $400 a month and possibly invests some of it,
After ten years the poor student has a bank balance of nothing and finally no debt and the rich student has a bank balance of well over $50,0000 and now both get pregnant. (they were girls eh!)
The rich student goes out and uses the money for a down payment and buys a small house. The poor student continues to live in an apartment. You can see what is happening here and its not pretty. It gets worse still if there is a break in employment and the interest starts to pile up and that often happens.
There is a tremendous amount of bullshit relating to student loans and the worst part is that those involved in them don't really understand what they are up against. In fact it gets worse.
In order to pay for the student loans the student had to earn money and pay more taxes on that. So in fact she didn't just pay the $400 a month -she had to earn about $575 a month in salary to make that payment. Its criminal and its what we are doing to our young students -our best and brightest and our best hope for the future. We are treating them like crap. From the rear apparatus of a bull.
Here is how it should work. There should be no fees for University attendance by Canadian citizens. It should be paid for out of the taxes we all pay when we earn money. This should apply to the first university level degree to start. Is it a good idea? Yes! Will it ever be implemented? Not a chance! Why? Because too many people are making too much money on the students keeping things exactly the way they are. Very sad. Canadian Banks have made Billions of dollars off poor students with govt. guaranteed loans at no risk to them.
Update Jan 29/08
Those of us that have learned the hard way will understand that when it comes to Revenue Canada there is no depth to which these folks will descend to. The Charter of Rights and Freedoms - I don't think so. News is now out that over a six year period they have referred 100 student loan accounts from dead students to collection and have actually collected $14,645.53 from grieving family members. The bullshit alarm is full on. Remember this is Canada not Nazi Germany or the Gulag. Its not Tiananmen Square or Iraq. Its Canada. Can you imagine for a moment the utter stupidity of the Federal Government of Canada collecting student loans from Dead students! If these are the same people administering the student loan program should we be surprised at what it is doing to our students and graduates? And the dead student thing has been going on for six years and this is the first time it got into the media. Hmmmm. It would be really interesting to identify the civil servant who authorized this collection activity and this government policy. And it would be really satisfying to fire his or her ass. But what do you do -when you live in a shoe?
I beginning to see that this site is an even better idea that I originally thought. And I didn't get to where I am today by having bad ideas!
Support your Local Student! They are the future and are living in the present and this is where we can all help!
October 13 2008 Update Several people have been asking me "Capt Ron How much is this going to cost - I like the idea but I don't know if we can afford it" Usually I tell them to do the math or go away or I show them my infected foot and prescription of cephalexin and remind them that I have type 2 diabetes and in the worst cases I threaten them with taking my bandages off and showing it to them. This usually stops most of them but not all so I see that I will need to do the math for them. One person actually told me their calculator doesn't go up that far! Heck you can do this in your head for pete's sakes. As a ball park to offer free tuition to ALL university students in Canada it will cost the taxpayer about five billion dollars. Yes it is a lot but no its not like the 22 billion we are spending in Afghanistan. So we can easily afford it. It is a completely reasonable and affordable idea and its long over due. And don't forget the students will still need to come up with enough money for grub and shelter and books. So its not like free university education its simply free tuition.
And for heaven's sakes please do not be afraid of big numbers. For example the USA has a 14 trillion dollar economy. Deal with it. There are several billionaires in Canada and the Corporate Secretary has listed them in her book YOUR VERY FIRST BILLION. Buy her damn book and learn how business and economics work in Canada. I am not one to brag but the facts are that as CEO I was the one who gave Miss Farsea the assignment to write the damn book. I told her that I wanted everything that a person needed to know about business in Canada in it and the little Pumpkin did it! I must say I couldn't have done much better myself. Well maybe a little better but remember Miss Farsea was born in Corner Brook. Nevertheless its the best book ever published on business in Canada and I am proud that I suggested it...and that Marcie did such a good job on it. But back to the topic at hand here.
By providing tax payer funded tuition to our University and College students we will ensure that those who should be going do go and graduate and we will be ensuring that our society has a good supply of well educated people to take on today's and future challenges. These graduates will actually end up helping to pay for our pensions and health care so what goes around comes around. Its like a Karma thing and we put good karma into the educational system and it comes back out to us. The same can't be said about the 22 billion squandered in Afghanistan we will receive very few benefits from that expenditure. We have sent our brave troops into a foreign culture where inhuman behaviour is the norm and after several years do not have much if anything to show for it. Much better to invest in our students in Canada and in our Armed Forces here.
Will we ever do this? I hope so. We did this page to introduce and support the idea. We need more people to support it and push for it and get it implemented. Its not something that one person can do but one person can start it off.
My foot hurts too much so I need to sign off now and get it raised up a bit. See you!
New Canadian University graduate $30,000.00 in debt. No savings, off to compete in the world and make Canada proud eh.
or scoot over to one of our other websites
|
Web Design by SuperiorWebs.com
EarthSolarDesign.com 