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Sunday, December 16th, 2018

Student Debt Must Become Part of the Battle Against Poverty

Author:     Daniela Senderowicz
Source:     truthout
Publication Date:     December 4, 2018
 Link: Student Debt Must Become Part of the Battle Against Poverty
Stephan:   Student debt, the result of making profit more important to the country than education, has devastated the lives of tens of thousands of young Americans, as well as their families. Basically, it is the same story as the Illness Profit System. In a properly managed nation, the wellbeing of the population is the first priority, and a healthy well-educated citizenry is essential to a properly functioning democracy. The social outcome data provides unimpeachable proof of this, just as it shows America becoming increasingly second-rate.

Students hold placards as they stage a demonstration at Hunter College, which is a part of New York City University, to protest ballooning student loan debt for higher education and rally for tuition-free public colleges in New York on November 13, 2015.
Credit: CEM OZDEL / ANADOLU AGENCY / GETTY

“Debt is to capitalism, that which hell is to Christianity,” economist Yanis Varoufakis recently said. “Debt might be unpleasant, but absolutely essential for capitalism.” If so, then in our capitalist society, the hell of student debts makes borrowers the sacrificial lamb that appeases the deities of capital.

Forty-four million people owe over $1.5 trillion in student debt that is primarily held by the US Department of Education. Tens of millions are struggling to pay back a government that acts increasingly like a predatory vulture fund feeding off the misery of debtors’ perpetual poverty. Debts spiral out of control quickly when one is disadvantaged or can’t find a good-paying job, or when the creditors themselves employ the classic, corrupt tactics of parasitic pawnbrokers. The path […]

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