alt Hacker News>People were encouraged to take out debt for a number of reasons, and by a number of institutions, without first being educated about the implications of that
18 year olds don't understand what a loan is? Zero accountability?
Replies
bdangubic • 01/22/2025
99.65% of 18-year olds 100% do not. or compound interest. the system is rigged against them to not be taught any of basic finacial literacy
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DennisP • 01/22/2025
I'm just gonna mention that during the 2010s, Donald Trump had $287 million in loans forgiven after refusing to pay and suing the lender for "predatory lending practices."[1]
But yeah, let's make sure we squeeze every drop out of those college students, they should have understood their loan terms.
[1] https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicholasreimann/2020/10/27/repo...
In the United States? For huge swaths of the population that answer is obviously no. Financial education and literacy in this country is a complete fucking joke. Very few people expected that they would be on a payment schedule that amounted to $200/mo for 30 years, and for a significant portion of them, there was really strong messaging implying that getting a college education was the only pathway to financial success, such that student loans were worth it. Two generations and counting have been massively duped.