The past few days, I’ve been reading a message board about Canadian student loans. Basically, the hundreds of people who have joined this message board want the Canadian government (i.e. the tax payers) to pay off all outstanding student loans. They are starting a petition, and contacting politicians, etc. To me, this undermines all the hard work it took to pay off my student loans, and all the hard work my classmates are going through right now, trying to pay back what they owe.
Yes, I understand that life happens, and sometimes your financial situation changes along with it. But student loans are a luxury offered by the government to people who can’t afford to pay for their education up front. It’s like a 0% interest credit card for the duration of your schooling, and that’s pretty generous in my opinion. If someone racked up their Visa, and then at the end of the month, realized they couldn’t pay it off, is Visa just going to relieve them of their debt? No. They don’t care about life. They care about the money that is owed to them. So why should the government be any different when it comes to loaning us money?
And a lot of people don’t even know what student loans really are when they apply for them. And on that message board, a lot of the people were angry because they didn’t realize that after graduating, interest would still accrue during their 6-month grace period. Some didn’t even realize how big their monthly payments were going to be. And we all know those people who spend their student loans on alcohol, a new TV, a vacation, etc. Sure, most aren’t like that, but some are. And as for the 6-month grace period, it clearly states on the paperwork that interest would accrue … and not realizing how big your monthly payments were going to be? Try using a calculator.
I empathize with the grads who weren’t able to get a job right away, or who have to support a family. I really do. A lot of my friends are in the same situation, and it’s hard for them. But at the same time, I don’t want my tax dollars going to erasing their debt just because they aren’t able to pay off their loans. It may be selfish, but isn’t it also selfish to want the country’s tax payers to pay for what they spent? Maybe they should have had a plan, or evaluated what they were willing to sacrifice after graduation in order to pay the loans off.
There are a ton of ways to pinch pennies and make it work (as I’ve found over the months, by reading all of your PF blogs), but a lot of the commenters in that forum just don’t want their lifestyle to change because they’ve gotten comfortable. They don’t want a strict budget to follow. Or maybe they’re just overwhelmed. Move home if you have to. Clip coupons, get rid of the car, move to a city with a lower cost of living! Just do something … because complaining isn’t going to make the debt go away any faster. Well, it might if by some miracle the government decided to erase the country’s student loan debt. And while it may be great for those students who do get their debt erased, I’m sure it’ll piss off the thousands and thousands of grads who have already paid off their loans.
And I’m not just spouting off here because I have my loans paid off. I’ve always felt this way. I’d love to get my B.A. right now, but I can’t afford being $20k in debt again, so I’ll wait a few years and save up so I don’t have to take out huge loans. It has always annoyed me to see all the student protests at Parliament, wanting the government to get rid of their debt. They knew how much their education was going to cost them before they started school, so why are they so upset? Yes, tuition is ridiculously high, but what are you going to do? In North American culture, post secondary education is a privilege, not a right. And until the government changes their attitude, that’s just the way it’s going to be.
The bottom line is: complain all you want about paying back your student loans. Those payments suck! The system sucks! DEBT SUCKS! It’s all true! But at the end of the day, you understood the terms and conditions when you signed those papers. So just pay back what you owe, and stop trying to score a free ride from the Canadian tax payers.
Maybe I’m being insensitive, but I just think debt is debt, no matter who you owe money to. What do you think? Am I a complete asshole?
4 Responses to “Post secondary education is a privilege, not a right”
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I am just loving your blog! I read your post on car options from The Star and luckily it led me here. Now back to this post. I completely agree with you. The government student loans in Canada are a real benefit. First of all, Canadian undergrad tuitions are generally lower and relatively more afforable than the States. I mean, I was probably paying at the highest tuition rate (around 40K for 4 years) given that I went to a pretty well known Canadian University studing Business (no tuition cap for us). But yet, it was not impossible to pay off.
If you spent your summers wisely earning money, got a part time job during the school year and just saved whatever you could, you could reduce your debt before the interest kicks in. That's another thing, if you're doing a 4 year program, that's 4 years of free money invested in you for 0 interest until you graduate. On top of that, there are tons of busaries that you can apply for. You just have to make the choice to do all of them. As you said, it all comes down to comfort level. If you want to go to University/College, you better be prepared to take the financial risk that comes with. This is an individual choice. Tax payers should not be paying for that.
So, this is way after the fact, but a few points:
I don't think *access* to Post-Secondary education should be a privilege. It's pretty hard to succeed without some sort of degree/diploma. Even really low level office jobs frequently require a university degree. When the necessity for a degree is that pervasive, I think it's pretty important that everyone can get one.
Yes, student loans exist, but they're not as easy to get as some people say. The first time I left university, it was because I couldn't afford food anymore. I was living in a crummy basement bachelorette and almost never went out drinking or whatever kids supposedly do to waste their money. And I had a part-time job. But my loan barely exceeded the cost of my tuition + materials, and it was hard to have time for working enough to cover my rent and food bills and school. My school did not have on campus housing, not like that would've been much cheaper than what I was paying for rent anyway (as I understand it from other schools campus housing costs).
When I returned for my second year, my loan was reduced by $3000 because I'd earned that much money from May-September. I earned that because I had to pay my bills over the summer as well. Some of us can't go back home, but apparently Student Loans doesn't accept that reasoning. I was expected to have minimal expenses over the summer and have saved all that money for school. My second loan didn't even cover tuition entirely.
By "access" should be a privilege and not a right, I mean I think it should be easier to get student loans. They need to make reasonable allowances for people who have no one helping them but themselves.
However! People demanding to have their loans repaid for them are just being stupid. The Student Loan system *does* have something in place for people who can't afford their minimum payments – Interest Relief/Repayment Assistance Plan. If you are making below what they consider the minimum for you to be able to afford repayments, they will put a hold on payments or greatly reduce them, AND the government will help pay down the interest accruing. That's amazing! So you're not totally screwed if you can't get a decent job right away or whatever.
So I agree and disagree with you. :D I don't think the government should pay student loans, but I think they need to be more forgiving in giving out those loans in the first place. Contrary to what these protesters were/are saying, it is possible to pay back your loan eventually – I'm almost debt free now and I've had pretty much all shitty jobs (since I didn't have a degree, right). :D If I could make my loan repayments while I worked retail and lived in downtown Toronto, pretty much anyone can.
And five days ago I submitted my application for a student loan to go back to school. Oh gad! :D
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