there is a student debt crisis in the United States college tuition costs have risen 250 percent in the last 10 years and according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau student loan providers don't always give accurate and timely information about how best to pay off loans but ultimately the main cause of the student debt crisis are the borrowers themselves take for example Taylor Smith who has a bachelor's degree in political science and government from Texas A&M to pay for Texas A&M Smith worked full time throughout college she also cobbled together 11 student loans probably graduated with about 53 thousand and student debt that number hit me for the first time my last semester of college and it was the first time I saw the full balance and I had a panic attack immediately she took out 11 student loans and was surprised at the ramifications of taking out 11 student loans you know just thinking like oh my god I just got myself in $50,000 of debt that is a lot of money but it's not terrible if your first year salary is equal to how much you owe in student debt so if you owe $50,000 you should make at least $50,000 in your first year then she had to quit her first job her dream job registering voters in Colorado so she went to college for political science and government and her dream job is to work at a grassroots organization whose goal is to get Millennials to register to vote that's not even close to a 50 grand a year job not to mention that you can do all that without a political science degree and now she works as a director of sales and account management at a tech company glad to see she's put in that fifty thousand dollar degree to good use what about 27 year old teacher Beth Hanson in addition to working full-time at a Maryland middle school she now works to other part-time jobs running an after-school book club singing in a church choir and yet earned only 46,000 dollars total last year while still owing more than 60,000 you mean to tell me that run an after-school book club and singing in a choir didn't bump her up to six figures color me surprised how old was I when I signed my first promissory note 17 am I really going to read said promissory note from beginning to end or understand or understand and even if I had read it I'm starting to see a pattern here Jessica love Jordan is in a similar situation she started college late and is now working on finishing her master's in addiction counseling she juggles school work and being a single parent and sometimes the debt feels too much now and again when I look at the statement and see how much tax you have to pay back it's almost suffocating when she graduates she can expect to make about $33,000 annually as an addiction counselor her debt will be about $90,000 now I'm not saying that being an addiction counselor isn't a noble profession but she's paying ninety thousand dollars in tuition to effectively make fifteen dollars in 86 cents an hour she's never ever going to be able to pay that off especially with her being a single mom Jordan heft he's been trying to get a more manageable payment plan he studied film but couldn't get a job in the industry he now owes $100,000 in private student loans but was paying interest only until recently hmm I wonder why you couldn't get a job in the industry because those drawings are fantastic but seriously I really hope he's not bringing that portfolio around on job interviews Wow a few months after the end of her academic career Nina denounces a system of which she says she's a victim the Diploma was supposed to open the gilded doors to a career that hasn't materialized Nina went to the University of Maryland and has a bachelor's degree in Persian Studies it's a specialized field and if you have a bachelor's and a master's you can be very valuable to the US government and have a job for life I've spent over a hundred twenty nine thousand dollars on my tuition not including the textbooks not including the time not including the energy not including the jobs that I had to take and I don't know if I do it all over again you don't know if you would do it all over again if you can't find a job and you claim that you're a victim why would you even consider making the same choices and if it couldn't get worse Nina lives with her mother who also has tens of thousands of dollars in student debt together they owe one hundred and fifty thousand dollars talk about the blind leading the blind Nina's mother is in a slightly better position though because she works for the State Department and has a good shot at being eligible for public service loan forgiveness after 10 years but like many people having problems with student debt it's not their fault Nina's mother says state governments prefer to see education as a commodity rather than as a public service how does that happen it's not like Maryland is all of a sudden unable to meet those accommodations or or not wanting to provide services to students for the long haul but this is the future these kids are the future for the state but only if they continue to work and live in the state after this new segment aired Nina left Maryland to go teach English in China so much for being the future of the state my name is Brittany I went to Tufts University I studied drama and communications and I owe a hundred and eighteen thousand dollars in student loans 118 thousand dollars for a drama degree I hope it's going to good use I'm a freelance production assistant I also work at a dance studio as a receptionist and I also work for a temp agency the problem here is that you can spend a hundred thousand or a hundred million on a drama degree and there is no guarantee that you're ever going to become a working actress let alone a famous one moreover the federal government should not be giving out student loans for people to major in things like drama or film studies every day I call Congress hi my name is Brittany King and I'm a constituent from Los Angeles and I was calling to know what are you guys doing about student loan reform oh that's cute she thinks that the government is going to pass comprehensive student debt reform I was calling to know what are you guys doing about student loan reform well Brittany since you didn't become the next Regina King we're gonna forgive your student debt and hand it off to the American taxpayer sound good you think I'm kidding but that's what some presidential candidates like senator Elizabeth Warren plan to do that's why I'm calling for universal free college and the cancellation of student loan debt of up to $50,000 for forty two million Americans but what about the students who borrowed money went to school and paid back their student loans in full why do these people now get to pay for everyone else's free college that's not fair and thankfully there are candidates like Pete Buddha judge who disagree with Senator Warren Americans who have a college degree earn more than Americans who don't as a progressive I have a hard time getting my head around the idea of a majority who earned less because they didn't go to college subsidizing a minority who earned more because they did and he's right furthermore why should taxpayers get to subsidize Taylor's political science degree when she didn't even use it or subsidize Nina's Persian Studies degree when she's not using it and working in another country or Jordans degree in film studies that seriously what tell is this [Music] don't walk run Productions merchandise is now available on teespring confuse your friends with a shirt that says senior political analyst or be a little bolder with the professional manse plainer or just grab one with the don't walk run cat and be part of a secret Club because no one has any idea that this cat's related to politics you can find these shirts and more at teespring comm slash stores slash don't walk run you can also find a link in the description below anyway thanks for watching sharing and hitting that like button and if you haven't already subscribe to the channel check out the links in the description and as always thanks for checking in and I hope to see you next time how you might wonder could people like Ricky Evans age 32 who works in finance in the DC area and earns upwards of seventy thousand dollars a year still have student loans of more than 80 thousand honestly back then I barely understood interest rates the irony here is not only does he work in finance but he went to school to get a bachelor's in mathematics you'd think knowing how an interest rate works would be a basic thing to someone interested in math but whatever this is an older clip from 2012 and while he didn't fully understand what he was getting into initially he's currently making six figures so I'm sure he's fine with a bachelor's and a law degree jack kazeer is a hundred thousand dollars in the hole only to wind up facing today's jobless legal market a hundred thousand dollars in hock yeah at least a hundred thousand dollars yeah so even though I got like a 75% scholarship to a pretty good school once I got there the market claps now you could blame it on a poor job market for lawyers but maybe it was the fact that under his name there are pieces posted on Thought Catalog about a jack kazeer squatting and a foreclosed home in Florida and testing positive for the worst STI you can imagine and having to call a bunch of past lovers telling them to get tested if I were a hiring manager I probably wouldn't have a lot of confidence in this guy nobody's perfect but keep those things to yourself or at least create a suit in them yeah sure the job market that was your problem
