Say Yes to what?

“Say Yes” to college is getting front page coverage in the Buffalo News. “Say Yes” is a privately funded college aid program that helps cover college tuition for those that graduate and head off to college. What it coves is the part of college costs that is not covered by state and government aid.

Interesting note: It says nothing about that other great college killer – the cost of textbooks. I remember shelling out $50 - $60 for textbooks. My friends that were in the sciences , engineering, and mathematical fields shelled out way more for a textbook that was not even good for one year. I could buy used books. Their textbooks editions changed every year.

So, on the outset, this program sounds good because it mostly helps minorities (African Americans, Hispanics, and others) with the ever rising college costs (someone has to pay for all those sports scholarships and coaching jobs).

And helping with college costs is important because the greatest threat to a person's economic success is college debt. Right now the total owed college debt is somewhere in the range of $1.3 - $1.4 million. And that debt is just crushing people and their hopes.

Why?

There are no jobs for the graduates. Say Yes is great for opening the doors of opportunity. But the other big problem facing graduates is that there are no jobs for graduates when they get out of college, so they are taking positions in retail and service areas that they didn't need the degree for and struggle to pay off the money that they do owe.

Here's the bigger question: Why is this supposedly great country saddling students with college debt at all? Scandinavia has college tuition covered by the state (paid for by higher taxes) – but that removes a heavy burden from the college student because they aren't worried about the debt hanging around their neck like an albatross. It is good for businesses too because the workers hired are focusing more on their careers rather than the crushing debt hanging over their heads.

So why is the US not doing something about all this college debt?

Because the banks and corporations that provide college loans don't want anything done about it. It's how they make their profits – by burying people in debt with high interest rates.

Never mind (for them) that this is bad for the economy because these graduates are moving into their parents homes and living in a hand to mouth existence buying only what they need instead of digging themselves into deeper debt. I know of several people that are doing this or have done this in order to survive. They work two jobs and use almost all their money on paying off debt. This means they are not helping the economy by spending, which further threatens the capitalists prosperity.

They (the capitalists) don't see it this way. They are looking at the short term, here now today bottom line and what looks good. If college debt gets too high and the students were to not pay back the debt that they owe, the world economy could go into a crash worse than the 2007-8 disaster that President (sic) G W Bush handed us.

Socialists know this, understand this, and demand that action be taken. 

Total debt forgiveness would be ideal. 

If not that, then lower the interest rates (retroactively) to prime only with a recalculation of the debt based on payments.

Then again, we are talking about education here and no person should be forced to pay interest on their dreams, so college loans really shouldn't have interest on them at all.

Buffalo may have said yes to college for its students, but tell me what is the future for these students when they leave college?

In a capitalist economic and social system, not much.