where to get student loans

i’m guessing you’ve heard of the acclaimedtv show “game of thrones.” seven kingdoms vying for power, plots within plots, watchyour back or lose your head. it’s great. but you’ve probably never heard of a reallife drama that i call the “game of loans.” that’s a game washington politicians playon young people, that is, college students, every day. just like “game of thrones,” the “game of loans” has plots within plots, big winners and big losers. the winners are politicians and colleges.they fool students into thinking that by generously providing ever-larger college loans to coverever-larger tuition costs, they have earned students’ votes at election time. why doi say students are fooled? because it is thanks to the very politicians who promise studentsmore and more aid -- in league with the colleges

-- that college tuition became so expensivein the first place. here’s how the game works. according to bloomberg news, since 1978 thecost of a college education has gone up by over 1000% percent. way past the rate of inflation.tuition alone at many colleges is 20, 40, even 50 thousand dollars a year! so, how doyou pay for it? answer: student loans, loans that the government is happy to give you sincethey collect the interest. you don’t have to be a finance major to figure out that allthese student loans give colleges no incentive to cut costs. instead, it gives them everyincentive to raise costs. higher tuition obviously means more money for the college.

now if students were going to college in recordnumbers to study engineering or computer science or biology -- professions with high employmentrates -- maybe these crazy sums would make some sense. maybe. but the most common majorsare in the social sciences and communications -- in subjects like sociology, cinema historyand gender studies. not surprisingly these majors have very high unemployment rates,as in, they don’t prepare you for a job. and these majors are mainstream! you can geta degree in storytelling, bag piping and puppet arts for your fifty thousand a year. but here‘s the point: colleges are no longerprimarily about preparing you for a career. today's higher education is about teachingyou what a terrible country america is,

social activism… and binge drinking. hey, if collegedidn't cost so much the parties might be worth it, but it does. the average student loan debt in america is$28,400 per borrower. note that this is per borrower, not graduate! big difference. alarge chunk of the 1.3 trillion dollar student loan liability is held by ex-students whonever graduated. for every 100 students who enter a four- year college only 59 exit witha degree. but maybe you’re one of the lucky ones.you got a business degree and you found a decent job. chances are you’re paying offyour student loans and will be for the next 10, 20 or even 30 years! good luck savingmoney for a down payment on a house

or just about anything else.mike rowe from the tv show “dirty jobs” nicely summarized the issue this way: "weare lending money we don't have to kids who can't pay it back to train them for jobs thatno longer exist." so, am i saying that college is always a wasteof time and money? of course not. but i am saying this: 1) remember that if you take out a studentloan, it’s not free money. you actually have to pay it back. i know this sounds ridiculouslybasic but it’s also ridiculously important. and since you owe this money to the federalgovernment, you can’t get out of it, even if you declare bankruptcy.

2) whenever you hear politicians say theywant to make college “more affordable,” what they’re really saying is that theywant to get the youth vote while making it easier for you to dig yourself into a deephole. these politicians don’t have your best interestat heart. they have their own best interest at heart -- namely, getting elected. you don’towe them anything. “the game of loans” is rigged -- and notin your favor. but if you’re smart about your choices, you can beat the odds. i’m charlie kirk of turning point usa forprager university.