"European postal services suspend shipment of parcels to U.S." Topic

You missed the point. The point is none of you cared when we were hit monetarily for those 2 and many, many others. Why? Because it was your people.

My People? Which people are MY people?

Nobody blinks at taxpayers funding roads, bridges, or airports — because we all use them. Education works the same way. An educated population is national infrastructure: every doctor, software developer, mechanic, and welder pays back far more in taxes and productivity than the loan ever cost. Calling that a ‘handout' is like saying highways are freebies for truckers. It's not charity, it's how you build a strong country. And surely you're not suggesting that because you had to pay back student loans, the whole country's ceiling for improvement should be set at your experience. If that's the case, then America can never improve — because someone, somewhere will always be disgruntled.

1) I was a software engineer
2) I worked my way through collage. Part time during the school year, full time in the summer. I also had worked putting money away from the age of 11. I stayed home and commuted to college, even though multiple colleges away from my home accepted me.
3) I NEVER took a loan, so did not have to pay them back.
4) I made my children do the exact same thing.
5) I also attended college part time after my graduation while working 40 to 50 hours a week.
6) I had no scholarships. My parents made enough to disqualify me.

If the taxpayers pay it back, it is charity.
If someone else (ie taxpayers)pays it back for a person, that makes the person with the loan a leech.
It is not my job to pay for others collage education and i refuse to donate to my college so others can have scholarships.

That is my opinion. If others want to give their money, that is their concern.

Obviously not true, as so many lobbied the previous administration to do so and he did (using our money) "forgive" $183.6 USD USD billion. (That they admit to).

"In total, the administration says it has waived $183.6 USD USD USD billion in student loans."

They don't just disappear. Colleges were paid, so the money comes from somewhere.

The Donald isn't making it all back in taxes *cough* tariffs?

Chill, especially since there doesn't seem to be an understanding of the long term economic benefits. ; )

By the way, it seems that miniature manufacturers are beginning to start back with sending to the U.S. again, all systems returning to normal, except for the added extra "fees".

@Incavart77

Tariffs are just hidden taxes that land on shoppers at checkout — the government doesn't eat the cost, you do.

That's a great admission that Companies don't pay taxes -- the people do! Yep, corporate taxes ate just hidden taxes that land on shoppers at checkout — the corporation doesn't eat the cost, you do.

So end corporate taxes!

And surely you're not suggesting that because you had to pay back student loans, the whole country's ceiling for improvement should be set at your experience.

Oh boy, there's a whole discussion here! Ever since the Federal Government assumed control of student loans, we saw that academic and career success were decoupled from the education a student receives. See, in the Days of Yore a student loans terms were based on what the student was studying, their GPA and likely ability to pay back the loan. An Engineering major student in those days would be more likely to qualify for aid $$ and good terms than a French Gothic Poetry major.

Once the Feds took over, that equation didn't matter. All the schools cared about was CASH NOW! Their payday was no longer contingent on student academic and career success. They simply no longer cared -- they cared about getting more and more and more students in the door and creating the "college experience" for kids. So lower and lower admissions standards (often cloaked in terms of DEI stuff), climbing walls and luxury gyms and buildings on campus, all to attract new students. If you failed, too bad, they have 5 more in line.

And they can jack the rates up and up and up since the Feds (the taxpayers) are on the hook for default. This is why student education costs have increased many more times than inflation, and why we have lower quality of education and proliferation of low value humanities majors (a university can probably get 5x the students into a lame humanities major than STEM, and lower internal costs -- no lab spaces, less liability, less expenses over all).

So government IS the problem, not the solution…again…

@35thOVI

1) I was a software engineer
2) I worked my way through collage. Part time during the school year, full time in the summer. I also had worked putting money away from the age of 11. I stayed home and commuted to college, even though multiple colleges away from my home accepted me.
3) I NEVER took a loan, so did not have to pay them back.
4) I made my children do the exact same thing.
5) I also attended college part time after my graduation while working 40 to 50 hours a week.
6) I had no scholarships. My parents made enough to disqualify me.

If the taxpayers pay it back, it is charity.
If someone else (ie taxpayers)pays it back for a person, that makes the person with the loan a leech.
It is not my job to pay for others collage education and i refuse to donate to my college so others can have scholarships.

That is my opinion. If others want to give their money, that is their concern.

I respect that you managed to work your way through school without loans — but that's exactly the point: personal experience can't be the ceiling for national policy. By your logic, because you didn't need loans, nobody else should. But conditions have changed: tuition has risen far faster than wages, and the economy today requires more specialized training than when you and I were in school. Again, investing in education — whether college or trade — isn't charity, it's infrastructure; even global competitiveness. If we let individual grievance set the limit, America can never improve, because someone, somewhere will always be able to say ‘I had it harder, so you should too.

@SBminisguy

Oh boy, there's a whole discussion here! Ever since the Federal Government assumed control of student loans, we saw that academic and career success were decoupled from the education a student receives. See, in the Days of Yore a student loans terms were based on what the student was studying, their GPA and likely ability to pay back the loan. An Engineering major student in those days would be more likely to qualify for aid $$ and good terms than a French Gothic Poetry major.

Once the Feds took over, that equation didn't matter. All the schools cared about was CASH NOW! Their payday was no longer contingent on student academic and career success. They simply no longer cared -- they cared about getting more and more and more students in the door and creating the "college experience" for kids. So lower and lower admissions standards (often cloaked in terms of DEI stuff), climbing walls and luxury gyms and buildings on campus, all to attract new students. If you failed, too bad, they have 5 more in line.

And they can jack the rates up and up and up since the Feds (the taxpayers) are on the hook for default. This is why student education costs have increased many more times than inflation, and why we have lower quality of education and proliferation of low value humanities majors (a university can probably get 5x the students into a lame humanities major than STEM, and lower internal costs -- no lab spaces, less liability, less expenses over all).

So government IS the problem, not the solution…again…

But that actually proves the opposite of what you're saying. The explosion in tuition isn't because government made education ‘too available,' it's because universities figured out they could treat students as endless revenue streams with no price discipline. That's not government creating the problem — that's private institutions exploiting the guarantee. And even if the system has flaws, the principle remains: an educated population is a public good. We don't stop building highways because contractors overcharge; we fix the corruption and keep building. That's why setting the country's ceiling for progress at the level of the most disgruntled borrower means we can never improve; not domestically and not globally.

Tariffs are a textbook case of a cost being added on top and passed straight to consumers. But that doesn't prove corporate taxes work the same way — they come out of profits, not tacked on like a sales tax. If companies could just ‘pass on' all their costs, they'd never go bankrupt, never lose to competition, and prices would only go up forever. In reality, competition limits what businesses can pass on, which is why corporations lobby so hard to cut their taxes instead of just raising prices. Tariffs are hidden consumer taxes, corporate taxes are accountability on profit — two very different things.

Obviously I disagree. I view it as self responsibility. If you can't afford it, you work till you can or find something else. They are begging for skilled trades and the money is great. You can even get them to pay for your training. You will also have more future than with most LA Degrees.

But..

Attack the problem. Go after the bloated University system in this country. Force them to be lean and mean and lower the salaries. Don't donate to them, it only encourages them. That is the real root of the problem.

Oh, so only the rich can afford an early college education, and everyone else has to work years to pay for it? And lower the salaries? Sure, that might work in a trade school environment, although suspect that doesn't work as well in the modern world.

But hey, wait … the postal suspensions seem to be ending. No need to keep talking about student loan pay backs on this thread any longer … lol.

"But hey, wait … the postal suspensions seem to be ending. No need to keep talking about student loan pay backs on this thread any longer … lol."

But you did. Lol

You can go to college and work at the same time. It just takes a willingness and effort. You can even find free time, be in a Fraternity and have a social life. You just have to regulate your study time right. Study at every free opportunity during a school day. Go home and study evenings. You will find you end up with time on weekends then, unless Saturday or Sunday is a work day, which happens. All that while attending school full time.

You can even work 40 to 50 a week and take at least 2 classes (3 ended up being too much). You might be surprised what you can really do, if you really want to.

I and my kids did all of that. Although my youngest got multiple high school academic scholarships which helped her first year.

I also carried an almost 3.3 average for 4 year and a 3.6 for 2 year.

You just have to believe you can, work hard and budget your time.

I don't have issues with loans, as long as a person pays them back. That is self responsibility.

Scholarships are fine too if you earn them, but is not the subject.

Mom, Dad and the taxpayers don't have to take care of one from cradle to grave.

But yes it looks like the great tariff on soldiers catastrophe is being settled rather quickly. So maybe all these threads can end.