Stupid tax

Student loans are a stupid tax: something you have to pay because you made a stupid decision.

Taking on college debt for your own education is bad.  It's a dumb idea: unless you go to a state university for as little as you can get away with, go directly to work for above minimum wage in the area you majored in, and pay it off quickly, it is going to be a tick against you when it comes time to become a real adult.

Oh, there are certain majors where, if you work where the government tells you to, at the job they paid for you to be trained in, for five full years, they'll write off your debt.  Social work and teaching are two examples that immediately spring to mind.  However, you have to major in certain areas, then find a job in those areas somewhere "under-served," then keep that job (or one like it, in a place like it) for five years.  Most people don't want to do that.

Since most people take on student debt, go to the "best" school they can "afford" (or make it into, since loans make "affordability" a very loosely defined term), go for a degree in some kind of minority group "studies," they wind up with between several tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands of dollars in student debt sitting on their necks.  They've already damaged their chances at a job that asks them to do more than check if a customer wants to supersize their order by majoring in some kind of watered-down "studies" program; with that kind of debt on a minimum wage job, they've pissed away most of their future earnings at their minimum wage job.

It's a stupid decision for young people, who have their entire work life ahead of them.  It's even dumber for people nearing the end of their work life.  Because, if you default on those payments, your social security income is not exempt from seizure by Uncle Sam.

As bad as going out in your fifties and taking on a huge load of student debt for yourself is, cosigning on your kids' student loans is worse: you are motivated not to default on your own loan.  Your kid is not so motivated.  And, again, your social security income is not exempt.

Why is that?  Because student loans are federally subsidized.  They are not erasable by bankruptcy.  You cannot dodge them by being on social security.  You literally cannot default on those loans.  They will be paid back, and with your money.  Uncle Sam does not care that you are no longer working and are on a fixed income.  You will pay it back.