For all the yammering about leaving the U.S. because Orange Man Bad, it seems it’s actually large debt acquired from attending Democrat run colleges
Student Debt Burdened Them, So They Moved Abroad and Stopped Paying
Amanda Lynn Tully spent her teenage years as a ward of the State of Colorado and believed a college degree was her ticket to a better life.
So, when she graduated in 2017 with a master’s degree in historic preservation from the University of Oregon, $65,000 in federal student loans and no job offers in the conservation field, she felt misled.
“I was never financially stable because I was never taught to be financially stable,” Ms. Tully, 37, said.
Less than a year after graduating, Ms. Tully made a drastic decision: She moved to Prague, where she had completed an internship, and defaulted on her loans. She hasn’t made a payment in over seven years.
Wait, how much for what degree? Perhaps it should be considered the kind of worthless degrees Democrat run universities are offering and how much they are charging for them. There should probably be classes on this stuff during the early part of the kiddies’ senior year in high school. Teaching what that kind of debt means and what choosing a worthless degree means.
More than 40 million borrowers are saddled with federal student debt, and a record number — 7.7 million — have defaulted on their loans, according to recently released data from the Education Department.
For some borrowers, moving abroad and out of reach of debt collectors can be tempting. In interviews, people who made this decision cited relieving the psychological burden of student debt as a motivator, as well as having a higher quality of life, even on a lower salary, outside the United States. Many who fled abroad, including Ms. Tully, said they had no plans of ever returning.
The class can teach the kiddies how loans work so they do not get saddled with absurd loans that make buy here pay here ones look reasonable. It boggles my mind that banks and such are giving these loans to 18 year olds with no credit and no jobs when they wouldn’t even be able to get a $20K car 99% of the time without someone cosigning. Anyhow, sadly, the article is too new to get the whole thing using one of the various ways I have to bust the paywall, so, not sure if the article says how many are bolting. But, it must be enough to write an article. Nor can we see if they Blame Trump.
But, what happens if they do not pay it? Well, one is that the payment drops to $0, because it’s tied to income, and there’s no income. But, the loan still continues to accrue interest. The second
If payments stop, the loans eventually default. The debt remains legally owed, but enforcement is limited to U.S.-based systems. For federal loans, that includes credit reporting, tax refund seizure, and offsets of certain federal benefits. For private loans, collection requires litigation.
There is no criminal enforcement, arrest, or extradition tied to student loan nonpayment.
But, there best be no US connection to your money, because then seizure can occur via those accounts, be it federal or private that are owed. And, a private loan holder can potentially get a legal judgement which would then apply in those countries, which will probably be in Europe or Canada. This financial obligation persists because there is no U.S. law that discharges debt simply because a borrower moves abroad, and the debt can grow. Will grow. And it means you’re pretty much going to see that debt if you move back. What if the country you moved to eventually says “get out. Your work permit has expired”? You can keep moving to different countries, but, that would make establishing a good career difficult.
Back in 2024 the UK Telegraph noted that at least 70,000 bolted the US for overseas, so, it can’t all be Orange Man Bad. And there are articles about people doing this even before the 1st Trump administration. Perhaps it is high time for a fix to the student loan system, with costs exploding particularly once Los Federales backed all the loans via a bit of language in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, ie, Obamacare. Higher education is great, but, not when yutes are getting themselves into massive debt with insane terms for silly degrees. Heck, even good degrees. In a “get off my lawn” moment, this really didn’t happen much at all back in my day. Most degrees had value and the loans made financial sense, nor were they being taken out in these high numbers.
And, let’s consider, how much blame must be placed on the colleges/universities for burdening young people with these loans? Sure, the kids are legally adults, but, come on, most know nothing about loans and no one is guiding them to make good decisions on their degrees. The Adults In Charge failed them.
More: the Fish Wrap article is now available via archive now, so, this part is hilarious, applying to the woman mentioned at the beginning
Ms. Tully was on an income-based repayment plan, which allows many borrowers to have their remaining debt forgiven after 20 years of making qualifying payments. She was paying $60 per month when she defaulted. This amount, to many, may seem manageable. But for her, it remained psychologically burdensome.
“The payments weren’t even paying off the interest, so it was frustrating,” Ms. Tully said.
It makes no sense. Let’s say you’re financing a vehicle for $65K. Six year loan, 7.99 APR (which would be generous when you got it at 18): the payment is $1139.25 a month. Even a 30 year loan (not that you would get one) is $476. Yet, paying $60 a month?
BTW, the rest of the article really highlights why the whole student loan situation (as driven by Dem run colleges) is insane.
When I too graduate with a degree in philosophy in 7? more semesters I expect to also owe about $50000 in student loans.Thry are all low interest 4% loans. I am on the lowest monthly repayment plan. It begins only after I graduate. It is the 50 year repayment plan. I will be paying until I am 128yo. I promised to do my best . Of course NYC’s City University of New York has a low tuition 5K and pays me back $5000 cash back from Pell fed grants and HESC NY State grants. Life is great in blue states!
Degrees on historic preservation generally show starting salaries of $50000 and up. Her loan payments per month would be about _
$250. She made her own choices for her own reasons.
The college loan business is a racket – privatizing what was once a shared responsibility – public education.
Back in our olden times, we paid our way through the local state college working part time jobs – tuition then was a few hundred $ a semester!
Two of our grown kids had college loans (paid off) and landed good jobs based on them. The third went to grad school in chemistry and the gubmint still wisely pays for educating scientists.
Tuition and housing has increased faster than general inflation because of cuts in funding and schools becoming big businesses (because of all that loan money!!).
Forbes says: College tuition has increased significantly due to a combination of reduced state funding for public institutions, administrative bloat (hiring more non-academic staff), and massive investment in amenities like luxury dorms and gyms. Additionally, easy access to federal student loans allows schools to raise tuition, knowing students can borrow to pay for it.
Post-high school (i.e., college) education was never public in the sense you’re talking about, that is, funding individuals.
Today’s collegiate education has gotten expensive because the administrations realized they could bloat their staff and run the schools like a software startup company making software that there is no real market for, with students footing all the financial risk.
Just make the loans come from the universities themselves, and see how fast they only give degrees in things with a marketable value, and become much more selective on who they admit. That will stop the problem from getting any larger.
To address the current debtors, the IRS could put a tax lien on the estates of the parents and grandparents of the people leaving the country in order to default. I suspect anyone wealthy enough to move overseas to escape student loan debt comes from a wealthy family. Just make it so they can’t inherit from their US families until their loan debt is paid.
Partly correct. The public universities were subsidized with taxpayer funds allowing them to keep tuition lower.
Forbes says: College tuition has increased significantly due to a combination of reduced state funding for public institutions, administrative bloat (hiring more non-academic staff), and massive investment in amenities like luxury dorms and gyms. Additionally, easy access to federal student loans allows schools to raise tuition, knowing students can borrow to pay for it.
BTW, living in Mexico or Canada is cheaper than living in the U.S. Add in – not paying off never-ending loan debt.
Do you really want to punish the parents and grandparents for crimes commiited by their adult children? Autocracy!!
Private for profit colleges are responsible for 50% of the defaults on loans even though they enrolled on 10% of college students
Public state colleges (socialism) have a default rate of only 17%
There are about 43 million adults carrying school loans. Who thinks that a significant number are going to Europe for debt abidance?
Did Teach think that this article was in anyway representative of the general college grads in debt in the USA?
I went into debt for an Associates in Accounting.
Really struggled paying back the loan, couldn’t pay other bills, car towed, utilities shut off, rinse and repeat. Eventually though, I paid it off and have never been in debt since except for a mortgage.
I do feel for them, but I didn’t have an escape from that debt other than paying it back.
No problem. They can’t return to the U.S.; until those loans are paid in full. Someone gave them some bad advice.
Great, we have “birth tourism” scammers sneaking in to the country, that once they drag their sorry knocked up selves across the border get free room and board, free medical care and an income that actual Americans would need a full-time job paying over $20/hour for, PLUS we have student loan scammers sneaking out of the country with utterly useless degrees to avoid paying their federal loans, which in itself was a scam!
Thanks lefties!!
It was insane – it was a TRAP! When ‘oblama’ stoled the Student Loan Program and everyone KNEW that the SCAM was ON like Donkey Kong, tuition skyrocketed, liberidiots were handed “free money” to party at colleges, colleges hired even MORE liberidiots to “supervise” the “students”! They KNEW that this would enslave MILLIONS and then use that as BRIBES or EXTORTION to vote for the DEMOcrats who “promised” to Cancel or Forgive their loans! And now, rather than blaming ‘oblama’ and the DEMOcrats for their pathetic situations – no employable knowledge and impossible debts – they seem to think it’s the R’s fault for NOT freeing them from their OBLIGATIONS! What a messed up generation of nitwits – they should NOT be allowed to VOTE as long as they are in DEFAULT on their Loans!
Please understand that the underpinning of modern American capitalism is to redistribute the fruits of productivity from the working class to the political donor class.
Regarding college costs – they were previously heavily subsidized by government tax dollars (recall the higher tax rates on high earners way back when) allowing tuition to be relatively low. The Republicuns drastically cut education subsidies (and taxes on the rich) forcing the universities to become more “competitive” – they had to raise tuition to cover the foo-foo gyms, grounds, cafe’s etc to attract customers (students). The ‘money changers’ were happy to move in! Money that was subidizing higher ed was now subsidizing rich lenders and college admins.
The business of America is business. The working class just gets by and the donor class controls the government and the money. It’s always been that way to a certain extent, but when the working class MUST have two incomes to barely survive, and can’t afford housing, transportation, food and healthcare we’re in trouble as a country.
The United States per capita GDP is about $90,000. So a family of 4, on average, is contributing $360,000 into the economy!! The CEO of Broadcom Inc made over $165 MILLION in 2024. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act cut his taxes! Money that could have been used for education, healthcare, roads, child care etc. The CEO of QXO “earned” $189 MILLION.