we aren’t the only ones.

predatory-lending student loans. it’s not like i haven’t written about this before, most notably from a post called “sense?” on october 24, 2022:

“predatory lending in the student loan arena began around 2000. the arrow of the poison bow hit david in graduate school. it has not let go since. navient – one of the big student loan lenders – took part in subprime loans, private loans, misrepresented loans, aggressive forbearance-steering, sloppy accounting, the list goes on. and people’s lives – real people in the real world trying to make a real living and pay off real debt – have been skewered forever. crushing debt…in story after story in which interest is principalized, in which families aren’t given income-driven options, in which the debt rises instead of falls even as diligent efforts are made to pay down this farce of lending.”

and so now – after enormous governmental party-line fights to help-no!-help-no! we are back there, facing down a ridiculously ballooned forbearance-steered-misrepresented-principalized-interest-unforgiven set of loans.

and we aren’t the only ones.

it’s pretty overwhelming. it’s middle-class america.

we’ve consolidated, paid thousands extra when we could, applied for limited pslf and hope the idr count catches up. i have read student loan op-eds, student loan announcements, student loan laws, hundreds of student loan articles. i’ve placed phone calls and have more-to-dial on my list-of-things-to-do.

and the billing statement arrived.

there’s not much more deflating than treading water when the shore isn’t visible.

and we aren’t the only ones.

we have been the recipients of snarky comments about responsibility and snide remarks about artists and money-budgets. we have been sneered at and scoffed at. mostly by people who haven’t asked any questions – a recurring theme – by people who don’t understand – nor want to understand – what has actually happened in the warped world of student lending.

and we aren’t the only ones.

right now, the statement says we’ll pay david’s loans off in 2048 with an additional $40,000+ in more interest. but “student loans were never meant to be a life sentence,” (united states secretary of education miguel cardona.) we will be 87 and 89 in 2048.

this isn’t a funny SMACK-DAB. it’s not touching or poignant. but it is real. it is reality for millions of people victimized by dysfunctional practices – student loan malpractice – the government should have overseen.

we aren’t the only ones.

*****

read DAVID’S thoughts this SATURDAY MORNING

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