Incentives anyone?

Sometimes, "journalist" Megan McCardle slays me with her ... "brainstorming":

Meanwhile, making student loans bankruptable would offer immediate relief to those who are trapped under crushing debt burdens from which they now can't escape. It might not give a huge immediate boost to the economy. But at least it would give some of those people some hope that they might one day get ahead.

Or...
perhaps it would offer strong incentives for middle-class college grads to discharge their debts early on, before they go on to those happy successful middle-class lives shackled with paying for their educations.

No thanks.

I like the idea of knowing what one is getting into. Can't afford to take out outrageous loans? Don't. Most smart college students learn that one already: don't borrow more than you can afford to pay back.

Some say: oh, but they already spent it, and now they can't get jobs.

But... that's the immutable Consequences part of life. Like buying more house than you can afford. Driving faster than you can handle. Having more children than you can afford to feed.

What the McArdles don't seem to get is, not everybody indulges first, and then worries about the payback, or the pricetag, later. Choose a lesser school, if the financial aid package is nil, and you're being saddled with outrageous student loans.

Better yet: borrow from the Bank of Momma and Poppa first, because you know darn well such bankruptcy plans would be most appealing to those with money, who actually can afford the outrageous college pricetags (compared to those attending state schools, community colleges, or private institutions with better overall financial aid packages for those in-need students who academically qualify.)

This "plan" of hers -- do we call brainfarts a "plan" at that level? -- would be much like what happens to well-to-do families with seniors facing nursing home retirements. They all know about the 5-years to divest of the assets plan. Heck, anyone well-to-do visiting an accountant knows that one, just like all the middle-class kids wanting out of their student loans before starting their families, and beginning their middle-class careers would learn about discharging student loans in bankruptcy, before they come into their own family inheritances, later in life.

No again. You incurred it -- you chose, knowingly, to take out those amounts of loans, with no guarantees. If you default, you'll simply shift the costs of your "education" onto others, much like those seniors who hide their assets and qualify as impoverished to receive free medical care, drive up the medical costs to others.

Personally,
I think we need to bring back the shameful stigma of engaging -- or suggesting we engage -- in this level of "pass-the-buck because I chose poorly". Take on a second job, even if you think it's beneath you. McDonalds IS hiring.

And even if you made poor choices in the past, you college grad you, there's still time to learn a bit about life from the bottom up. Work isn't beneath you. And though you might be underemployed, the illegal immigrants seem to find places to get hired...

Maybe these "kids" as McArdle refers to them, need to spend a summer picking fruit, or changing sheets in a hotel, or indeed, working the drivethrough. Then, they'll learn to better value a buck, plus, they'll have the satisfaction of learning to take care of their own needs (as distinguished from mere wants.)

Letting them off the hook on learning that lesson early on seems to contribute to the overall problem, not very helpful to their -- or the paying peoples' -- futures really...

ADDED: One nice feature of student loans not being dischargeable in bankruptcy is that they are not taken from your estate upon death. You die, that debt dies with you. Not true with credit card debt, or car loans say, which must be settled by the estate left behind. (If any).