The way those loans were drafted, yes you would have to live with them forever, even after declaring bankruptcy; however, new laws are in place to somewhat ease those loans, but you still owe.

As I see it, the government is just paying off the bank so you owe them instead, with some easement.

I think it's bad enough I'm going to owe the government rent for the rest of my natural life --I wonder how much I'll end up paying in student loans. :)

The idea of bankruptcy is to provide a mechanism for people to restructure or discharge debts that they do not have the ability to pay off, but it is not an automatic discharge of all debts. Bankruptcy brings together both a debtor and their creditors with a arbitrator (usually a judge) to determine what portions of the debts will be discharged, what portions will be repaid through liquidation of assets, and so forth. There are lots of rules surrounding bankruptcy, including what kinds of property are exempt from liquidation, and also what kinds of debts cannot be discharged. Along with student loans, most liens (such as car loans and mortgages) as well as many court judgments cannot be discharged in bankruptcy.

It's very similar to how it is here except for one thing. There is indeed a period (like 5-7 years) for personal bankruptcies after which, if you did your side of the bargain one can be free of debt. I think this is not only a very human part of the law (allowing second chances in life) but also quite clever (otherwise if I never had a chance to pay back my debt why should I even try - I probably wouldn't).

I don't know if there are similar exceptions like the ones you mentioned here but it seems they are all a bit arbitrary. Valueing one kind of debt higher than another may be seen as a bit unfair with regard to the other creditors who may have to reduce their own claims even more in case of a bankruptcy.

Just ask your waitress/server what they're doing with their life. 9 times out of 10 they'll tell you they're just working shifts at the local grease pit so they can pay for their overpriced degree. Little do they know that 15 years from now they're still gonna be working the same shit job (if they're lucky to not be replaced by a robot). Up to their eyeballs in debt, trying to raise numerous miserable children, and being economically negated by robocop. Check, please!

How did you get to be so cheerful?

Absolutely. The more settled and well-understood the job field, the less forgiving the education requirements, at least in the USA. Getting into tech in the early 1990s, I saw the last gasp of the true "wild west" tech atmosphere - when people without college degrees, certifications, or even experience were getting snapped up for then-impressive salaries, just because they were "a computer guy" (and we were almost all guys 25 years ago, so that's been a nice change recently).

But there has been heavy pushback in the last few decades (maybe longer, but I'm not old enough to remember) against the institutional education requirements. Go to Monster.com and look for "network engineer" jobs that require a CCIE or CCNP + 7 years experience, and you'll see that the certificate plus experience is still accepted in lieu of a college degree. It's been that way as long as I've been a network nerd, but I imagine that will not be the case when I'm hitting retirement. IT fields change abruptly; consumer technologies evolve at a truly frustrating pace for anyone in charge of handling infrastructure. Thus, the business suits haven't been able to homogenize the fields completely, yet. College is still an option. Now, go look for any field that's well-developed. Accountants, teachers, research scientists, medical professionals. Even lawyers (tidbit: as recently as when my father passed the bar in Georgia, there was a law that stated people didn't have to go to law school to take the bar exam as long as they could demonstrate that they had "read law" for..I think it was two years. Passing the exam was sufficient; showing that you could do the job was enough. Formal education not required. That law is of course gone now.)

But, yeah. I don't know anything about stevedog's experience in the bank, but your guess is generally right, and not field-specific. Must have degree because reasons. The larger the company, and the more established the position, the less likely you'll find flexibility in that.
It's extremely unfair, and that's the point. If you were to, say, look into US law about homestead exemptions, immunities to corporate debt, and protections of certain savings types, you'd see how disgusting it is that driving businesses bankrupt is still a really good way to get rich. As long as you're getting rich, you're not in a situation where you're accruing a lot of non-dischargeable debt. And bankruptcies are neither forever, nor particularly painful, here. They're just a seven-year itch.

I was once involved in an all-night poker tournament with Kyle Reese, Dr Who, and 7 of 9. They convinced me to also take part in a drinking challenge. Sadly, I lost, though I did learn quite a bit about the space-time continuum.

The point of making certain kinds of debt not able to be discharged is usually to serve one of two purposes. First would be if allowing the debt to be discharged would be more harmful and unfair to the person the debt is owed to than not allowing it to be discharged is to the person who owes the debt. For instance, in the case of court judgments, if you were ordered to pay a judgment to a person because you hit them with your car and paralyzed them for life, letting you simply discharge that debt through bankruptcy would be extremely unfair to the person you injured. The second reason is to make lenders more willing to extend certain types of loans that they would otherwise be hesitant to make. Student loan debts fall under this category- if it could be discharged then such loans would be extremely risky to extend, and you'd see lenders much less willing to do so. Whether this would be a good or bad thing is quite debatable, but it's the reasons why the loans are not allowed to be discharged. Liens fall under this same category as well- if a bank weren't able to re-possess a car or foreclose on a house in the event payments stopped then it would be much, much more difficult for people to get those kinds of loans.

I remember as a teenager, probably 14-15, i looked into pursuing a short 2 year degree... and the amount i'd have to loan out was probably $60k or so. And i said no way, i wasn't going to subject myself to debt. I can't say if that was the best choice in the world, but by the time i'd have gotten out, had my degree, got hired by a company it would have been in... 2000-2002.

I lived paycheck to paycheck, never had debt but still had to work. And then ended up joining the military in 2004 for a few years.

All in all, i'm debt free (well, 10k left to pay on a house). But i'd honestly would have pursued a much different life and career if i'd been in the right areas to take the classes. Currently there's no jobs that want to hire me in my area, and i refuse to flip burgers. As little money as i'm making and spending semi-wisely, i think i'm okay without ever going to college.

I hear you. Sad to say, i wouldn't expect things to get better with how they are. The economy is going to collapse, just gotta wonder when...

I graduated from Community College and went into online school for a bachelors. At the time there was nothing nearby I could do to get a Bachelors and not pay for it out of my ass. Within a month or two I knew I was in trouble with the Online school, Everest, as I can sense the scam nature of it but I was already in it, I already owned money, and I thought I may as well try to get something out of it.

So I've got my degree in Business and it means nothing. Everest and Corinthian Colleges (the owner group) have been shut down for being a fraud and there's ongoing litigation to try and get all student debts resolved. In all honesty, I don't remember how much I owe on my debt, I managed to get the debt payments delayed due to the situation.

I don't own anything, I have nothing for them to take, I live with my mother. I can't get a "normal" job due to my health issues and because I'm technically overqualified but my degree isn't worth it's weight in paper to employers for the few jobs in my area I do qualify for. I'm stuck in limbo and no-mans land and have been for over a year. Luckily I qualify for health and some assistance from the state but it's hardly ideal.

I did college because that was step #2 towards my future, but I never knew what I wanted to do, I never had any goals. I just did it because I was supposed to. And now my life has pretty much stopped as a result.

$100K debt seems... excessive. If you're going to a school that costs that much for an undergraduate degree then I'd expect that you're either super smart and able to secure plenty of scholarships or you have a really rich family that will cover that debt for you.

I had to pay my own way through college and ended up with $30K debt and even that seems life crushing considering the average wage a college graduate makes these days. I know plenty of degree holders that are working as clerical folk, menial data entry slaves, secretaries, janitors, and sundry other jobs that 10-15 years ago wouldn't require a degree but today do (plus 3-5 years experience).

Just to put out another thing, in my own anecdotal experience there are people graduating in STEM fields (from decent colleges) that aren't finding jobs once out of college. For all the "get into a STEM field, pay off your entire loan in year one and buy a 250k house in year 2, retire before 40" tropes, STEM degrees are becoming iffy too, although still much MUCH more valuable than most.

Still, as great as the potential risk is, it's better to have a degree than to not have one, as even 10 hour a week, $7.25 an hour before taxes burger flipping jobs are starting to require a bachelor's degree and 10 years experience and five references and a car no older than a year old. Well, you get the idea haha.

That's disgusting. Seeing how the economy is now, with engineers competing with doctorates competing with masters competing with bachelors for some mid-level job (at least in the chemistry field) which is usually filled by an H1-B worker, I would never risk that much debt for a BS.

Student loan debt is a topic that makes me sad, b/c i have a lot of it. I've had a lot of schooling. So I will give you this funny clip dealing with it from a local comedian, Mike Polk Jr (He's famous for his Cleveland Tourism videos).

Mike Polk Jr's Letter to His Student Loan Officer