Obama on student debt

Have you ever analyzed one of those loosey-goosey MSM articles on student loans and debt or tried to figure out a campaign outrage portrayed in an ad? They never figure what it would cost student XYZ to live if she wasn't going to school but was borrowing money to live. Have you noticed that too?

In February 2006 I blogged about student loans way back when Obama's mama was going to school:

The headline for the USA Today article is: "Students suffocate under tens of thousands in loans." So I went into one of those "Money was worth" such-and-so many years ago sites, and discovered that the $10,600 debt for a public college today (the average according to Block) would have been about $2,500 in 1975, or $1,725 in 1961 when I graduated.

So, ask your mother or grandmother if she felt "suffocated" by debt when she finished college. Yes, 1961 attitudes toward money were different. We didn't have cell phones, broad band, or cable TV to pay for. Eating out was for special occasions a few times a year. (Cut those 4 things out of your budget and see if you don't have enough to pay off a loan.) And most importantly, people got married before they decided to "save money" by living together. Marriage broadened their base of family support from two families instead of one.

I'm sure there's more to it, but debt is debt. You borrow it; you pay it back.