Exterminating Future Minds One Loan at a Time

Our present system for funding college tuition is lame.  It's horrible.  I'm still surprised that in 2008 we can't come up with a better solution.  On one hand we have people saying we'll need more engineers, nurses, teachers, scientists, etc.  On the other we're reading about how jobs are shifting overseas for lower labor rates.  In the middle we have a government that doesn't give a frigging crap about education beyond lip service to put smiles on the faces of NEA and teachers.  

The student loan system is like something drafted in Russia during the Cold War days.  It's dumb.  It's out of date.  It punishes kids for getting an education if they can't make a decent living when they graduate.  This has never been more relevant than NOW, when the economy is swirling down the toilet with no clear bottom in sight.  I know because I'm stuck with a crappy loan that I will never be able to repay in full.  I will die with a balance.  Once I consolidated my loans I was (*and still am*) stuck.  You cannot refinance a consolidated student loan.  Ever.  It's a racket.  My plan was to merge it into my home mortgage as the equity rose enough to absorb it, and at a far lower rate than what I locked into in 2000.  That won't happen for a lot longer at this point.