Why I Defaulted on My Student Loans

It amuses and yet saddens me that people think only those at the bottom rung of society should live up to some "morality" on this topic.

If you were facing $100,000 of debt, and repaying it wouldn't help you and not repaying it wouldn't hurt you, what would you do?

 

I didn't give a rat's ass because I had never heard of either of them.

 

Then the answer i

just stop with this comparison, they aren't remotely the same.

It undermines your other points.

 

If I couldn't pay it, I'd probably declare bankruptcy. If I could pay it, I would.

While the amount you propose is hypothetical, the situation isn't. While I was out of work post-newspaper layoff, I never missed a payment on my debts -- and never even thought about it. I worked whatever part-time jobs I had to in order to pay them.

 

The only difference that Ragu has articulated is that one includes the word "promise" as the root of "promissory," and the other one does not.

 

Right. And not only have I never missed a payment, I've never even sent in a credit-card payment late after age 22 (when I cleared the thousands of dollars I had racked up in college).

But when it comes down to it, you and I do that out of self-interest. We want to maintain our credit because we want to be able to buy not just the necessities but some splurge items, we want flexibility and convenience, we (at least I, I'm not sure your personal situation) want to provide for our families and maybe even help the kids when it comes time to sign a lease or buy a car or house.

If you take that part of the equation away, I'm pretty sure there is no way in hell I'd go chasing that debt. And for this guy and many others like him, the self-interest part of the equation is gone and will never return.

 

Is it too much to think that all rungs of society, businesses and individuals, should enter and carry out agreements in good faith and that a failure somewhere along that continuum doesn't justify opportunistic, bad-faith actions by yourself or others?

 

Wait till debtors prison comes back. That'll learn 'em.

 

You can think that, sure.

That isn't the way the world is or will ever be.

There is a defined set of consequences for this guy's actions. Those consequences are acceptable to him. That's pretty much it.

 

What I don't get is this guy going on TV and rubbing everyones' noses in it. Seems like that would urge everyone with a stake in it to come after him HARD.

And, didn't there used to be guys who would go around and break the knees of deadbeats like this? Maybe we need to go back to those days, you know, before the wussification of America.

 

We don't live in that world, and we'll never live in that world. Doesn't mean it's not a nice idea.