An urgent investigation of student debt in America revealing the corrupt systems, rotten policies, and bad actors that have created a $1.7 trillion crisis.
College costs more today than ever and is worth less. Tuition at public colleges has more than tripled in the past 50 years. Over the same period student debt has grown from virtually nothing to more than $1.7 trillion, second only to home mortgages.
Skyrocketing student-loan burdens are leading an entire generation to put off the traditional milestones of adulthood: buying homes, getting married, starting families, and saving for retirement. The burden weighs heavier on women and black Americans, and with almost 10 percent of student debtors now over the age of 60, it is a crisis no longer limited to the young.
Ryann Liebenthal's Burdened tells the maddening story of how the power plays of legislators and presidents, the commodification of higher ed, and the rapacious practices of...

lgrsnf/Burdened_-_Ryann_Liebenthal.epub

OVERDUE : the shameful story of america's student debt crisis

Liebenthal, Ryann

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

William\Morrow#& Company

Dey Street Books

Mariner Books

Clarion Books

United States, United States of America

S.l, 2022

2023

A sweeping, urgent investigation of the student loan debt crisis in America, revealing the corrupt systems, bad actors, and rotten policies that have led to a $1.7 trillion-dollar burden to an entire generation. Student debt has become a quintessentially American crisis. College costs more than ever and is worth less. Tuition at public colleges has soared by almost 400 percent in the past 50 years. Over the same period, wages have increased only 115 percent, and student debt has grown from virtually nothing to $1.7 trillion (tripling in just the past 15 years), second only to mortgages. Skyrocketing student debt burdens are leading an entire generation of students to delay or avoid reaching the traditional milestones of they are delaying buying homes, getting married, starting families, and saving for retirement. The crisis hits women harder and for Black women, even worse. While women graduate with 15 percent more debt than men on average, for Black women, it's double. Because of racial wealth and income gapsthe ongoing legacies of centuries of white-supremacist policiesBlack borrowers are hit hardest of all. Ryann Liebenthals OVERDUE tells the maddening story of how, over the past century, the power plays of legislators and presidents, the commodification of high ed, the predatory practices of for-profit colleges, and the privatization of lending has created todays untenable student debt lava pit. As the notion of student debt cancellation continues to percolate into the political mainstream, Liebenthal untangles the mess by offering a deeply reported, sweeping narrative of the people, institutions, and ideological underpinnings of our broken system. By tracing the long tail of a failed system, Liebenthal boldly offers a way out.

2024-09-22