Open Letter to President Obama

In your state of the Union address you espoused the benefits of education and how America’s workforce needs to be educated in order to succeed in the future. Now given that you’re a Harvard Law grad it’s obvious that your experience with school is much different than mine and many others in this country that attend TTT’s. A TTT is a third tier toilet, or low ranked school. TTT’s include law schools, mba programs, for profit universities such as Argosy, University of Phoenix, and a plethora of other educational institutions that exist for the sole purpose of enriching the faculty and the education industrial complex. The reason these schools are labeled as TTT’s is because typically the students graduate with huge amounts of student loan debt which I’m sure you know is non dischargeable in bankruptcy and poor job prospects. Leveraged TTT grads are finding themselves in a terrible situation. Just ask many of my class mates that have graduated with over 150k in debt after 7 years of secondary education that find themselves barely able to afford rent, let alone pay back their loans. Unlike you, Mr. Obama, not everyone can become a famous politician and sell books, thereby paying back their loans like you did so easily. You went to Harvard law and STILL needed to sell a best selling book in order to pay off your loans. Imagine us TTT proles that languish on the bottom of the totem pole.

So many millions of young able bodied Americans are wasting their most productive years in school learning practically nothing of value and incurring debt while losing out on earning capacity. Just think about the economic repercussions of the student loan debt time bomb on the national economy as millions of potential customers of products will not be able to afford things that the boomers took for granted. Buying a car? Good luck qualifying after rent and student loan expenses. A house? For many in my generation, absent a co-signer or a lottery ticket, they will not be buying a house for a long time, if ever. And maybe they shouldn’t, because by adding a new wave of homebuyers simply allows the ponzi to keep going. Perhaps by the time we pay off our loans, home prices will have fallen to generational lows, permitting us, members of the Subprime generation to buy a house for own families. And in case you haven’t realized, the Subprime generation is delaying household formation, including the introduction of new citizens via children. Again, the ponzi takes a hit as this equates to less workers per retiree blowing up the Social Security Trust Fund projections.

I find it despicable that people who speculated in the housing market to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars are allowed to simply walk away from their “obligations” and live rent free for up to 3 years while student loan borrowers that borrow to “invest” in their future get slammed with late fees, late penalties, accruing interest, wage garnishment and even denial of social security benefits. Student loan debt is nearing a trillion dollars and is growing close to $100 billion per year. Throw in total interest and it really grows by over $200 billion. When will the time come to put a stop to this train wreck? When student loans hit $1.5 trillion? $2 trillion? Just know that the bigger the debt grows the larger the correction will be. And don’t forget that ever since the Department of Education took over the student loan market, it is now tax payer money that is at risk when student loan debtors go into default. The Department may not be able to collect for a long period of time. What a terrible misallocation of tax payer capital if you ask me.

I’m curious to see when the focus will finally shift to the student loan slave, if ever. I’m sure that your office is being hounded daily by the wall street oligarchs and their lobbyists, demanding this or that loophole. But don’t forget that this country runs on the backs of the everyday person that goes to work and produces real things of value, and not the CDO peddling, high frequency trading algorithm using investment banks skimming 401k money out of the accounts of every day saps. And for Christ sakes please say or do something about the rampant outsourcing of labor that is taking place. Enough of this garbage about “free trade.” There is free trade and then there is fair trade. Surely your Harvard educated mind has figured this out by now. Or maybe you’re surrounded by so many wealthy people nowadays that you simply can no longer relate to the common people. In fact, it’s been quite a few years since you joined the high society club.

One good thing I can say about your presidency is the Afghan war pullout. Even though you made the foolish decision to implement the “surge” which simply did nothing but bankrupt the country further, lead to more casualties and more slaughter of the Afghan people. What was the purpose of that war, to show the world that you’re a hardass? How many times did you ever visit any forward operating base out in Kunar or Helmand province? At least Alexander the Great who also invaded Afghanistan had the balls to go there himself and spill some blood. The conquerors of today are no match compared to the conquerors of antiquity. I guess the rulers of today send the naïve young men of this country to faraway places to die while they play golf with the heads of the opposition party. Here is the latest list of US casualties and notice how these soldiers were from small town America:

Spc. Nicholas P. Bernier, 21, of East Kingston, N.H., died June 25 at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, Landstuhl, Germany, of injuries suffered June 22 when insurgents attacked his unit using small arms fire in Kherwar, Afghanistan. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 30th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, Fort Polk, La.

Lance Cpl. Mark R. Goyet, 22, of Sinton, Texas, died June 28 while conducting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to 3rd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Twentynine Palms, Calif.

Lance Cpl. John F. Farias, 20, of New Braunfels, Texas, died June 28 while conducting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Pendleton, Calif.

Staff Sgt. Donald V. Stacy, 23, of Avondale, Ariz., died June 28 in Kandahar, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, N.C.

Personally, I think you’re in way over your head with this job. Granted, when you decided to run for president the economy was slowing down but very few people had the foresight that the economy would fall apart by the fall of 2008. Let’s face it; you’re a politician, not an economist. You listen to advisers and make sure to cater to your campaign donors. I’m sure you figured that you would be able to squeeze in some of your ideas for the country, such as the health care reform bill. I see your heart was in the right place as the US healthcare system is completely messed up, but please, not a 2400 page bill.

If you win the 2012 election I’m sure you are well aware that you will have a lot of things on your plate. Being the named leader of the most powerful country in the world that is currently in decline and slowly going broke must be a very difficult job. But one thing that you can do to redeem yourself is to take a close look at the student loan rules and student loan industry in general. At the very least, you can propose that interest doesn’t accrue until the borrower finds a decent paying job. By effectively financially wiping out the next round of earners is terrible economic policy. Talk about a country eating its young. I know that student loan payments go to the department of education, which then uses the money to issue more loans or remits the payments to the treasury department which then gets passed on to medicare and social security recipients. Is this what the student loan business is about? Creating a $100 billion market in education, student housing, appliances and other consumer spending on the front end, and then acting as a tax increase on the back end as student loan payments go directly to the federal government? From a cursory analysis, this is what the game plan seems to be.

In the end, if there is no reform of this terrible and ridiculous system, the country will experience a combination of indebted serfs with shattered expectations and self esteem, and a plethora of young and able bodied Americans fleeing the country in pursuit of happiness and economic liberty. I know so many levered college grads right now and when they hear about the overseas option their eyes light up with hope. Yes, Mr. President, people will start leaving if they feel that their lives have been ruined here and that they may have opportunity abroad. I myself almost considered the option, and still think about it from time to time. Just as America benefited from the brain drain experienced from other countries, so will this country experience the same exact phenomena; only in reverse.

In conclusion, if you or any of your staffers ever read this, I implore you to do something about this situation. I seriously doubt that this will ever be read, but it’s worth a shot.

Peace Mr. President.