By John Seiler

I tell youngsters all the time: Don’t go into debt for college!

Not that they listen to me, any more than I listened to my elders when I was their age. At least when I was in college, 1973-77, college debt was almost unheard of, so we couldn’t commit that folly. And expenses were much less because the college-university-government axis hadn’t jacked up tuition so much to pay the salaries of bloated administrators and pampered profs.

Yahoo News has some new horror stories:

“The total amount of student loan debt in the United States is estimated to be between $867 billion and $1 trillion dollars, and default rates for student loans continue to rise. In 2012, the majority of unemployed Americans had at least some college education—the first time in our nation’s history this has occurred.”

So you get $100,000 in debt — and can’t get a job. And the government won’t let you go bankrupt and be forgiven the loan. Interest rates keep pushing up the total you owe. You’re a slave.

“On Tuesday, Republican and Democratic leaders in the Senate announced they had reached an agreement on a bill to continue subsidizing student loans, keeping interest rates at 3.4 percent rather than letting them rise to 6.8 percent.”

It figures. It’s a bipartisan scheme to make matters worse for students and better for banks. The banks get money for close to zero interest nowadays, and make 6.8 percent off their student-slaves. The government — us, the taxpayers — subsidizes that down to 3.4 percent for the kids. But that’s still high if you have $100,000 in debt and no job. No wonder banks contribute so heavily to political candidates.

Contributors

Here are the top contributors to Mitt Romney’s campaign in 2012:

Banks, banks, banks.

And here are the top contributors to President Obama’s campaign in 2008:

Banks and universities.

The banks mostly left Obama this time in 2012:

High-tech companies and universities this time around.

Back to some horror stories of the student slaves in the Yahoo story:

‘”Student loans have basically ruined my life,’ says Tanya Carter, who graduated from the University of Toledo in 2008. She went to community college for two years before transferring, and attended classes part-time so she could also work. When Carter maxed out on federal loans, she turned to private loans to finish her degree. As a result of all that debt, she writes: ‘I never see myself owning a home, vehicle, or maybe not even getting married.'”

She’s a slave to the government and the banks.

“The need to delay starting a family because of financial worries was a common concern. Lauren Dollard graduated from Fordham University in 2008 with $157,000 in debt, including interest. ‘My boyfriend won’t marry me because of my debt,’ she says. ‘He doesn’t want it attached to his name (I know, this could also be an excuse).’ She said she would trade her ‘fancy private school education’ in a heartbeat to live ‘as an independent adult.'”

What a horror story. Why is America doing this to its kids?

“April Flores graduated from San Diego State in 2008 with $80,000 in private loans and $30,000 in subsidized loans. ‘It is going to be hard to buy a house and start a family with our debt,’ she writes. ‘We joke and say that our baby is Sallie Mae, but it is true! Education is invaluable, but I was not wise in my early 20s and did not make the right decisions when it came to my private loans.'”

So, all these kids have been destroyed by the parasitic banks, government and universities.

The solution

My solution to this is simple: Invoke the 13th Amendment, which stipulates:

“Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

“Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.”

Invoke the 13th Amendment by letting kids declare bankruptcy from their student loans. Congress could do that by passing a single law allowing it. And with less money available, universities would have to start cutting tuition, and with it the bloated pay, perks and pensions of the profs and administrators.

The banks would suffer. But right now they’re vampires sucking the blood out of these kids. And the banks would be disciplined to not trick the kids into taking out such heavy debt in the future.

Free the students!