yeah, and we're talking about federal loans here.

the government is not on the hook if a student defaults on a private loan. the critique was that tax payers were somehow on the hook for most undergraduate costs when $31k over 4 years barely pays for rent at this point.

No, this is incorrect. The federal government is also the backstop for a majority of private student loans as well. https://www.investopedia.com/articles/personal-finance/08121...

I can see how you think we were only talking of federally "backed" loans, but I did intend my expansion to be all loans the government has "protected." Which, as the other poster points out, is basically all of them.

Federal loans are basically all of them to start with (over 92% of outstanding balances).

I had thought that I had private loans back in the day. Been a long time since I paid all of mine off, though, so I can't remember who they were through. (And, I fully grant that, even if I was private loans, 8% is still a non-zero number...)

Before federal loans were all direct (Ford loans), there were federal loans issued through third-party lenders (Stafford loans) that otherwise worked the same way with the same kinds of loans (subsidized, unsubsidized, PLUS; for a while, both Stafford and Ford were offered at the same time, with identical terms.) These are collectively “federal” loans (and there are still balances on loans originated as Stafford loans) distinct from “private” loans.

I remember I maxed out my Stafford allocation, and then also had to get extra loans to cover my last year. Memory being what it is, I wouldn't be shocked if I am misremembering some.

Regardless, I got them all payed off; and still have a massive distaste at how most discourse over this goes.

The CBO estimates that the government is indeed “on the hook” for about 93%[0] of ALL student loans, despite not necessarily being the originator or servicer.

There essentially is no such thing as a “private” student loan anymore.

[0]: see sibling investopedia link

> But the government has "protected" all loans - private education loans are also unable to be discharged by bankruptcy,

Private education loans are mostly an issue for non-accredited schools, since usually you can cover the full costs, with better terms, with federal loans at accredited schools. They are also less than 8% of the volume of student loans. They are basically a whole different (and much smaller) policy issue.