[dansiemens]

> I put the blame squarely on these institutions and our government for this situation

Maybe we should advocate for some personal responsibility as well. Institutions may have offered dead end programs, banks may have financed it, but many individuals took out these loans quite thoughtlessly.

[silverquiet]

Systemic problems require systemic fixes; waxing on about personal responsibility might assuage your feelings, but it does not change the facts.

[pc86]

It can be both. There can be systemic issues but you can also look at someone with a Bachelor's in Contemporary French Literature or Gender Studies or Political Science (me) and say "that was pretty dumb of you." Being able to look at that objectively doesn't mean it's feelings but that was a pretty good attempt at turning that around.

[jrozner]

I agree that personal responsibility is important and both things can be true. I also think anyone who believes our taxes are going to go down if we don’t bail students out is delusional. With that belief, I’d rather my taxes directly improve the lives of tens of thousands of people than funnel more money into defense contractors, poorly run construction companies that can’t build infrastructure, and other already wealthy people’s pockets who aren’t actually returning what I think is enough value to the country for what we’re paying.