> Ha! There is a bit of a hypocrisy there -- if big banks / companies piss away money and choose to strategically default then (and some even get bail-outs), it is just business. If people do it for whatever reason, well clearly the are immoral, deficient somehow, their psychology needs to be studied by a special committee.
A lot of misunderstanding here. Education department doesn't have any enforcement arm as far as I'm aware. Understanding why students are defaulting on loans is 100% in the realm of what the education department SHOULD be doing.
Yes. IRS. Not Department of Education. IRS is in Department of Treasury, run by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.
On the other hand, a study conducted by the Department of Education, run by Education Secretary John King Jr, makes a lot of sense. and is hardly malicious at all. Department of Education wanting to know the effectiveness of their FAFSA loan program (and why or why not people are able to pay those loans back) is definitely a good thing.
Besides, all the loans are being handled by Sallie Mae (a private company with some Government support). So its Sallie Mae who is officially on the hook with regards to collections and such. The Department of Education is rather removed from the whole finances thing, as far as I'm aware.
So basically, you can assume a malicious force if the IRS or maybe even Sallie Mae began to conduct this sort of investigation. But the Department of Education? Collections isn't their thing. They're likely interested in the state of education, college readiness and the like.
As someone pointed out already, they will garnish your wages. Regular banks, car dealerships and so on don't get to do that. The government absolutely can enforce things like that.
A lot of misunderstanding here. Education department doesn't have any enforcement arm as far as I'm aware. Understanding why students are defaulting on loans is 100% in the realm of what the education department SHOULD be doing.