Student Debt: Just One Way Trump Will CRUSH Gen-Z

Student debt has been a crisis for a long time. But the Trump administration is about to make life impossible for current students and student debt holders. Among voters under the age of 26 in 2024, women of color were the only ones to break for Harris. White men, white women and men of color under 26 broke for Donald Trump. This is an astonishing trend. Yet both Democrats and Republicans have failed to address a broken student debt situation for several decades and now the entire system is set to crash. This video explains how student debt grew to crisis levels, how the Trump administration’s policies will push it over the top and the only way to ultimately fix the system once and for all.

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CHAPTERS
00:00 - Introduction
01:23 - How big is the problem of student debt?
03:48 - How did student debt get so big?
08:14 - Meet Sallie Mae
14:19 - Quick Recap
16:20 - How Trump is going to crush students
21:34 - How to fix the problem
27:18 - Credits and Theme Song

RESOURCES
Student Debt Totals
Education Data Initiative
State Higher Ed Funding
Fresh Start

Book Love
Josh Mitchell: The Debt Trap: How Student Loans Became a National Catastrophe

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ABOUT UNFTR
Unf*cking the Republic (UNFTR for short) is progressive media organization that produces a longform podcast, YouTube videos, newsletters and original essays on U.S. politics, socio economics and civil liberties. Our features attempt to explain how we arrived in Bizarro America, the funhouse mirror version of what was originally intended. You can access all of our work at www.UNFTR.com

#SocioEconomics #AmericanHistory

[monovision]

This is one the best progressive channels anywhere. Deserves more views on all vids.

[leehayes]

Fantastic coverage of the history.
I got lucky and still spent years working to pay off my loans. I would not wish those monthly payments to be suffered by any more people.

[MuhNine]

I don’t understand how your channel hasn’t blown up. This is the most insightful channel I watch and has taught me genuine common sense solutions to the political issues that enrage me. I follow many other left creators but they all focus on the “what is happening” instead of the “what can we do” or the theory and history surrounding it. Keep up the great work!

[ronkirk]

One of the easiest ways to reduce student debt is to live at home, work part time, and complete your first two years at a community college which still have extremely low tuition, then transfer to a 4 year college with in-state tuition for your last two years. If you decide to party, not work part time, and go to an ivy league school, you can really rack up some debt.

[indricotherium]

The super rich are fairly neutral on which party is in power. More important to them to keep Congress stoking up the emotional responses to themes of national glory and exceptionalism while they continue to devise ways of enriching themselves further at the expense of the masses.

[macswanton]

Shudder to think how miserable working class life would be without grassroots rebellion.

[newguy]

I know Gen Zers don't like boomers. Yet, the ironic thing is they voted for the very thing they don't like.

What would George Carlin say? Free college, that’s my guess.

[unopine]

I love that UNFTR explains a given circumstance, and then offers a SOLUTION. It doesn't matter if not everyone agrees- it gives a place to start having a dialogue, instead of simply picking at a thread.

[TeeHaa]

I like the Belgian solution. Higher education tuition costs about 1, 5k € for the middleclass, 0, 5k for the lower middleclass and 0€ for the poor. (means tested).
That's just high enough to make it clear to the student that higher education is valuable and needs to be taken seriously without causing serious financial harm to families.

I'm so happy we resisted the pressure to copy the US in matters of education and healthcare so far.
And while I deplore the state of the USA right now... I can't help by noticing that the political discourse in Europe has changed quite a bit since Trump took office, from "we need to privatize and financialize because the USA does so" a few months ago to we CAN'T privatize stuff because look the state of the USA."

So thanks... I guess. You went from shining beacon of example to cautionary tale in a few weeks.
People that wanted to know, knew that the system was rotten to the core, but Trump/Musk brought the rot out for all in the world to see.

[coalnel]

0:47 woah woah not all poc under 26. Black men broke for Harris ✊🏿

[KevinMitchell]

“When we take control of the government again?” Hahaha good one. I think students would like their help to arrive before 2125.

[jillianlacey]

Love the solutions! My husband and I were lucky that my parents paid for my undergrad and his mostly paid for his. He ended up with 31k in loans be the end anyway! We just paid them off before student loan interest started up again. (We had to save every bit of money we would’ve paid plus some when interest was paused) we will forever be grateful for families that could help us. But, we know that most students can’t get any help from families. It’s horrific as a HS teacher to see kids so willing to go to an expensive out of state college and have to take out hundreds of thousands in student loans. 😖

[ruthosornio]

As someone who is a moderate leaning conservative this information is so interesting to learn! I am graduating with my master's debt free in May (26 rn)... I noticed something weird going on with the student loan crisis...so I completed my associates at a community college then bachelor's and master's at state in a thriving competitive career field. I also just got my Clinical Fellowship job ❤ and I'm making really good money too despite being originally from the working class ❤❤❤

[nathansnicole]

With three kids in college I can totally relate to this episode

[dfboiler]

Private colleges can't legally use endowment money nor any money earned by investing it, for anything but what the donor said it had to be used for.... This is why the endowment argument isn't viable.

[ja]

If you're a student and you voted for this guy, look at yourself in the mirror.

[punditgi]

Whom with Gen Z blame? We shall see. 😮

[hakukuze]

Can’t wait for my weekend email to feed it through an AI and ask for a translation on the financial explanation!

Problem is you keep expecting sanity to prevail over greed, it can never happen here. Last time it did a little was back in the 30s when there was a real threat of a socialist movement. As this comedian I listen to said “We just don’t have the grit anymore“, way too comfortable and self entertained.

[MichaelToub]

Sad, but less sad for the ones that voted for him