The Ramsey Show - App - Thoughts on Elizabeth Warren's Free College Plan (Hour 3)

Episode Date: April 23, 2019

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Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions Broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the Dave Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. We're going to do something different this hour. I'm not goingsey, your host. We're going to do something different this hour. I'm not going to take your questions. 99% of the time when you tune into the show, I'm going to take your questions. I am going to take your calls.

And here's what I want to talk about. We have a $1.6 trillion student loan debt debacle. Senator Elizabeth Warren and I have known each other for 20-some-odd years. Back when she was a Harvard Law professor, she and I were on the same side of a bill going through Congress to reform the bankruptcy laws. She and Ted Kennedy and I, which is one of the few times I've ever been on the same side of Ted Kennedy of anything, but we tried to stop a bankruptcy reform law from going through.

We didn't stop it. It went through. Elizabeth and I both appeared in a documentary 20 years ago, I guess it was, called Maxed Out that we both show up in. I had a little bit of hair on top back then. It's that long ago. And she is a tremendously bright woman. Very, very smart.

And I'll go ahead and tell you on the front end of this discussion. I detest all of this Pocahontas stuff and all this stuff making fun of her DNA testing and her Cherokee heritage or whatever it was. That's a bunch of garbage. This lady is an intellect to be reckoned with. She and I don't agree on hardly anything, except that there's a student loan problem. She's running for president, and I've got great respect for her personally, by the way. I don't have to agree with everyone I have respect for. They can be wrong about something, and I can still actually like them.

And so I don't have to be all twisted and trolled and torqued out and try to get my ratings up. I don't have any trouble with my ratings. So I don't need to have a duck fit over here and make fun of somebody that i actually respect but she made a comment this week and it's kind of gone bananas in all of our chat rooms and in all of our communities the ramsey communities everybody's asking about it and in her run for president she is suggesting that the student loans be forgiven and that college be free i want to know what you think about that what would you do to fix the student loan problem

because we have a student loan problem i mean she and i are in agreement about that we've got people who are overwhelmed by student loans. I talk to people every day on this show that are, you know, have made ridiculous mistakes, but boy, they are in a mess. Student loans aren't bankruptable. They don't go away unless you die. So you can go $300,000 in debt getting a master's degree in left-handed puppetry and be able to get a job making $28,000 a year, and you're screwed.

You're in a mess. And it happens all the time. So we are not in disagreement about that. So if you want to talk about this, I want to hear from you what you would do about these student loans. Do you think they ought to be forgiven? Do you think college ought to be forgiven? You think college ought to be free? Phone number here is 888-825-5225.

What do you think about her suggestion? And I'll go ahead and warn you. You can make fun of her personally somewhere else. You do not have to attack someone's character to disagree. Listen, if you can't make an argument based on the facts and the issues, and you have to degrade someone personally in order to make your argument, then you don't have an argument. You don't know how to do critical thinking, and you don't know how to debate.

And so let's talk about these issues. You may disagree with me. I may disagree with you. That's fine. And you may disagree with her. I disagree with her. I'm a capitalist pig. There's nothing socialist about me. I would put my receptionist on straight commission if I could figure out a way. I think you ought to leave the cave, kill something, and drag it home.

And then I don't think the government ought to take it away from you. So that's me. And so I'm obviously not going to be for a socialism thing like free college. Because, by the way, when a politician says something's free, that does not mean free. Santa Claus does not live in Washington, D.C. Somebody's got to pay for that stuff. It's either going to be more debt that your children are going to, government debt, deficit spending, that your children and grandchildren are going to pay for, or they're going to tax somebody somewhere. Now, she's suggesting a tax on the ultra-wealthy, which has never worked, by the way, statistically.

So she's got a failed argument there. Europe has tried it in four different countries, and they've stopped it in all of them. And the ultra-wealthy tax doesn't work. There's just not enough ultra-wealthy people to get money from. That's the problem. You've identified the boogeyman with jealousy and envy, and it didn't work. So anyway, let's talk to you about what you would do with the student loans. Do you think they ought to be forgiven?

Do you think college ought to be free? What do you think ought to be done about the college debacle out there this is a debacle k is where this k is going to start off this discussion the phone number here is triple eight eight two five five two two five lines are buzzing kelly's trying to get them loaded hey k how are you i'm just fine sir how are you. You got some thoughts on this subject? Yes, sir, I do. I don't think that college should be free, and I don't think that we should forgive all the student loan debt that's out there.

That's a personal responsibility. Okay. Well, I agree with you. I'm curious what you would do to fix where we are. Well, not to me. If we're going to name Kay King king for a day queen for a day well i do think that we should be more selective with college not everybody is cut out for college and i think a lot of people have been um under this impression that you have to go to college

you know in order to succeed when you you don't you really don't some people probably shouldn't be in college did you get a degree? Yes, sir. In what? I have a graduate degree in business management, and, you know, I had to pay for it. Yeah, I understand. Me too. Did you take out any loans?

Oh, I understand. Did you take out any loans? No, sir, I did not. Okay, so you just worked your way through. Yes, sir. Okay, good for you. I did have my bachelor's, you know, through the armed forces. I got my bachelor's degree. Oh, good. Through the help of, you know, while being in the military, but... Okay, now that's a good point. You can get free college if you want that way, right? It's not really free because you actually worked for it. You were in the military. Yes, sir.

Yes, sir. Free is not free ever. Okay. Good discussion. Hey, thanks for your input. I appreciate you calling in. Open phones at 888-825-5225. We are not taking questions. I'll be asking the questions.

And we're going to talk about what you think we ought to do with the current student loan mess. Senator Elizabeth Warren, very smart lady, is suggesting what I would call socialism. Margaret Thatcher said the problem with socialism is eventually you run out of other people's money. And so what do you want to do with the student loan mess? She says forgive them and then make college free. You're going to pay for that. You're the taxpayer in both cases, one way or another, by the way. Because taxing the rich means the rich just raise their prices on the stuff you're buying

from them. Hello. You get to pay for this. That's how economics works, darling. Yeah. Let's talk about it. It's a good discussion. It's a good discussion. Healthy discussion.

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Zander Insurance. They've been helping my listeners find the right plans at the lowest cost for almost 20 years. Call 800-356-1780 or visit zander.com and compare online. That's 800-356-1780 or zander.com. We're not taking questions this hour. A very rare thing on The Dave Ramsey Show. We're asking your opinion, your solutions. Your thinking skills are on parade what should we do about the student loan mess senator warren running for president has suggested forgiving all student loan debt or the vast majority of it anyway and making college from this point free rob Robin is in Atlanta, Georgia. Hey, Robin.

What do you think? Hello. Well, on the two questions, I think that forgiving student loan debt would be a huge mistake. I think we need to encourage personal responsibility as a society, not sort of bail people out, which we've done in the past. And in terms of free tuition, I think it would be great to have programs that may be vocational schools or trade schools that support the economy where we have gaps in employment or where we need folks to work in those industries.

And then the third thing is that I know when my daughter went through the process of signing up for potential scholarships, she received numerous award packages. And it was very deceiving. In one case, she got $34,000 a year, the majority of which was presented as an award, but really it was loans. And had she not had a parent that could help her understand that, I think it could have been a very serious situation. Yeah, they do.

The FAFSA thing can be very, very misleading. It's like sign up for loans and grants, sign up for grants, sign up, and then you just sign up for everything, and all of a sudden you look up and you're $30,000 in debt. You're exactly right about that. There's some serious issues there. We've normalized student loans to the point that people don't feel any pain when they sign up for them. And they're also misleading.

Yeah, it would have been easy for her to click that she was the same process to click for both subsidized and subsidized loans as it was for her to accept the scholarship she did receive. It was the same process. Would you vote for a presidential candidate that takes the position that Senator Warren's taking? Absolutely not. Okay, cool. Hey, thank you for the call. Appreciate your discussion.

All right, Jacob is with us in Kansas City. Hi, Jacob. Your comments on this student loan mess. Hey, thanks for taking my call. I don't think that they should forgive them, the student loans. You took out the loan, you should have to repay it.

How to fix it? I think they should have more competition because everyone and their brother is going to college. They need to have competition to lower the price. And also on the interest rates, I think those should be based off your credit score, not a set 6.8%. For people like my wife and I, we've got excellent credit.

We're paying way too high on interest. Okay, so you took out student loans? Yes, sir. Okay. For your kids, is that what you're saying? Nope, for my wife and I. Oh, I see and i went to college okay how much student loan debt have you got uh we paid ours off we had around 45 000 i got a

bonus this year and paid it off good and what's your household income um depends on the bonus but without it it's 110 okay when you look back on it when you came out of school and you were staring at that 45,000, did you feel hopeless at some point? Because I knew I was going to get a good job. You did not feel hopeless. Okay. You never felt overwhelmed or stuck by it? Nope. My degree is in animal science. I'm a cattle buyer. So it's kind of a niche market. I mean, you just had a confidence that you were going to be able to work your way through it, so you did not feel overwhelmed.

That's what it comes down to. Yes, sir. Cool. That's correct. All right. Good discussion, man. Thank you for calling in. Your opinion on the student loans and whether they should be forgiven and whether college ought to be be in quotes free always beware of a politician with free stuff uh just i just you can't really you just can't you know free health care free cars free houses somebody's paying for this free stuff you just always need to keep that in your mind

that's it's okay if we want to pay for it, but really, I guess we shouldn't call it free. If you want to do this, Senator Warren, maybe you just ought to call it taxpayer-funded instead of free. You know, we were overseas with our family, and we were taking this beautiful tour in Stockholm, Sweden, and the nice little tour lady

kept going on and on and on about all the free stuff in Sweden. We have free university, which is what they call college, of course. University is free. Free, free, free. And I said, I'm sorry, after about an hour of that, I don't know if I'm a capitalist. And I said, well, it's free. And what is your personal income tax rate?

Mine? Yes, ma'am, yours. 65%. I said, so where'd you get the free part? Somebody's paying for this. Wendell is with us in Phoenix, Arizona. Hi, Wendell. Your comment on the student loan mess. Yeah, I think they're trying to make an individual problem, everybody problem for this country.

And they should not forgive the student loan debt that we have. Personally, I did take out student loans. I took out $30,000. And after getting myself settled up, I paid all mine off. I'm debt free. So once you get to the mindset that you know you can do it you can't pay it off everything changes and also like you uh educate on your show it's about what you what field you're going into for myself i work in the stem field i uh i work with military

aircraft and so i make a pretty good amount of money doing that. And so, you know, starting out in the Air Force and getting my education that way, I just mold myself into a good career. So you think, unless you attend the Air Force, and the Air Force paid for school, a part of it anyway. And thank you for your service, by the way. Thank you. Do you think that college ought to be free in quotes no because like you said before it's not free um what i think what happened was um a part of what came out they started rolling out oh you had to go to college to be successful or you had to do this to be successful no one ever educated us on you, there are other fields that can fulfill what you need.

Like for myself, I'm a jet engine mechanic by trade. And as a person that was 28 years old, I was making $75,000 right out of the Air Force, and I was only in for six years. So I had worked my way up to get to that good career where I can start doing things significantly. And using the GI Bill to pay for my education, I've found myself into the career I am now. And so it's just a building process. But it doesn't mean that you have to start out by going directly to college. I hear you.

Were your mom and dad college educated in your case? My mom is, she is a teacher. My dad is a maintenance technician by trade he works for eminent mars and he does pretty well for himself yeah so he he taught you the dignity of working with your hands and your mom taught you the the ability to think um and and and to respect academics yes yeah good that's a good one-two punch, man. You're a good mom and dad. Yeah. Thank you, sir.

I'm very appreciative of him. Good deal. Hey, thank you for calling in. Open phones at 888-825-5225. We're taking your calls and asking you what you think of Senator Warren's proposal. And, again, if you're just joining us, I said at the top of the hour, we will not be bashing Senator Warren's personal character or her intellect

because I know her and I won't accept that. I mean, we're not best friends or something, but we're acquaintances and we've got respect for her. I just disagree with her. And I don't have to crucify people to disagree with them. Some of you need to learn that. Some of you need to learn that. Some of your parents, some of you were raised by wolves. I see you on Twitter and I see how you act towards me and how you act towards

other celebrities or other people that are in the light, so to speak. The way you attack anyone who disagrees with your politics to the point that you have to eviscerate them. I mean, you guys need to learn some manners out there, some of you. Just this wild animal is running loose. And part of its digital courage, you would never have the backbone to say that in somebody's face because you get your clock knocked off. But we're not going to do that here. We're just going to talk about

college debt and what you think ought to happen with it. You can disagree with Senator Warren, I am, without eviscerating her personal character or her heritage. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. One Dental is a company I've been telling my listeners about

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in the lobby of ramsey solutions joining us for their debt-free scream brian and brian brian brian yes i'm always going to mess it up i have to make sure everyone else does brian and brian Scream, Brian and Bryn. Bryn. Bryn. Yes. I'm always going to mess it up. I have to make sure I get it right. Everyone else does. Brian and Bryn. Welcome, guys. Where do you guys live? We're in Florence, Kentucky, which is near Cincinnati, Ohio.

Absolutely. Welcome. Welcome. Good to have you guys. Thank you. And here to do a debt-free Scream, how much have you paid off? $190,378. Wow.

And how long did this take? 50 months. Just over four years. And. And how long did this take? 50 months. Just over four years. And your range of income during that time? We started at $170,000 and now we're about $150,000. $150,000. Okay. What do you guys do for a living?

I'm a pharmacist. And I am an events coordinator at our church. Okay. A pharmacist. So I'm guessing a bunch of that $190,000 might have been student loans. All of it. All of it. All of it was student loans. $190 might have been student loans. All of it. All of it. All of it was student loans.

Both of you or just the pharmacy school? Both of you. Yes. So you had $200,000 in student loan debt. Yeah. Well, we're talking about student loan debt this hour, so that's perfect. Exactly. All right.

Good timing. Okay, cool. But it took you 50 months, four years and two months. Yes. And you paid it off. Yep. Sure did. The lion's share of that must have been pharmacy, right?

About $130,000. Yeah. Okay. And then $60,000 on you. Yep, sure did. The lion's share of that must have been pharmacy, right? About $130. Yeah, okay. And then $60 on you. Yes. All right. And so how old are you two? I'm 33. I'm 35.

Okay. All right. So tell me your story. What happened four years ago? Is that when you got out of school? Yes. I graduated in May of 14. Okay.

And we saw our first bill and how much we were paying in interest. Ah! Yeah. Okay. So it had to be a little bit overwhelming. Oh,th. Okay. We saw our first bill and how much we were paying in interest. Yeah. Okay. So it had to be a little bit overwhelming. Oh, yeah. Yeah. It sure was. It kind of takes your breath away.

Yeah. Absolutely. Kind of like Senator Warren is going to forgive your debt. That'd be awesome, wouldn't it? Kind of jealous if she does. Yeah. That would have been nice. Yeah.

Yeah. Somebody come along about this and said, well, we're not going to worry about that. Okay. But instead, something happened to you guys. What happened to you? I think we just saw the – I had followed financial peace in the past, and I was always like, oh, I'm going to do that one day, and never did. And then we saw the pharmacy student loans, and we were like, oh, yeah,

we should definitely go through with it. Got to get weird. We're going to have to find a plan here. We've got to have a, for a pharmacist, we've got to have a prescription, right? Yeah. So I gave you a prescription called the seven baby step. Yes. And live on nothing and let your broke friends make fun of you.

Yes. And so what is your key to getting out of $190,000 in student loan debt? Stick with it, I think. Yes. That would be the biggest key. What? Stick with it. Stick with it.

Oh, yeah, four years, yeah. And budget. We sat down every month together and budgeted. Community-centered. I mean, if we didn't talk it through, it wouldn't have worked. Yeah. As I said, we're taking calls as we're talking about this very subject, so it's cool that you all are on and you're an actual success story.

I didn't time that. It just worked out perfectly. It did. I can relate to what Senator Warren is wanting to help people with because people feel overwhelmed. And you're looking at down the barrel at $200,000. You had to feel kind of kicked in the gut. Yes, absolutely. Yeah.

And we were in a condo. We still are with our boys. And, you know, our poor neighbor downstairs, I'm sure, didn't like us with two young boys running around. So it was a lot of dedication and determination on both of our parts. If you went from scared and overwhelmed, which I think I would have been if I was an exact. I've been there. I've not that exact situation, but been scared and overwhelmed by dad. I know how it feels.

And I relate to her wanting to help people fix that. I think that's a noble intent on her part. How did you go in your case? Because obviously the government didn't come in and fix your life. You fixed it. So how did you go from scared and overwhelmed to victorious? We just cut down a lot of things. We didn't go on vacations.

But in your emotions, how quickly did you begin to go, I think we can do this? I think pretty quickly. We're both pretty determined. When you laid it out the math? Yes. Yeah. We listed everything. determined. When you laid it out the math? Yes. We listed everything. All the expenses. All of our income.

And you know, I've got to sacrifice this to get that. Yes. Yeah. Okay. And that started giving you kind of a hope that's not a false hope. It's based in reality. Right. I think I can be victorious.

I can see how. Right. And we had a whiteboard that we put how much we had left to go, how much we had paid off, and how many loans we had left. And that was on our refrigerator, and that's what our kids knew. When that gets to zero is when we'll buy a house. So that was our motivation. Okay, cool.

That helped us. So are you looking for the house? We are. Love it. Yes. Good for you. Very good. Congratulations, y'all. Thank you. our motivation okay cool that helped us so you're looking for the house we are love it yes good for you very good congratulations y'all thank you very proud of you who are your biggest cheerleaders oh i think each other yeah i mean we just so not a lot of people outside your house knew what you were doing no they did but they kind of thought we were a little bit crazy okay you have more detractors than cheerleaders. Yes.

All right. Very cool. Good for you guys. We got a copy of Chris Hogan's book for you. That's the next chapter in your story to be everyday millionaires. Thank you. That's a track your own. You're making good money.

You got a great career. You know this is one thing you've conquered. You can conquer other stuff, and you know how to do it now. I'm proud of you guys. Well done. Thank you. Thank you. All right. conquered you can conquer other stuff and you know how to do it now i'm proud of you guys well done thank you all right brian and brin from the cincinnati ohio area 190 000 of student loan

debt paid off in 50 months making 170 to 150 count it down let's hear a debt-free scream three two one we're debt free! Yay! Yay! I love it. Well done, you two. Very well done. Well, we're not taking questions this hour. If you're just joining us, we're asking you your opinion. Should the student loans be forgiven, as Senator Warren is representing in her presidential run, and should college be free, as she's representing in her presidential run?

Is that something you would do? And if you have a better idea, because there is a legitimate problem. There are people being held back. There are people trapped. This is an issue. It can't go on like it is. Something needs to change. I think we all agree with that. We've got some people that are hurting and we want to help them. And so the question is how

and what? Brett is with us in Austin, Texas. Brett, your comments. Yes, sir. I think we need to start at a lower level. I think we have this mindset that you have to go to college to be successful. And, and we're telling people that, and then spending all this money on degrees that you don't get an ROI on. Um, I mean, myself, I'm a high school dropout, ex-con, and I'm running a multimillion dollar company right now, um, just from being hard working, humble, and smart.

And I think trade schools need to be pushed more. We've got this cookie-cutter pattern that we're trying to push on everyone when we're all unique humans. Okay. So you own a small business, not so small? I don't own it. I'm one behind. Oh, okay. But we're looking at branching and me buying my own portion in a different location.

So your opinion on the forgiveness of student loans is what? On forgiveness, you know, I don't think it teaches a lesson. You know, it's kind of, I don't think, I think you forgive that loan and then you're just going to spend your money elsewhere. I think you've got to have, like you say, that ouchy moment where you're dealing with it to change your habits in the future. And your opinion about college being free? I think it just becomes a new high school diploma. I think the same thing. If everyone has it, then it loses its uniqueness.

Interesting. Okay. What kind of a business are you in? Construction. Okay. All right. And I see people all the time who come out of college with a construction degree on a job site, and I'm like, hey, you probably shouldn't do it that way. It's going to fall over. It's going to fall over. Don't do that. It's going to leave a mark. You know, I think hard work and experience beats a piece of paper.

And I'm not saying a college degree has no use. I'm cash flowing my wife to go to school. She wants to be a teacher. Okay. And, I mean, it hurts paying for it all the time. I hear you. But you see an ROI on that, yeah. Yes.

Okay. Yes, it's temporary. Yeah. Hey, thank you for your call, for your opinion. Appreciate it's temporary. Hey, thank you for your call, for your opinion. Appreciate it very much. Taking your comments on Senator Warren's proposal to forgive the student loans and to make college free from this point forward. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Our scripture of the day, Proverbs 17, 17. A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for a time of adversity.

J.K. Rowling said, It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends. Amen. Our financial coach master training Program is in high gear. If you want to help people, for instance, get out of student loan debt, our team is giving away $10,000 of free training, including Financial Peace University memberships for your clients to use throughout the month of April to celebrate Financial Literacy Month.

We're going to kick off the giveaways during a live webinar Thursday, April the 25th, this coming Thursday at noon Central Time. If you want to learn about being a coach, a financial coach trained by us, text the word COACHING to 33789. That's 33789. We're talking about student loan debt and Senator Warren's proposals on that. David in Fort Worth, Texas, what's your opinion on this subject, sir? Hello, Dave. This is Dave. It's an honor to speak with you today.

You too, sir. From there, I think that Senator Warren has the greatest of intentions. However, I think it's going to cause greater problems that it's going to try to solve. I think that one of the things that we need to try to do is to actually reduce the money supply available with the ease of loans over here. If private lenders are actually having to assess the risk to these students that they're issuing loans to and actually have a risk of losing it, they're going to be more careful as to who they actually issue the money to. From there, over the last 25 years, with the easy access of the student loan money, it's caused an enormous inflation rate of college tuition over the last 25 years,

and I think we've had a great investment into our university structure, but now it's time to actually benefit from that and not have the constant increases from there that's caused us to get in this crunch in the first place. David, you nailed it. The federally insured student loan program is a failure. It has created a financial debacle for the people involved, and it's inflated the cost of college. If you simply quit federally insuring student loans, then the only student loans would be made by banks. And banks make different loans. They don't loan 18-year-olds $100,000 that don't

have a plan. You're exactly right. They would assess the risk. But you and I as taxpayers will loan an 18-year-old with no plan $100,000 and insure it for them. And by the way, we're on the hook for that if they don't pay it and they got a degree in something they can't monetize. So you're exactly right. And it has, people talk about colleges are like they're greedy or something, but the inflated cost is due to the demand. And if you drive up demand, you will lower the cost.

Because of the federally insured loans from there, the banks are now trying to compete with the government. The interest rates, they can't compete at a risk level. Oh, they don't even want to try to compete. They just do those loans and take the government insurance on the loan. And they have no, you know, in other words, if the student doesn't pay the loan, the bank is not at risk. The government covers it. It's covered in case of default.

That's what it means, folks. And you and I are the taxpayer. We're the government. And the university still rakes in their money, and they love every minute of it. Yeah. So that's a great, that's a really good point. You know, I almost would be for forgiving some kind of student loans, but only if we stopped making them. Ooh.

Now everybody's crying. Wait a minute. But wait a minute. See, you can't stop making them. Why not? They've been such a blessing so far. It's worked out so well. We have all these people that are overwhelmed and their lives are ruined by the student loans.

And this is your government being a blessing to you. Hmm. But if you suggest cutting that off, oh, you're a hard-hearted, mean old conservative just to the right of Genghis Khan. Ah, it's inconsistent logic though, folks. If this problem is such a problem that it must be forgiven for us to move forward,

why would we continue to do it? It's illogical. So at a minimum, we should start by just ending the program. That should just be a good place to start. I've been saying that for about five years. I may start saying it more. Loudly. Julie is in Billings, Montana.

Hey, Julie, how are you? I'm fine fine dave thanks for taking my call today sure your opinion in this situation well you know as much as i know that that people are coming out of college are hurting and i do feel for them i really do it's overwhelming but i think that people value what they work for and so I don't believe in forgiving student loan debts. I do believe in managing expectations, and I don't understand why kids, when they go to colleges, I mean, we're seeing these luxury apartments and coffee kiosks and all of these things that are, you know, do you really need that in college? You know, when I went to college, it was like the dorm room with the cinder block walls and a central cafeteria. And, you know, we knew that when you get out of school, then you get to have nicer things. Yeah.

But, you know, I was actually meeting with a – That's so much. Your theory is on. I was actually meeting with a business dean, the dean of a business college in a major university a while back, and he told me they had a piece of research that they were looking at that showed the amount of student loan debt that the average person came out of that state university with was equal to their lifestyle increase. In other words, they weren't financing their education. They were financing their college experience.

They could pay for their education, but they couldn't pay for their college experience and so it takes a certain amount of money to play beer pong hey thanks for the call mark's with us in tri-cities washington hey mark your uh comment on the student loan mess hi dave honor to talk to you. You too. Yeah, I agree with both callers, really, that we've got to get out of the student loan business, and it's got to go private so that the risk manages the loan to the child. I have three daughters that went to college, and my son, my youngest son, who is an electrician, has got more money than all of them. They've got a bunch of debt.

And it's funny, the more my middle daughter pays off her school loan, the more she's against forgiveness of loans. She's moving from liberal to conservative as she gets out of bed. But, you know, I think the universities are kind of in this, too, because, you know, to get new books, I mean, how do you, why do you need to change a calculus book every two years? Well, because the professor wrote it and he's making money on it. That's right. And they're so expensive. Oh, they're ridiculous.

It's absolutely ridiculous. That book, I print books. I'll tell you what, the Total Money Makeover book, our hard cost in it is $1.68. Yep. That's what it costs to print textbooks, probably about $3. Yep. Not $322. Right.

It's ludicrous. It's a scam. So there's parts of the education system. But you know what happens is if you have to compete for a smaller pool of customers, your price goes down. It's basic econ. That would be in one of those econ textbooks. Yeah, that's right.

It's supply-demand, baby. Yep, I agree. If you drop the demand, the pricing structure will change. And college tuition is out of control, people. And college cost is out of control. It is over double the inflation rate of any other item in our society. Our inflation rate, the CPI, the Consumer Price Index, has run about 4.2% for the last 78 years.

And college tuition is upward of 8%. It's over double. And so there you go. So here's the thing. Senator Warren and I agree that there's a problem. I think you and I agree that there's a problem. The difference is who's going to fix the problem and what is the best fix for the problem.

Well, so far government working on this problem has caused the problem. I don't have much faith in government solutions, because I don't see many of them work, like none of them. There's a few things the government does well. They have a wonderful park service. We, by and large, have pretty good highways, and we've got a great military. But none of those are very efficient. They're just high quality.

The efficiency operation of it is very low. The same thing's true of anything the government takes over. So, I love people and she loves people, and we don't want people to hurt. The question is, what's the best solution for them?

I think a really good first step is just stop the program. Just stop the lending. That would disrupt the market and the political landscape in a way that might get you elected as president. This other thing won't. That puts us out of the Day Ramsey Show and the books. We'll be back with you before you know it. In the meantime, remember, there's ultimately only one way to financial peace,

and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus. Hey, guys, it's Blake Thompson, senior executive producer for the Dave Ramsey Show. This hour's over, but you can find more great content on our YouTube channel. Catch the most watched Dave Reads, debt-free screams, and the very popular Everyday Millionaire segment. Go to the Dave Ramsey Show YouTube channel and Catch the most watched Dave Rantz, debt-free screams, and the very popular everyday millionaire segment. Go to the Dave Rantz Show YouTube channel and click subscribe.