Department of Education Calls in SWAT for Unpaid Student Loans

I had a vision that America would start tightening bankruptcy laws, and the federal government would more or less become the enforcers of a perpetual debt state---to which the majority of working class Americans would have to belong due to the forces of globalization and mechanization of labor.

but SWAT teams this soon?

what can I say? fight odious law-and-order budgets, including those provisions for minimum mandatory sentencing that are inefficient, and do nothing more than give the police the resources necessary to become overpowering. Demand accountability and transparency of government.

 

"Student loan debt collectors have power that would make a mobster envious."
-Elizabeth Warren

The story actually does not surprise me.

 

This is going to be the source of a genuine revolution. The costs of attending college have risen at double the rate of inflation since the 1980s - and soon the majority of the skilled workforce in the U.S. will have a great amount of student loan debt.

What're they gonna do ... raid all of us?

 

New-age serfdom is more likely.

 

Does that mean the DOE-OIG actually has its own SWAT team? It probably doesn't need one, if so.

 

what the hell were they searching for? Just looking for his wife?

You would think they would exhaust methods of actually knowing where someone is/lives before breaking down doors and holding children captive.

Sickening.

 

I think we're living in a time when the Federal government and the wealthiest members of our society are constantly shooting bullets at their own feet ... how long do they really think people are just going to lay down for this type of thing?

Anyone who values the social stability of the United States really needs to wake up to the fact that this country will not remain intact if the most powerful people in the nation are consistently plundering the lower classes.

 

While I agree, it's lasted ~235 years doing exactly that since day one. This sordid ideology of class warfare and exploitation is hardly new at all.

I think Rifkin got it right in regards to the fundamental differences between the US and the EU - the latter is truly postmodern, and accordingly better suited to persevere. But these sorts of things don't just fade away quietly...

 

it just sounds like a stupid mix up

 

I keep asking myself how that is possible. As a SWAT Team leader, I would have been like "WTF, we're raiding a house due to a defaulted education loan?" and brought it up the chain how ridiculous that is. Unless this person had a long history of violent behaviors, I can't believe it's even possible to mix something up this badly.

 

I have my doubts about this story especially since when clicking on the link it says "Page not found."

While I don't doubt that the Dept. of Education could be odious in collecting this seems very farfetched that they would call in a S.W.A.T. team first without going through things like filing liens, garnishing wages or otherwise. Also why would they call in SWAT when in these type of collection actions its usually the county sheriffs and deputies that enforce these type of actions.

 

If the wife has been evading more mundane efforts to reach her -- like running out the backdoor when they knock on the front -- is a SWAT team more reasonable?

I'm not sure why they need to find her anyway. Can't they just garnish wages or something?

 

There HAS to be more to this story...

 

I see the article now. From reading it though this doesn't sound like a case of unpaid loans. From the link:
[rquoter]A U.S. government official confirmed for News10 Wednesday morning federal agents with the Office of the Inspector General (OIG), not local S.W.A.T., served the search warrant. The official would not say specifically why the raid took place. He did say the search was not related to student loans in default.

He went on to say OIG is a semi-independent branch of the U.S. Department of Education that executes warrants for criminal offenses such as student aid fraud and embezzlement of federal aid. [/rquoter]

 

Student aid fraud makes more sense, but still seems over the top.

 

There is more inflation in the market for a college education because government policy encourages easy lending which bids up the price of tuition. The fact that many people are defaulting (as implied by this story) is worrisome. We all know what happened to the financial system when the housing bubble collapsed. Could the same thing happen if the education bubble collapses?

I live in a college town where the local government is investing a lot in their utility and road systems, and where there has been a lot of growth in rental properties. If the education bubble pops, the people who've invested in building new rental properties, and the local government will be in a very bad position, as will the people living in the town.

 

I grew up in Stockton. Most of it is a craphole. An 11 year old girl was just shot (non-fatally) at the movie theater downtown. If I were some rando from the Dept. of Ed. trying to serve a warrant there, I might want a SWAT team too.

 

stockton is the root of all evil in this world.