Romney’s Advice to Students: Borrow Money From Your Parents to Pay For College
Presumptive Republican Presidential nominee Mitt Romney continues to provide lots of material for stand up comedians, topics for blog posts — and ammunition to Team Obama with his unscripted comments that continually show him to be someone who seemingly doesn’t have a clue about what most American families (of parents from both parties) go through. His latest was this advice to young people worried about college loans and how they will finance their education: borrow the money for college from your parents.
Um…Mr. Romney. Many American parents who didn’t have fathers who were governors of Michigan or bigwigs at car companies cannot afford to lend money to their kids for college..
This kind of devisiveness, this attack of success, is very different than what we’ve seen in our country’s history. We’ve always encouraged young people: Take a shot, go for it, take a risk, get the education, borrow money if you have to from your parents, start a business.
Romney’s problem is clearly when he is unscripted. But, it could be argued, the unscripted moments give a more clear glimpse of how his mind works, his values, his assumptions, and what he is willing to do (not much) to help Americans in need.
If the Dems are competent they will frame this comment in political commercials. But that is a huge if. I increasingly feel the Democrats don’t do well when matched up against GOPers in years when they don’t have a built in advantage (such as post-Watergate, and America suffering from recessions). His handlers will try to control his comments more than ever: most likely few press conferences, as few non-Fox long interviews as possible. He’ll be on Sean Hannity a lot.
Footnote: I was lucky. My father could afford to pay for my college at Colgate University and later at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism for grad work. But many parents can’t — and if relying on parents to pay for or loan the money is the solution, college would remove huge chunks of youths from the prospect of higher education. It would limit the American dream.
FOOTNOTE: Our politics is now so predictable now I won’t surf the web. I can imagine some GOPers now insisting, why, yes, loans from parents is the way to go in education. There’s nothing revealing about that quote about Romney’s assumptions about families and what young people face, some will argue.
I’m sure someone will even soon suggest that parents not only lend the money, but the parents should take the money they lend out of the family’s money put aside for health care.
Graphic via shutterstock.com
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So…a college education is a “right” now? And therefore should be paid for by the government (taxpayers)?
It is not a question of rights. Education is good for society. This is what government is suppose to do, improve society. This is why we have taxpayer supported education.
Both the article and I read it as borrow money to start a business, not borrow money to get an education. The word “then” before the word “borrow” would have helped understanding.
Even Romney must understand that most kids must borrow – and not from their parents – to get a college education. In fact, most parents must help out somewhat; even with loans for tuition and books there are living expenses involved.
How quick we are to impute motives to others that may or may not be true.
I’m interpreting this differently – he seems to be referring to borrowing money to start a business, not to go to college. Many entrepreneurs have borrowed from family to start their businesses. He starts to talk about Jimmy John’s but then the clip cuts off – was he talking about entrepreneurship and not education?
Of course the problem will be for many they don’t have family resources to tap for seed money.
Whether Romney suggested that the solution is to borrow money from one’s parents for education or to start a business (or both), such a recommendation to the average young person assumes a lot and — given the perception of his own family background and criticism leveled at him for being out of touch with the average person — does open itself to some questioning.
No big deal, but the reaction is understandable.
I interpreted Romney’s line as borrowing money from parents if you have to to get an education. The transition from talking about education to borrowing money was seamless.
There was a short pause after Romney was talking about borrowing money and start a business, as though the two were unrelated.
Whichever way it’s interpreted, whether you borrow money from your parents for education or to start a business is an idea equally out of touch with many Americans. Many parents don’t have enough money to lend, and if they did have enough to lend, they would be diving into their own nest eggs…. If you borrow a hundred thousand from your parents to go to college how long would it take to pay back if you’re earning $15/hour? Or even minimum wage? ANd still have enough to live on?
Obama said that he only paid off his student loans eight years ago…. and he had a very successful career…. So he was about 42 before he paid off his student loans…. What about all those college-educated people who can’t find jobs after graduation? They will have to wrk longer to pay their student loans once they do find a job.
Could Mitt be any more out of touch with the 99%? Sure, in a perfect world nobody would become a parent unless they were capable of providing the means to a reasonable future for their kids, but this world (the USA) is SO far from perfect now that even responsible hard-working parents have fallen too far into debt to help their college age kids pay for an education. Maybe they can borrow the money from Mittens?
As the parent of a college student who has been forced to use the federal student loan program, I agree with Stockboy.
Many parents lost a lot in the last stock market meltdown — or lost a lot of home equity when the housing market went belly-up. I fall into that category and also in the stagnant wages for the middle class category. The middle class has been squeezed from both ends and the loan program is a necessity for millions.
Maybe he should have said, borrow from your parents if they have the resources. Of course this would eliminate all who are from low income earning families. But he didn’t say that because he is really out of touch with the average wage earner. Does this make him an evil man? No, just out of touch with the 99%