US Marshals Are Arresting People For Not Paying Student Loans

If this was pointed out previously in the thread, I apologize for reposting; it appears this man wasn't simply arrested for not paying a student loan:

finance.yahoo.com...

Back in November 2007, Aker was sued by the federal government for nonpayment of more than $2,600 in unpaid federal student loan debt, according to documents from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas (embedded below). The court record shows that Aker, listed as Winford P. Aker in the complaint, did not appear in court to answer the lawsuit and, as is common when student loan borrowers fail to appear, the presiding judge ruled against him and ordered Aker to pay the full balance on April 17, 2007.

According to a statement from the U.S. Marshals Service, Aker repeatedly refused to show up in court after being contacted several times. Disobeying a court order is a criminal offense. Within a few months, the judge issued a warrant for his arrest, which the U.S. Marshals carried out. So, yes, Aker was arrested, but not just because he owed a little student loan debt. He was arrested for disobeying a court order.

a reply to: SkepticOverlord

What year and century is this? Outrageous!!! SMH.These are the actions of predatory loaners.I've heard of debtors prisons coming back but I discounted that until now.

a reply to: SkepticOverlord

Well for one thing the idea of a collage education is a shame for the most part.

How many of they degrees are real degrees in something hard, such as science or engineering?

How many are in fluff like arts and social skills?

I have a BA in history and an MA in International Studies I like to learn things, but if I had to do it over again I would pick something other then that, or not get a degree. By the way I don't use ether in my daily work, I'm an IT person and use the skills I got in the military and upgraded working while getting my degrees.

We sell a myth today that collage is required to work. Fact is unless your a hard science, teacher, doctor or engineer, collage is a waste of time for working. Most company look at a BA as showing your trainable and will train you the way they want you to work. We should focus on the old idea of teaching trades.

Now I will admit that learning for the sake of learning is always a good idea. Going in debt to do it; not so much.

originally posted by: Urantia1111

originally posted by: crazyewok
University been turned into a massive money making scam.

Even here in the UK the government encouraged kids thats would have been better off in vocational trades to take bull# degrees that are pretty much worthless. Only people that win are the universitys and loan providers. The students just end up flipping burgers with massive debt.

Until either they figure out how to cook both sides of the burger at once

OR the entire burger-making process is automated.

Automated burger making already is being done.

You walk up and place your order on the touch screen and the machine makes it. Just a couple people working to watch over and provide support. makes 360 burgers per hour.

Gues that the answer to Bernies $15 minimum wage, no more entry level jobs.

originally posted by: greencmp

originally posted by: Skid Mark
a reply to: SkepticOverlord
It sounds like loansharking. They even have thugs to bust down your door.

]

It is and the interest rate they charge is fixed at a high rate (like 6% or something) that can't be refinanced. Combine that with fines and late fees, the ability to directly interdict your tax returns and a host of other potentially abusable powers and you've got yourself an organization.

8.5% for my SL. worse then my house or car was.

originally posted by: Puppylove
a reply to: jhn7537

I'm screwed by student loans and bad mistakes, I don't want others to suffer the same fate as I did. Sorry your so selfish you'd rather more generations screwed over like us. Is like a black man being against slavery being abolished cause it would mean his descendants didn't have to be slaves like he was.

Just to give you a heads up.

If you work for the government, a non profit or ANY public service (IE police, fire, EMT etc.) there is a loan forgiveness program. You pay a reduce payment for ten years and afetr that the rest is forgiven.

studentaid.ed.gov...

Teachers also have something like this.

originally posted by: dismanrc
a reply to: SkepticOverlord

Well for one thing the idea of a collage education is a shame for the most part.

How many of they degrees are real degrees in something hard, such as science or engineering?

How many are in fluff like arts and social skills?

I have a BA in history and an MA in International Studies I like to learn things, but if I had to do it over again I would pick something other then that, or not get a degree. By the way I don't use ether in my daily work, I'm an IT person and use the skills I got in the military and upgraded working while getting my degrees.

We sell a myth today that collage is required to work. Fact is unless your a hard science, teacher, doctor or engineer, collage is a waste of time for working. Most company look at a BA as showing your trainable and will train you the way they want you to work. We should focus on the old idea of teaching trades.

Now I will admit that learning for the sake of learning is always a good idea. Going in debt to do it; not so much.

And don't ignore a judge when he's asked you to appear in court big rule to avoid jail. If someone is having problems paying student loans get a deferment it stops interest on the loan. Use that time to save up money to put on It when it ends. If its truly a hard ship you can file for bankruptcy this won't get rid of it do to new laws but it will set up a minimum payment and again stop interest. But this is difficult to do since you basically have to show no disposable income and bills have to be more than you make deferment is easier.

a reply to: jhn7537

Problem is most the teachers at these schools are left wing nuts and only care about teaching their agenda. Look at the classes you have to take for the first two years now. They look more like brainwashing agenda then classes.

Isn't it interesting how left winger criticism of things like this is always generically focused on "government" and not on the Obama administration? It's major difference from the bush year when everything was the bush administration's fault.

I have an almost 30 year old student loan debt that I REFUSE to pay. I went to one of those "for-profit" colleges in the late 80's after a nasty divorce. I was trying to improve myself as I married too young to a man 12 years older than I and all I had the skills to do was be a housewife. I was to be a surgical technologist. I think I originally borrowed a little under 10 grand. (I was able to get some grants as I was a single mother). I was about 2 months from graduating when the school I was attending, Tempe Technical Institute, closed. I was informed that I would be attending another school (that I didn't sign up to attend) to compete my education. I ended up getting my "certificate" in the mail. I never worked a day in the operating room (outside of the field I had already gotten OJT for....)

I was never able to work as a surgical technologist except in ophthalmology, (a field I had already been working in during the time I was attending school). At first, I made payments when the loan came due. For about 3 years, in all. Then I remarried, started having more babies and rarely worked. Fast forward 15 years and I get something in the mail from a debt collection agency stating I was about to be sued for TWENTY SEVEN THOUSAND DOLLARS!!!! In fear, I started to pay $250 a month with the promise that things would go back to "normal" with my loan and I would be in the good graces of the government again. The company turned out to be a scam. I never heard back from this company and the close to 4 grand I DID pay back just disappeared. I had received in the mail, a few years before this scam company contacted me, from a lawyer in AZ stating that a class action lawsuit had been initiated against the school I attended. I never heard back from that lawyer and wish I would have kept the letter, but about 10 years ago, I actually looked up the case, contacted the lawyer for the government who sent me all his files and then discovered that the case had gone all the way to the supreme court! Unfortunately, due to some obscure rule, the students (all navajo) lost their case. (I have documents deep in my files that the lawyer was kind enough to sent to me).
It turns out that the owners of Tempe Technical Institute had ADMITTED to stealing the loan money. They spend time in jail for it!!!The school had been shut down by the government. The school I was forced to attend after the closure had NEVER BEEN APPROVED to receive the DOE money, but they got it anyways and due to some obscure rule, the students, most of whom never got to work in the field they were studying, were on the hook for their loans.
I decided at that moment to never again pay a dime WILLINGLY towards that "loan" . It makes my SOUL ANGRY to even CONSIDER paying back money that had BEEN STOLEN by a school that was shut down by the government and the owners ADMIT to stealing the money. I never got what I paid for. In the NON-Government world, that is called THEFT.
About 3 years ago, the DOE came after my income tax returns. My husband has to file a injured spouse form to get his money back. I think I made 12 grand last year. I rarely work anymore due to epilepsy.....

Now I have read for YEARS people who don't know a thing about me or the circumstances that led me to REFUSE to pay back that loan......especially now that the 10 grand has become close to 30 grand, call me a loser or a myriad of other kinds of things! I went to a rinky dink FOR PROFIT loser technical school...and I owe money like I went to a major university! The school I attended stole money from the government, not I....yet I am treated like I am the thief...the loser....the heavy chain around the taxpayer's neck.....

To make matters worse, when I DID call a few years back to inquire about my loan, the guy couldn't find ANY RECORD that I had any loans! The DOE could sure find me well enough to start stealing money from me....but the first time I actually try to talk to someone about this travesty...nobody could find record I owed any money or that I had ever taken out a loan with the DOE.......even using my social security or any of the names I had used, (my maiden and two married names...plus the various misspellings)...I simply didn't exist in the DOE records!!!

I will sit in jail before I pay back that loan. I own NOTHING of value because of that damn loan that was STOLEN by other entities, NOT by myself....and the owners of the school I attended ADMITTED they stole the money! I have heard about loan "forgiveness"...funny how all the "rules" for this don't include people like me: with loans that are over 25 years old........not ONE PERSON wants to hear MY story.....and, in the big picture, I don't really owe that much....(I would be INSANE with my anger if I went to say nursing school or law school and owed 100K!!!)

Don't get me started how my mentally ill mother just got her SOCIAL SECURITY benefits garnished for a student loan she took out over THIRTY YEARS AGO!!!!! My mother hasn't been sane or sober enough to work since the late 80's......
(it's not like my mother or I lived off the grid or anything....how come it took the government 30 years to finally "find" my mother....to "find" me.........shrug)

the government doesn't give a rats ass about any of us....only the money we make for them.....(or if we're an illegal immigrant....or a refugee...or some other "political" chess piece....)

If ever these younger people decide to march to protest the evilness of student loans, (I find it "funny" how I could run up 10 thousand dollars worth of credit card debt and file bankruptcy, but not for 30 YEAR OLD STUDENT LOAN DEBT that never stops growing and growing and growing), I will be right up there screaming the loudest!
The US government is worse than ANY imaginary vampire.......

originally posted by: jhn7537
a reply to: crazyewok

Exactly... Once everyone has a degree, do you think those same people will still be filling the open positions at McDonald's, your local gas stations, grocery stores, etc?? Everyone will demand even more money, better jobs, and before you know it, the College degree will be no more than the equivalent of your High school/GED degree now...

Can't have other people demand more money or better jobs. There must be enough idiots left for the menial stuff./S
Do you read what you are typing?
I wish anyone who is interested in gaining knowledge could do so. I like people who are intelligent and go to University because they love learning, rather than stuck up rich kids who are bored throughout the course and are of no use to society once they pass through and then get fast tracked by their influential parents.

I have a 'useless' degree [BSc Hons in Neuroscience] and never got a job in the field, but it opened up better jobs in Chemistry for me. That was after having to work in a lot of office type jobs, even as low as collecting and sorting paper files. I was fine with either, because of what I LEARNED. I now KNOW more than before and it was an absolute pleasure taking the course.

I would rather work a menial job but have my knowledge enhanced, than not be allowed to study because I am poor. You are just jealous that others may gain knowledge without having to pay whereas you had to pay. Jealous you are and it's not nice.

I dont comment often, but I did want to add to this. Arresting the man is a bit outlandish and overboard. But in the end you did sign an agreement to pay them back. I currently have student loans myself, and for a long time I didnt pay them. As ive gotten older, I have started paying them mainly because if someone took a loan from me Id want my money back.

No one is forcing you to sign the paper for the loan. They do show you your loan amount and interest before you sign. So in the end it is only your own fault for any troubles you occur along the way. You can forbearance your loans and also negotiate a lower payment as I have done many times.

originally posted by: dismanrc

originally posted by: Puppylove
a reply to: jhn7537

I'm screwed by student loans and bad mistakes, I don't want others to suffer the same fate as I did. Sorry your so selfish you'd rather more generations screwed over like us. Is like a black man being against slavery being abolished cause it would mean his descendants didn't have to be slaves like he was.

Just to give you a heads up.

If you work for the government, a non profit or ANY public service (IE police, fire, EMT etc.) there is a loan forgiveness program. You pay a reduce payment for ten years and afetr that the rest is forgiven.

studentaid.ed.gov...

Teachers also have something like this.

Yes, that's right. I remember when Obama talked about that.

The precedent is already set to absolve credit for federal employees. The next step is nationalized higher education and eventually retroactive reparations to former graduates.

originally posted by: NihilistSanta
a reply to: greencmp

Goldman Sachs is another name in this. They own Education Management Corporation which owns a number of for profit schools like the Art Institute. They are being sued currently by a number of groups for over stating the value of their degrees, high pressure tactics in recruiting, literally selling worthless and unaccredited psychology degrees and other things. It just feels like a conflict of interest them being able to offer loans in this manner. It would be like me as a dentist giving away free jaw breakers with every visit.

They own the Art Institute? Hilarious!

There was also talk about cracking down on apprenticeships preventing people from acquiring 'in-kind' education and experience by circumventing a taxable revenue stream.

Naturally, it was sold as protecting defenseless victims of apprenticeship from oppression.

originally posted by: Edumakated
a reply to: greencmp

The STEM market is being flooded by highly educated foreigners who also work cheaper. Many get their educations here in the US and then are hired as H1-bs. This is why the salaries are stagnating.

That's definitely been attempted but, not successfully to date. They still need business analysts who understand western business practices and have culturally relevant management styles.

The really good developers still demand high rates and the cookie cutter IT department model is doing its best to find viable generic middleware. That means low tech staff at bottom dollar trying lots of different packages instead of hiring a professional to model the data correctly.

Corporate culture is rotten and there is no loyalty anymore so department heads have no motivation to make efficiency improvements. It's always kicking and screaming that they do anything.

a reply to: greencmp

Yeah its quite sad. I became aware of this through a friend of mine. After the air force he went to that school for advertising and marketing. We were talking recently and he mentioned how much he owed in loans still. I was kind of shocked since he used his G.I. Bill money. Turns out that school is charging as much as most State 4 year universities. Even after his G. I. Bill he still owed something in the range of $30,000 and has been out of school for 2 years unable to find work in his field.

I wish I could recall the posters (Boncho perhaps?) name but some time back someone mentioned how the government was just pushing college as a way of distracting all of the unemployed and to obfuscate further the shape of the market. I think they may be right. It makes no sense with the lack of jobs all of the emphasis on extending training, taking out loans etc. Like you mentioned apprenticeships should still be viable but the government wont help pay for any type of apprenticeship program instead forcing you to opt for a 2-4 year school. It has become some sort of ad hoc socialism.

originally posted by: dismanrc
a reply to: jhn7537

Problem is most the teachers at these schools are left wing nuts and only care about teaching their agenda. Look at the classes you have to take for the first two years now. They look more like brainwashing agenda then classes.

Totally agree... The "Gen Eds" we are all used to doing in our first two years of school (before your core major classes begin) have definitely evolved over the years. Evolved away from practical, real-world knowledge, to agenda-driven drivel...

I didn't make it through the whole thread but $1500 in 29 years. . . . how can you not pay $52 a year. Why do people think they can borrow money without having to pay it back?

originally posted by: Hecate666

originally posted by: jhn7537
a reply to: crazyewok

Exactly... Once everyone has a degree, do you think those same people will still be filling the open positions at McDonald's, your local gas stations, grocery stores, etc?? Everyone will demand even more money, better jobs, and before you know it, the College degree will be no more than the equivalent of your High school/GED degree now...

Can't have other people demand more money or better jobs. There must be enough idiots left for the menial stuff./S
Do you read what you are typing?
I wish anyone who is interested in gaining knowledge could do so. I like people who are intelligent and go to University because they love learning, rather than stuck up rich kids who are bored throughout the course and are of no use to society once they pass through and then get fast tracked by their influential parents.

I have a 'useless' degree [BSc Hons in Neuroscience] and never got a job in the field, but it opened up better jobs in Chemistry for me. That was after having to work in a lot of office type jobs, even as low as collecting and sorting paper files. I was fine with either, because of what I LEARNED. I now KNOW more than before and it was an absolute pleasure taking the course.

I would rather work a menial job but have my knowledge enhanced, than not be allowed to study because I am poor. You are just jealous that others may gain knowledge without having to pay whereas you had to pay. Jealous you are and it's not nice.

LOL, I'm jealous? Nope, I'm NOWHERE even remotely jealous of lazy people who just EXPECT handouts... I came from a VERY poor family of 5 children, parents had little money, they lost the family house at 17, but did I cry poor me, poor family, our govt hates us? no... I understood my parents made some poor choices along the way, and I refused to go down that same road.... Basically, what I'm trying to say, is that education is attainable, with HARD WORK, but too many today don't want to go that extra mile to get a job done, they'd prefer to have a handout to make things "easier"....

I also believe giving everyone free public college is a plan that will never have funding, nor will those degrees carry any value in the real world... I hire people myself, and I know I will give a free public degree candidates about the same amount of odds of landing the job as I would give a person with a HS Diploma, when going against a candidate with a reputable degree.

Free College Degree = HS Diploma... Nothing will change for any of those people, but the fact that they will believe they are "too overqualified" for minimum wage type jobs due to their education..

originally posted by: jhn7537
And what's even better, good ole boy Bernie Sanders wants to give EVERY kid free college, essentially flooding the market and devaluing the degree that some of us worked our ass offfor. I was a full time student (12-18 credit hours every quarter), I worked my day job 7-5pm every day and then I did night school from 5:45 to 10pm at night 4 nights a week.. It really pisses me off that I could possibly need to pay off my loan after all that hard work, while some other kids may get it for nothing...

Yes. The fact that you had it hard is an excellent reason to keep it hard for everyone who comes after you. We should hold others down as much as possible so you can be special.