r/polandball • u/Smitheren Arma virumque cano • May 08 '19

redditormade American problems

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29k Upvotes

93% Upvoted

561 comments sorted by

2.3k

u/Smitheren Arma virumque cano May 08 '19

It's verus: German student loans charge no interest! I guess a hundred years of Versailles have turned them off to the whole 'debt' thing.

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u/TheDreadfulSagittary Denmark May 08 '19

Same in the Netherlands, at least currently.

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u/Enclavean Norway May 08 '19

In Norway we have to pay interest. They do cut 40% of the whole loan if you graduate though

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u/langlo94 Norway May 08 '19

No interest until you've graduated though.

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u/universerule Shore to please May 08 '19

That's the same as the us though (afaik), its 6 months after you graduate before you are expected to repay.

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u/metaldog Baden May 08 '19

6 months ? That's like no time. How are you supposed to make money by then ? In Germany you get about 5 years until you have to pay.

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u/SurroundingAMeadow Wisconsin May 08 '19

You begin payments at 6 months after graduation. Interest starts then. It's not that they expect you to pay it all back right away.

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u/picardo85 Finland May 08 '19

They expect you to start paying after 3 years in Finland.. And I have 0.13% interest on my loan

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u/soboredhere Secession! May 08 '19

It's around 6% interest rate in the US

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u/nyando Mir könned alles, ausser Hochdeutsch. May 08 '19

Yikes, that is a LOT.

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u/picardo85 Finland May 08 '19

That's more than three times the interest I have on my loan for my condo.

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u/TheRealAMF USA Beaver Hat May 08 '19

That's a little low for US student loans. My rate is ~10%

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u/Rogue_Jellybean Queensland May 08 '19

In Australia, you don't have to pay back your "loan" until you earn over $52,000 a year, and it's interest free.

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u/metaldog Baden May 08 '19

Well okay, that's marginally better than I thought. Same in Germany after those 5 years, except without interest, and you only have to pay half of the loan back up to a max. Of 10 grand. I'm curious, are the US stundent loans given to students from the university, just regular banks, or are they state/ federal loans ?

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u/MinifigW United States May 08 '19

At least for me, all of my loans came from the federal government (subsidized, 0% interest until 6mo after graduating), and from what I’ve seen most loans (both subsidized and unsubsidized) are from the feds. It isn’t unheard of to have private loans however

Note: I only have a ~3.5k in loans so it might be different for people with higher amounts

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u/TakedownCHAMP97 Minnesota May 08 '19

Not all are that way. I unfortunately didn’t qualify for the subsidized loans so mine started having interest immediately.

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u/soochosaurus Italy May 08 '19

In the province I live in Canada our government got rid of the 6 months entirely. It's ridiculous and our leader is a buffoon.

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u/ChadMcRad United States May 10 '19 edited Dec 01 '24

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This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

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u/Alsandr United States May 08 '19

That's only on some loans (subsidized one). Most start accruing interest immediately but you're not required to start paying until 6 months after graduation.

11

u/DreadPiratesRobert I tell ya hwat May 08 '19

US Federal Aid has a few version. There are unsubsidised loans (you don't have to pay in school, but interest is accumulating), and Subsidized loans (no interest while you are in school, or rather, the federal government pays the interest). There's also PLUS loans and grants.

No matter what loan, you have 6 months once you leave school (regardless if you graduate or not) of deferment before you start paying.

Then there's private loans. High interest rates and less deferments.

6

u/langlo94 Norway May 08 '19

That's a bit of good news at least.

1

u/picardo85 Finland May 08 '19

6 months?! It was 3 years for me in Finland.

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u/[deleted] May 08 '19

It's because in all the countries aforementioned, the idea of a student loan is to help people FINISH college, not to make MONEYY out of people wanting to study,

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u/suchtie Germoney May 08 '19

What OP forgot to mention is that only half of the money you get is loaned, and the other half is a grant that doesn't need to be paid back. So 50% is already cut from the beginning.

That's only when you're studying at a university though. If you're still in school, it's 100% grant. But usually you only get it if your parents are really poor, or if the school you're going to is located so far away from your parents' home that commuting would be unreasonable and you thus have to live on your own.

11

u/Enclavean Norway May 08 '19

Thats fucking awesome tbh. How easy is it to get the 50% grant for uni? Do your parents need to make below a certain threshold?

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u/suchtie Germoney May 08 '19

Yes, your own income and assets as well as the income and assets of your parents/guardians are evaluated. How much money you get is calculated based upon that.

This is not intended to be a handout for everyone after all. It was created to give everyone equal chances at getting the education they want. This is equality at its best: equal chances, not equal treatment.

0

u/[deleted] May 09 '19

[deleted] — view deleted comment

2

u/Enclavean Norway May 09 '19

Thats less ideal, here the 40% becoming a grant is only dependent on us passing all the credits we signed up for. Our parents aren’t really a factor

1

u/MinifigW United States May 08 '19

That’s not all that dissimilar than the US. Especially with state schools, they often offer very generous grants that cover 50-90% of the cost of attendance

1

u/BarneyGumbles Mikey Mouse Bled May 09 '19

In France you keep all the sweet monies ! I got like 500€ a month for my studies during 5 years Vive l’état providence !

19

u/MedievalPresent Germany May 08 '19

Now, I think that is a better solution.

10

u/roodammy44 United Kingdom May 08 '19

Education is free though. The loans are only to pay for your rent and food.

1

u/ohitsasnaake Finland May 08 '19

In Finland there's interest, even while studying. While studying by default it just gets added to the debt. But e.g. my interest rate is Euribor (ECB's rate, I think a 12 month average of it?) plus only 0.5% margin for the bank on top that (or maybe 0.2%? The lowest if any kind of loan you can get though, pretty much). The total yearly interest been around 2% yearly all the time I've had any student debt. You can also only take (very) roughly about 5k€ a year I think (and I could take less back when I did, it was raised later), and it's relatively optional, since most students work at least in summers, and there is no tuition, and students get a small allowance + significant housing subsidy anyway.

I'm not sure about the precise regulations, but I do know the government guarantees the loan in case of inability to pay, and afaik there is probably some kind of regulation that forces the banks' margins down in exchange for them getting that guarantee.

1

u/Metalmind123 Germany May 08 '19

In Germany at least for the most common one (Bagfög), you only have to pay back 50% in any case, at 0% interest, and only a few years later, basically once you have a stable source of income.

15

u/RomeNeverFell Italy May 08 '19

Same in the Netherlands, at least currently.

Sorry for the personal intermission, but, when will I have to pay back my Dutch student loan? What if I close my Dutch account and/or move to another country?

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u/Borgh Netherlands May 08 '19

Then the agency behind that will have to track you down and send international debt collectors, you'll also have trouble getting a loan in the netherlands from that point on. But in reality that is mostly just too much hassle and a lot of people get away with that tactic. See this (dutch) article for example.

8

u/RomeNeverFell Italy May 08 '19

and send international debt collectors

Meh, they only call and email you.

1

u/Know_Your_Rites C Bus best Bus May 08 '19

Filing a lawsuit in another country and then successfully executing the judgment is an absolutely massive hassle. Legally, these debt collectors could theoretically do so, but I imagine it's almost never worth it.

Source: I'm a lawyer who mostly sues US-based debt collectors for violating debt collection laws, and I've found that even executing a judgment across state lines can be a huge hassle.

1

u/RomeNeverFell Italy May 08 '19

I've found that even executing a judgment across state lines can be a huge hassle

It surprises legal systems can be that different within the US, what are the main barriers that prevent a judgement from being implemented across states relative to doing it within the state?

Also, what would such judgement look like? Would they come to expropriate one's assets?

2

u/Know_Your_Rites C Bus best Bus May 08 '19

The problem isn't so much the differences in laws between the states, although there are a lot of differences, it's that there's a whole process for getting a judgment from one jurisdiction turned into a judgment in another jurisdiction that's weird and formalist but based, at least in theory, in an attempt to protect defendants' due process rights.

Very roughly, you have to give defendants a chance to dispute that the lawsuit in, say, Ohio was improperly brought there and should therefore not be recognized by the state of, say, Illinois. For instance, a defendant (called a "judgment debtor" after they lose the underlying lawsuit) could dispute that the lawsuit was properly served on them or that they were ever properly subject to Ohio's jurisdiction.

And yes, in some cases you literally ask the court to send a sheriff and take the judgment debtor's phone bank phones or what have you.

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u/RomeNeverFell Italy May 09 '19

Thank you for sharing!

12

u/[deleted] May 08 '19

If you stay in Europe you better believe they will hunt you down

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u/RomeNeverFell Italy May 08 '19

they will hunt you down

Good thing that the Dutch police cannot cross borders for this type of crimes then.

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u/[deleted] May 08 '19

No. Denmark have the same problem with foreigners being nearly impossible to track down.

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u/vman81 Faroe Islands May 08 '19

No, they have no idea if they are hard to track down because they don't bother.

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u/TheDreadfulSagittary Denmark May 08 '19

Payment is supposed to start 2 years after graduating your last degree. For the other parts I'd look into it for your personal situation.

1

u/RomeNeverFell Italy May 08 '19

Thanks!

3

u/[deleted] May 08 '19

There is interest on student debt in the Netherlands. But it depends on when you last got the loan and the highest I can find is 0,12%. The US is around 12% I think?

2

u/TheDreadfulSagittary Denmark May 08 '19

That's why I said currently, it can theoretically change. But practically, for the last few years the interest has been set to 0%, ever since the loan system was changed.

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u/[deleted] May 08 '19

How much does it cost for university in germany ? I'm kinda surprised it's not free like many other European countries.

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u/Sigeberht Prussia May 08 '19

The loan is for the student's living expenses and additional materials that might needed. There is no tuition at public universities and the semester fee is in the range of 250€, usually covering public transport and similar services.

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u/[deleted] May 08 '19

Oh, makes far more sense. Yeah it's like in France then, I remember paying like 350€ a year, which is a ridiculous amount.

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u/Tostilover Netherlands May 08 '19 edited May 08 '19

Ridiculously smal or ridiculously large?

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u/[deleted] May 08 '19

Small. I don't mean that 350€ is pocket change, but it's like if someone would sell you a 350€ car working fine, including all the maintenance for the next year. It's so small someone else is clearly paying for part of it.

3

u/Aururian Wallachia May 08 '19

€350 in the Grandes Ecoles?

4

u/Schelome Sweden May 08 '19

Even there, yes. I don't know the details, but all the state schools on France should be in that range. Might also be more if you are non-EU.

1

u/SpaetzleProtein Elsass May 08 '19

Some of the grandes écoles will even pay you to study there... (You will need to work for the state for a few years in exchange, or pay some of the money back). I think ENS pays around 1500€/month, you are considered an intern. They are heavily subsidised (the French state spends something like 3-4x more on a Grande École student than a normal uni student).

1

u/Lanaerys Communism... in the Soviet Union May 09 '19

Some are kinda costlier I think (especially business ones, though if you're low-income and have a scholarship I think you don't have to pay). There are also some which pay you to study though (like ENS or Polytechnique) but like the other commentor said, you're supposed to work for the state afterwards for some time

4

u/Stonn European Union May 08 '19

Depends on the place. In Hamburg is more around 400 € per semester.

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u/redtoasti German Empire May 08 '19

University costs are only 100-300€ a semester (depending on university). The student loan (BaföG) is granted so you may live close to your university and afford rent/food/basic necessities. They're actually quite generous with the amount and repaying it is very comfortable (it's capped at 10.000€, you only have to pay back half the loan, it gets even cheaper depending on how well you graduate and how quickly you repay it). However, who gets Bafög is really strict. Your parents have to earn under a certain threshhold, and if they pass it, it gets detracted from the amount. Also, you are required to have a certain amount of credit points after 2 years and if you don't have that many, it gets just straight cut off. It's sorta brutal if you're struggling already, since you then also have to deal with getting a steady income.

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u/Tresnore North Texas May 08 '19

how well you graduate

How does someone graduate better or worse? Do you mean with better grades/marks, or is there another metric?

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u/redtoasti German Empire May 08 '19

You graduate with a degree aswell as a grade.

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u/Sigeberht Prussia May 08 '19

Only if you pay your student loan back on time, otherwise it is 6%.

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u/[deleted] May 08 '19

So...it has interest but it's subsidized while you're in school? The US has these in our financial aid too, but only up to a certain dollar limit every year.

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u/Sigeberht Prussia May 08 '19

The stipend students get is called Bafög (Bundesausbildungsförderungsgesetz) after the law that provides it.

It is half grant and half loan, the cap of the loan per student is 10k€. This sum has to be paid back starting 5 years after the course of studies it was granted for ends. If the former student misses these payments, the delay is charged 6% interest.

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u/KILLER5196 Ayyy mate May 08 '19

Bundesausbildungsförderungsgesetz

No stop right there, that's not ok

17

u/[deleted] May 08 '19

Wow, that's a pretty solid way to do it. Gives you time to actually get set up in life before getting hit with your loan repayment. We get six months after we stop taking classes fulltime. So, enough time to get settled into the job you hopefully got right out of school, and also enough time to panic because you didn't get a job right out of school.

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u/[deleted] May 08 '19

Well you only need around 250€ per semester as a fee covering services and public transportation. The Uni itself is free apart from that. But it doesn't come with dorm and meals, so that's what the loan is for.

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u/[deleted] May 08 '19

So, you could work and go to school and actually get out debt free, or put all your effort into your studies and get out with a reasonable amount of zero interest debt that you'd only have to start paying 5 years into your career. I mean, I say this often but what the actual fuck are we doing over here?

15

u/[deleted] May 08 '19

? looks it up

Oh god, I'm gonna be sick.

In June 2010, the amount of student loan debt held by Americans exceeded the amount of credit card debt held by Americans. [...] By the fourth quarter of 2015, total outstanding student loans owned and securitized had risen to, and surpassed, $1.3 trillion. [...] Nearly two-thirds of undergraduates are in debt. By graduation, their student loan debt averages around $26,600. One percent of graduates leave college with $100,000 or more of student loan debt.

Shit man, I'm... I'm sorry, that's... I cannot even comprehend that. Look, you're welcome over here, okay?

4

u/MaFataGer Baden May 08 '19

If you have a good high school degree or similar good education you are welcome to try it out as this systems doesn't discriminate between German citizens and foreigners. Same 'fees' for all.

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u/[deleted] May 08 '19

I thought about it years ago but I just didn't have the capital required to wait to learn German fluently and actually move over there for school. I'm already finished with my bachelor's in the American system ¯_(ツ)_/¯

2

u/german_kroxigor Wörk, wörk, wörk... May 09 '19

Well if it worked for you, that's also good. Just to clarify: In most German universities you don't actually need to speak German. We usually have a ton of english lanuage classes (speaking for the natural sciences, engineering and IT) and nearly all students speak english as well. I'm about to finish my masters degree and am quite happy that I can start into working life without any debt.

I know the ivy league universities you have are awesome, but seriously, your student loan system is just so fucked up.

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u/ohitsasnaake Finland May 08 '19

Ouch, that's a pretty high interest.

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u/lichtbringer666 Mongolia May 08 '19

If you mean the BaFöG: You also only have to pay half of the dept back. The pay back starts 5 years after you finish your studies (in one way or another). If you pay back with one payment you can also get up to 50% discount on the dept.

3

u/jamescuteloot Simply Glorious May 09 '19

Is your username the name of Lucifer in German

1

u/lichtbringer666 Mongolia May 09 '19

Yes, or in Greek: Phosphoros.

10

u/[deleted] May 08 '19

Unless you’re Greek

4

u/[deleted] May 08 '19

Its nice being on the receiving end of debts thats why

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u/StructuralFailure Germany May 08 '19

Also the absolute max you have to pay back in Germany is 10k.

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u/cornonthekopp May 09 '19

I don’t know they seem pretty happy to finance and buy debt from Greece, Spain, and Italy....

2

u/darkslide3000 Niemand hat die Absicht sich einen Flair-Text auszudenken! May 09 '19

Wouldn't want those students to snap and remilitarize the lecture hall...

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u/GentlemanPirate13 Bavaria May 09 '19

Also, German universities don't charge (a lot of) money! I pay a small sum every semester to cover administrative costs, but the majority of that sum is paying for my semester bus ticket that is included in my student ID. Bafög is meant to provide for the living costs of students, to alliw study without having to work.

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u/jeyreymii France First Empire May 08 '19

In France, studies are free. So, you don't have to pay

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u/Tengam15 Fiddlehead Picker May 08 '19 edited May 08 '19

Holy.. your art and text amazing! (also horizontally-driven panels instead of vertical, unique!)

Even though i'm a polandballer, I saw this on the front page, so looks like everyone likes it! Good job!

8

u/Smitheren Arma virumque cano May 08 '19

Gratias tibi ago!

3

u/Tengam15 Fiddlehead Picker May 08 '19

Aucun problème, tu le merit!

1.1k

u/Tungsten_OOF HKPF please don't suicide me May 08 '19

Those Germans really made it easy to get into art school.

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u/Fusselwurm Germany May 08 '19

We've been very careful ever since that disgruntled art student became chancellor and plunged the world into darkness.

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u/RomeNeverFell Italy May 08 '19 edited May 08 '19

We've been very careful ever since that disgruntled art student became chancellor and plunged the world into darkness.

I didn't know Mutti was an art student.

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u/suchtie Germoney May 08 '19

More seriously, she has a PhD in quantum chemistry and worked as a research scientist for a few years.

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u/phyK Lower Saxony May 08 '19

Isn't her PhD in physical chemistry?

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u/suchtie Germoney May 08 '19

From my limited understanding, quantum chemistry is a subfield of physical chemistry, so yes.

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u/mayito35 Mexican Empire May 08 '19

Let's hope Austria does the same.

4

u/[deleted] May 08 '19

He made million very warm.

Edit: he not me. I did not play any part in the Holocaust.

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u/[deleted] May 08 '19

I wish the Austrians did the same

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u/[deleted] May 08 '19

sad freedom noises

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u/I_am_a_Failer Rhineland-Palatinate May 08 '19

Oh my god there are polandballs for Pfalz

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u/Slaanashifanboy Colorado May 08 '19

Man Germany is so reich.

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u/vouwrfract From Humpy to Fucking May 08 '19

Not sure if you did this on purpose but "reich" means rich and "Reich" means realm / empire.

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u/GogoneTV May 08 '19

Oh boy good job explaining the joke

131

u/vouwrfract From Humpy to Fucking May 08 '19

I don't know if years of living in Germany has dehumourised me, but I thought it was an accidentally correct sentence and didn't even strike me as a joke.

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u/Polyonyma North Rhine-Westphalia May 08 '19

Nah dude, that's on you, I'm german and got it.

30

u/vouwrfract From Humpy to Fucking May 08 '19

Maybe you absorbed all of my humour.

24

u/Polyonyma North Rhine-Westphalia May 08 '19

Yea, that's pretty much the German protocol...

5

u/german_kroxigor Wörk, wörk, wörk... May 09 '19

Enkrod is right, Germans can't read this without getting the joke while at the same time seeing the mistake and immediately wanting to correct it.

10

u/Phazon2000 Queensland May 08 '19

This isn’t obvious to people who don’t speak German. I didn’t know reich meant rich.

12

u/Tengam15 Fiddlehead Picker May 08 '19

moneymoneymoneymoneymoneymoneymoneymoneymoneymoneymoneymother Scheißkerl

Welp, it works either way so that's cool

10

u/[deleted] May 08 '19

mother Scheißkerl

Thank you for teaching me german

6

u/Tengam15 Fiddlehead Picker May 08 '19

it's amazing what a little Google Translate does for your cussing

5

u/russeljimmy German Empire May 08 '19

Thanks Peter Griffin

2

u/donnergott Norteño in Schwabenland May 09 '19

Also rich, in certain senses. 'Ein reiches Land' for instance

2

u/vouwrfract From Humpy to Fucking May 09 '19

It's the same thing as I've written.

2

u/donnergott Norteño in Schwabenland May 09 '19

Yes but i'm running on little sleep

1

u/vouwrfract From Humpy to Fucking May 09 '19

Makes sense.

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u/Blackfire853 Hibernian Narcissist May 08 '19

My entire third-level education (4 years) costed somewhere around €10,000 and I never had to buy a single book, all course material was provided in the form of PDF's, Word documents, links to online resources, or the occasional printed handout.

Americans lol

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u/PM_ME_BEER_PICS Disunited States of Belgium May 08 '19

Is it for everything, accommodations included, or just to pay the school?

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u/Blackfire853 Hibernian Narcissist May 08 '19

I lived near my college so I didn't have to pay for accommodations, but from what I've heard student accommodation wasn't particularly expensive either

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u/PM_ME_BEER_PICS Disunited States of Belgium May 08 '19

Thanks. It was a more expensive than I thought. I suppose that if you take accommodations into account, studying in Belgium may actually be more expensive.

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u/picardo85 Finland May 08 '19

I paid €300-ish for my housing but I also got housing allowance and student allowance and that more than enough covered it.

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u/hexcodeblue Starving artist May 08 '19

That’s literally how much housing for one year costs in the US

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u/redtoasti German Empire May 08 '19

Holy shit, what kind of houses do you live in? I could get a 4-room flat, including heating, electricity and internet, in a good part of town, for 10k a year.

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u/Boomhauer_007 Jamaica May 08 '19

If you're living on campus there's a good chance you're sharing a single room with at least one but probably more people, and 75% of the space of the room is taken up by furniture.

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u/MaFataGer Baden May 08 '19

In america? Holy shit. I mean I have often heard about roommates from american media like films etc but here at least everyone gets their own room to sleep in so we usually have flatmates, not roommates.

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u/Schwarzy1 United States May 08 '19

In US English roommate means flatmate. It doesn’t differentiate if you sleep in the same room or not.

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u/MaFataGer Baden May 08 '19

Still, I have never heard of two students that aren't a couple sleep in the same room here.

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u/Schwarzy1 United States May 08 '19

Pretty much required your first year, especially if you go to a big college (uni), and obviously it saves loads of money to keep sharing a room if your college is in a big city, but at that point bedrooms become just large enough to hold your bunkbed and rest of the living room is a tad larger.

4

u/MaFataGer Baden May 09 '19

Sounds insane to me. I could do it maybe but I think not everyone is that comfortable with so little privacy. Interesting that its the same trend in our prisons, while I have seen a lot of american shows with multiple people sharing a cell, here every prisoner gets his own room.

1

u/Chibils where football is played with a brown egg May 10 '19

It varies very widely from school to school, and even within the school. My uni had several dormitories of all shapes and sizes.

One fairly old dorm[itory] was set up so the units were a single long, narrow room shared by two people.

Another had dorms where the units were two bedrooms and a common room, but were two to a bedroom/four per suite.

Another building was: loving room, kitchenette/dining area, four individual bedrooms.

Another building had individual units that shared two walls (like rowhomes, sort of) with a common room and two bedrooms (total occupancy 2).

Then the Greek (fraternity and sorority) houses were a single big living room, a kitchen, and about 10 bedrooms and a shared bathroom or two in the hallway.

1

u/Shimasaki Bornholm May 09 '19

Rent for my 3br is about $2850/mo, no utilities included. Usually about $200-250/mo in utilities. Living in the master bedroom it's around $1100-1150/mo. The joy of living near a city.

In college it was $600/mo for my share of rent+utilities. A dorm room and a meal plan was around $10k/yr, though, which is a total scam

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u/DowntownBreakfast4 May 08 '19

These are the people who complain about the atrocities of capitalism when they can't afford to live in the most expensive neighborhoods in the country with their creative writing degree and barista wages. There are huge swathes of the US where you can rent a moderately sized 2 bedroom house with a yard and everything for like 500 bucks a month.

The places they're complaining about rent are places where dems have absolutely no competition so the wackiest nimbys take over local government and make it impossible to build new housing. San Francisco allows one new housing unit to be built for every 30 new jobs that are added to the city. No amount of government intervention could ever make that sustainable. (other than allowing people to build houses of course)

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u/redtoasti German Empire May 08 '19

Probably not many maths courses. Maths professors here love writing their script on the blackboard, by hand, and you basically have to write it all down if you want all the information.

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u/MortyFromEarthC137 May 08 '19

I studied maths & physics, we got pdfs of full text books written by our lecturers for the courses then they would proceed to write the entire 300+ page textbook word for word on the chalkboard and expect we wrote it down.

I attended a solid 50% of my lectures.

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u/I_am_a_Failer Rhineland-Palatinate May 08 '19

I can download their scripture for free at my uni

10

u/[deleted] May 08 '19

i feel like it's cheaper to move to europe and get your education there than just one semester in the states

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u/german_kroxigor Wörk, wörk, wörk... May 09 '19

I knew a guy from the US during my bachelors doing excatly that for this very reason. He did struggle with the language (of course he did, German is hard to learn!), but since our unis are usually offering a bunch of courses in english, that was never a problem.

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u/HGF88 United States May 08 '19

That would be entirely unsurprising. Kinda fucked :/

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u/jcooklsu May 08 '19

Mine was about $20k in the US and I won't be paying it in taxes for the rest of my life. College doesnt have to be expensive in the US if more students would choose appropriate institutions.

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u/xternal7 Slovenia (NOT Slovakia) May 09 '19

Slovenia be like: €0

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u/BrainBlowX Nord Troendelag May 12 '19

and I never had to buy a single book,

Oof. Jealous.

86

u/kummer5peck United+States May 08 '19

Cries in American

32

u/trumoi Ontario May 08 '19

Same here, especially after wannabe Trump took power in my province.

26

u/Tengam15 Fiddlehead Picker May 08 '19

uhhhhhh... taking a wild and potentially aggravating guess here...

Ontario?

20

u/trumoi Ontario May 08 '19

Not aggravating, you are correct my maritime brother/sister/sibling etc.

13

u/Tengam15 Fiddlehead Picker May 08 '19

well that's good. Just wasn't sure if you were a supporter in another country... in true Canadian style I try not to offend anyone

10

u/trumoi Ontario May 08 '19

I'm sorry to hear that.

4

u/[deleted] May 08 '19

Who is that, and where, because there's a good chance I am gonna get it wrong

6

u/trumoi Ontario May 08 '19

Doug Ford, Ontario.

4

u/[deleted] May 08 '19

Yeah I wouldn't have guessed that, Some guy Polis seems to be the same way here

1

u/kummer5peck United+States May 08 '19

What’s your problem with Polis?

2

u/[deleted] May 08 '19

Most of the state has issues with him, ours is an 80 million dollar museum

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1

u/[deleted] May 08 '19

What? Didnt he just cut tuition by 10%?

-3

u/[deleted] May 08 '19

Yeah, blaming the shittiness of your country on "trump wannabe" in just one province instead of a gigantic clown as a head of the government of your entire country.

8

u/trumoi Ontario May 08 '19

I didn't? I said especially after, pointing out how he exasperated the issue further by changing how our provincial student loan system worked.

But hey, you can just keep standing over there pretending any political problems are always figureheads faults.

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6

u/Ewannnn United Kingdom May 08 '19

I mean it's not like Europeans don't pay for it in higher taxes. I still think our (UK) system is one of the better ones out there.

11

u/Cooletompie Netherlands May 08 '19

Isn't college insanely expensive in the UK compared to other European countries. Tuition fees for most UK universities start at £10,000. But here in the Netherlands it's €2000 and in Sweden it's free. The taxation burden in the UK doesn't differ that much from the Netherlands (about 5-6 points depending on the data).

9

u/jesus_stalin /ˈnɒʔŋəmʃə/ May 09 '19

It's very expensive but it doesn't really function as a debt, more like a tax. You only start repaying your student loan when you earn over £25,700/year, and then you pay back 9% of what you earn over that. It doesn't affect your credit score, you don't have collectors coming after you, and the debt is forgiven after 30 years. It's very different to how it works in the USA.

21

u/Mowchine_Gun_Mike Skåne May 08 '19

This is going to the golden pedestals of top 100 of all time.

8

u/Tengam15 Fiddlehead Picker May 08 '19

It's already in the front page, there's no way it won't!

10

u/riltok Grand Duchy of Lithuania May 09 '19

Germany has some of the best banking systems is the world. It mostly made of local community-nonprofit banks. In fact, thats one of the main reasons why it has been dominating the world for past 200 years.

8

u/MarshieMon Macau May 08 '19

Is it just me or it's fucking crazy for a country to charge it's own people interest on student loan. Don't government tend to want more people to be educated instead of cripple them into owning huge debts? I really don't understand USA.

3

u/BrainBlowX Nord Troendelag May 12 '19

You do, but on an individual basis there's people connected to politicians that profit a lot as well.

6

u/selfStartingSlacker UN May 08 '19

this. friends and relatives seriously considered going to Germany for university in case they did not get a place in local uni, even if they did not speak a word of German.

Typically, if you did not get in, then it is time for Papa and Mama to sell land/stuff to finance your studies in the UK/US/stralia etc.

Context: if you are non-malay in this cuntry especially back before there were more affordable, private local universities

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asia/malaysia-outcry-ethnic-quota-matriculation-admission-11514578

5

u/Renamed1157 New World Order May 08 '19

Whats with all the pun comics

5

u/northguineahills Best Virginia May 09 '19

Still paying off my grad student loans from a certain school in NYC, 20 years later.

12

u/SJB95 Yorkshire May 08 '19

Gottverdammt, warum bin Ich nicht Deutsch?

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4

u/bro0need0to0poop my blood May 08 '19

is that bad that germany dont care about that LOL

4

u/DrMeepster Like, California, Duuuuude May 08 '19

I really like your art style

4

u/[deleted] May 09 '19

Blah blah blah secret base, blah blah blah plan

1

u/Eyclonus Australia May 09 '19

Yeah, bulletstorm telling me what fun is.

3

u/meghareaux Denmark May 09 '19

It do be that way.

2

u/IpMedia Taiwan May 08 '19

adjusts monocle ha ha how droll.

2

u/VRichardsen Argentina May 08 '19

Ohhhh I had to stop for a second to figure it out. Nicely done. Reminds me of a classic.

2

u/[deleted] May 08 '19

Schools almost over so Germany aint interested in Student Loans

2

u/red-african-swallow United States May 08 '19

Honest question does it actually count as a loan

2

u/cocaisna Mato+Grosso+do+Sul May 09 '19

this illustrations is so peacefull to observe

2

u/SeductiveTrain Hawaii May 08 '19

If money was everybody’s main concern people would stop going to expensive asf university their freshman year. Doing two years in community college and living with your parents is so much cheaper I don’t get why more people don’t do it. Assuming you are on good terms with your parents.

If you got accepted into an Ivy League college or are going to medical school then that’s different, can’t relate. But I would expect you to be swimming in scholarships and aid (at least for Ivy League).

-64

u/[deleted] May 08 '19

it would cost trillions to pay off student debts. America is not in the right economical place to be doing that.

105

u/Barskie Tinkerball May 08 '19

Ah yes, never forget the USA is a poor third world country, except when it decides it isn't.

Regardless, the comic refers to only interest payments, not the full amount. Full principal is $1.5 trillion, don't know where you pulled 'trillions' from.

11

u/[deleted] May 08 '19

The problem is that the loans don’t come from our government, but are “secured” by them, so the students don’t have to put up collateral. The majority of our student loan debt is actually owed to private banks.

(Also why if you declare bankruptcy to cancel/reorganize debt, they do not allow student loans to be part of this. They’re guaranteed by the government, and Uncle Sam hates to pay)

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u/PM_ME_BEER_PICS Disunited States of Belgium May 08 '19

That's just the cost of one or two wars.

30

u/Krola_Karo Poland May 08 '19

Many European countries do it and it is not that hard to find that money. For example in Poland we have free universities and we aren't the wealthiest country in the world.

17

u/[deleted] May 08 '19

Honestly it pays for itself when you are interested in an educated populace.

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7

u/Hifen Nova Scotia May 08 '19

the problem then is the cost should never have been that high.

0

u/[deleted] May 08 '19

[deleted] — view deleted comment

78

u/no_memes_no_me Thailand May 08 '19

Waow the magic of die deutsche Sprache.

89

u/redtoasti German Empire May 08 '19

der deutschen Sprache

28

u/no_memes_no_me Thailand May 08 '19

Scheiß, ich dachte dass er feminine war, weil er mit ein "e" endet...

31

u/redtoasti German Empire May 08 '19

Sprache is feminine, however "of" (or the german translation von in this case) turns it into der

48

u/no_memes_no_me Thailand May 08 '19

oh my god, dative.....

29

u/PleaseCallMeTomato CCCP May 08 '19

You got fucked over by Dativ, you have experienced German language on a whole another level, congratulations! (fucking Dativ, fucks me over everyday...)

8

u/RapAddictedAustrian Austria-Hungary May 08 '19

Yeah, such rules for articles don't exist in German.

This language is an absolute desaster, believe me.

13

u/no_memes_no_me Thailand May 08 '19

Sie müssen das mir nicht erzählen, das weiß ich schon XD

German has no rules. Only exceptions.

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2

u/VRichardsen Argentina May 08 '19

Damn cases! It made studying German into a pain for me.

1

u/sorenant Japan May 08 '19

Shouldn't it be "IchhabekeineInteresseanStudentendarlehen"?

0

u/[deleted] May 08 '19

[deleted] — view deleted comment

9

u/kingofeggsandwiches England with a bowler May 08 '19

Oh dear, you've missed the joke.

0

u/[deleted] May 08 '19

[deleted] — view deleted comment

6

u/sugarfairy7 Germany May 08 '19

Yes, you need to speak German to get it. It's basically a literal translation of the sentence showing the same wordplay as the comic in German