In this episode of Fascinating!, Rik from Planet Vulcan, along with senior editor Prego de Nada, unpacks yet another disastrous social engineering project: the student loan crisis. With dry humor and keen analysis, Rik walks us through the history of student loans, which began as a small, well-intentioned but panic-driven initiative under the National Defense Education Act. Originally designed to fund a select group of students, the program ballooned into a massive system of unsustainable debt that now burdens millions of young borrowers.
Prego explores how this program, much like the redlining of mortgage markets, was intended to manage risk but instead created a shitstorm of unintended consequences. Tuition soared, degrees lost value, and the ideological hijacking of education left students without the skills to repay their debts. Join Rik as he dives into the folly of central planning and asks: How many more fine messes will Earthlings create before they finally learn to let markets evolve naturally?
