Debt game npr

Suicide has been the leading cause of death among young people for years. These themes are also treated in director Bong Joon-ho's Academy Award-winning film Parasite , and his flick Snowpiercer. In the former, a working-class family uses deception to become employees of an affluent one.

In the latter, lower-class passengers at the rear of a train fight their way to the front cars, inhabited by the wealthy. The critic Kim says that Squid Game conveys South Koreans' feelings of dehumanization through visual metaphors. Kim says that economic pressures have left many young Koreans feeling trapped, and without hope of advancement, a theme reflected in Squid Game's deadly competition among the players. They lost the experience of personal growth.

They felt no empathy with their peers. Chief among South Koreans' concerns are skyrocketing housing prices. Candidates running for president in the election in March have vowed to address issues like the country's economic disparities and affordable housing. And on both of these counts, despite all their dystopian anxieties, South Koreans are faring better than the United States. Search Query Show Search. Local News. Community Calendar. Show Search Search Query.

Play Live Radio. Next Up:. Available On Air Stations. All Streams. NPR News. By Kelsey Snell. It's a welcome relief for more than 41 million Americans with federal student loan debt.

They now have three extra months to get ready to start making their payments. We called up a few borrowers to get their reactions, including two in California that we're going to hear from now. Here's Elsa Cavazos, who lives in Los Angeles and is juggling several loans at the same time.

And, I mean, I was mentally preparing myself to do that in January, you know, like, OK, here we go again laughter. We're already kind of talking about, oh, how are we going to be able to afford that monthly bill again? We called Betsy Mayotte for some advice. She's the founder of the Institute of Student Loan Advisors, a nonprofit that offers free counseling to borrowers.

And Betsy Betsy Mayotte joins us now. You know, a year and nine months is a long time for many borrowers who had a break from paying off these loans. With this extra 90 days, what should borrowers be doing right now ahead of their first repayment? For those borrowers who are struggling financially to prepare, the best thing they can do is make sure they know what kind of loans they have.

Get an idea of what their payment will be once the payment pause is lifted and if they're going to need some help figure out which option is going to fit their particular financial circumstances the best.

What if someone can't afford to start paying their monthly bill coming? What should they do? Some of them are based on the balance. And some of them are based on the borrower's income. Thankfully, there are a couple of really good tools out there to help borrowers figure out not only what their payment will be under each of those plans, but almost more importantly, how much they'll pay in the long run under each of those plans.

So one of those is the loan simulator on the Department of Ed's website, which is studentaid. And then we also have a calculator that does that on our website, which is freestudentloanadvice. It can help you kind of game out the system of monthly and how much you'd pay overall? And if you're someone that's pursuing a loan forgiveness programs such as Public Service Loan Forgiveness, both of those calculators will also tell you whether you'd stand to get forgiveness in the long run, which is great.

And you only have to put the numbers in once, and it spits all this back out at you, so you can compare the different plans with each other right in front of you. NADWORNY: You know, as we inch closer and closer to repayment, we're starting to see more student loan-related scams on social media and in your email inbox.