Should the government forgive student loans at least in part?

[msc545]

The US government is proposing to forgive student loans up to $10,000 and in some cases more. Many people object to this, and many others are in favor of it. What do you think?

Updates

+1 y

Interesting - bail-outs to large corporations in the millions of dollars are OK, but a lousy $10,000 forgiveness of a predatory load isn't?

[goaded]

I think it's a good thing. The forgiveness only goes to people earning less than $125,000 a year, and it's $10,000 unless you received a Pell grant, meaning you weren't well off when you started. The money will help the economy much more than corporate tax cuts.

[SomeGuyCalledTom]

And how many university graduates do you know making more than 125 grand a year?

[msc545]

@SomeGuyCalledTom most of us.

[goaded]

@SomeGuyCalledTom Exactly! The right is claiming it's all for "the elite", but students from wealthy families likely won't have any debt, they could afford their tuition out of pocket. Graduates with really well paying jobs don't need the forgiveness. It's all for the others out there. There are some people still paying off their student debt in their 60's!

[MiseriaCantareAFI]

Yes!

[DaveJord]

Honestly forgiving student loans is not the answer. See the real problem is the cost of education in this country. What has spurred the increase of education? Simple answer is that college cost so much because the amount of Federal and State Student grants and loans. When ever the government increases the amount of grants or amounts for qualified student loans colleges increase the cost of education. We have state colleges in this country in which the actual states put no caps on the cost of tuition. These state colleges and university get state money and grants, and then charge whatever they want without having to answer to the state or the tax payers.

So you start getting into loan forgiveness all you are going to do is increasing the future cost for education. If they know you will be forgiven for 10,000 in student loans they will just increase the cost of college. So even though I am happy that this issue is getting attention, its just another example of how Biden and Democrat's pander to their constituents by giving way money to buy votes without doing anything substantial to address the really problem. Like increasing minimum wages then crying about inflation... this is another thing that will increase inflation and just make it harder on those of us that have good credit and struggle to get out from under debt to borrow money, while they give away hand outs to others that couldn't surmount the obstacles.

What about all those who managed to pay off their student loans do we get some type of cash back on that investment? No we just pay more taxes on it for others to get free handouts.

This time though Dems are targeting the college educated types... so lets hope they are not so ignorant to not see through the bullshit. But on the other hand Republican would do nothing at all and let it keep going the way its been going... so at least the Dems did something even though its pitiful. It is better then nothing, but this is just another example as to why our system is fucked and why the American Dream is dead.

www.forbes.com/advisor/student-loans/college-tuition-inflation/#:~:text=In%201980%2C%20the%20price%20to,That%27s%20a%20180%25%20increase.

In 1980, the price to attend a four-year college full-time was $10,231 annually—including tuition, fees, room and board, and adjusted for inflation—according to the National Center for Education Statistics. By 2019-20, the total price increased to $28,775. That's a 180%

[msc545]

You missed the part about the influence of for-profit "colleges" like DeVry and ITT that existed solely to receive government student loan money and are now out of business after making fortunes for their owners. The government totally failed to regulate these criminals, and many people have HUGE student loan debt as a result.

[DaveJord]

Lol... like Trump University? You are correct.

[msc545]

and MANY others.

[DaveJord]

Honestly I think we will go back to the days of technical or trade schools. Remember the days when you could get a job and work if or 20 years and earn a pentation. Oh wait, that's right the government failed to regulate the unions who then sold the money out of pension funds and left their employees high a dry and still avoided jail.

So now they say we need degrees and there are no pension plan, just 401k's which is another way of legal robbery. Corporations pay a miserable percentage in matching funds, then lock up your money for decades while they reinvest it and make millions while you acquire pennies on the dollars and you still pay the taxes on it later... while they pay less to no taxes and social security fails. Why not just make these Corporation pay an additional 5% into social security and let you decide how to invest your money? Oh... wait let me stop here before I spill the beans to the rest of the America.

[Goforit1010]

"... forgive student loans at least in part?"

No. Not only no, but HELL NO!

1. The President does NOT have the authority to forgive a student loan. Its 150% unconstitutional, and that jackass knows it.

2. There's no such thing as a student loan forgiveness. The loan would be transferred from the student to the US taxpayers. This is effectively enacting a tax on the citizens of the country WITHOUT Congressional approval (one of the reasons it's unconstitutional).

3. These individuals took out a loan, with the full knowledge they'd have to repay it. That's THEIR responsibility, not so the Democrat idiot in the White House can foist it upon others.

4. The SCOTUS WILL reverse this Executive Order, causing all sorts of weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth from the stupid leftists who just "know" the SCOTUS is wrong. This will also start all sorts of riots and innocent businesses will get their property destroyed and products stolen. It'll also be a prelude to the '24 election that Democrats will run on (even though they know student loan forgiveness will never happen). But those lies will help dupe enough people to vote D in '24.

Wake up people. Use your head. READ the US Constitution. Biden overstepped his authority, and he KNOWS that. The Democrats are counting on you useless idiots to simply act out and scream and fight and act like a 2yr old having a melt-down. Be the adult you claim to be and use your head.

[lightbulb27]

I haven't studied it nor heard a good justification, so I don't know. Why are they doing this and for whom? Why not adjust their rates instead or defer them? It isn't fair to people who sacrafice and work hard to pay their debts. This is the problem with "socialism" and the crony capitalism we have. Both parties are guilty of abuses.

To be fair, the govt has been "bailing out" failed entities for long time starting with LTCM, banks in 2008 and such... print money and hand it out. They bailed out investors since 2008 and now we all pay for it. Now they are bailing out some people who made bad decisions? okay...

If you don't want the debt, don't take the loan. If the jobs aren't there then ok, but seems we can't find workers. So I don't understand.

The problem with this is mentality. If I don't have to pay them loans, if I think the govt is backstopping me (ala stock market investors)... if the Fed chairman has a "put" on my investments, then I will take more risk and waste YOUR money since why should I care. Same goes for any loan.

It's further decay in my view, but justified... don't know.

[lightbulb27]

Isn’t this like really saying ‘ the value we’ve provided… was not worth it economically speaking’?

[RealMarek]

No, it is a terrible idea for the government to forgive the loans because it encourages the educational institutions to jack up tuition even more and is highly inflationary. If the USG hadn’t backstopped all student loans as part of the ACA, it would allow the banks to get away with making bad loans consequence free. But they were already protected before this loan forgiveness.

That said, I do think action needs to be taken: Make the colleges pay off the loans of anyone who cannot find full-time employment in their degreed field of study out of college endowments. This would put an end to a corrupt system overnight, and the institutions that replace the current ones would avoid the moral hazard of enabling an inflationary spiral and bloated administration (vs teaching) positions through excessive loans and grants. It would also eliminate one of the power centers of the globalist neo-liberal elite.

[AviatorTom]

It is going to cost taxpayers up to $500 billion and increase the national debt. On economic grounds alone, it's a dumb idea. On moral grounds, why limit it to $10 thousand ($20 thousand for Pell grants) with an income cutoff of $125 thousand, just for political gains for the Democrats? Let's hope it gets shot down by the courts. It's not legislation, it's an Executive Order, and oversteps the powers the President has per the US Constitution.

[FilmGuy93]

Not for the education that has been provided, no. The only way the taxpayer has an incentive to pay student loan debt is if college educations were providing students with the means to start businesses and create opportunities for the working class. Because that isn't happening student debt is the students' decision.

[KrakenAttackin]

Hell no. College students need to be educated about what it means to incur the dental and universities need to held accountable for controlling costs.

The more money is spent on something the more expensive it gets over time.

[20yearsolder]

Have no problem with it as long as I don't get taxed extra to pay for it

[20yearsolder]

Let's just say you have $80,000 worth of student loan, 10 grand isn't going to make much difference. 10 grand going to a cancer patient may save their home. 10 grand to a small business might keep the doors open and some employees employed. Somebody needs to explain to these kids that when you sign up to go to college there's going to be an extremely large debt. Is the career path you chose going to make you enough money to pay off your student loans?

[Friendlybro79]

@20yearsolder I don't mind the student loan forgiveness to get young people out of debt so they can help save elsewhere buy our homes one day. That said I agree with the part about where other people could benefit from having 10k as well. The larger issue is that most people need to have less debt and make more money. Less debt can come from having more money but big companies that employ a large amount of Americans have to cough up some profits so us plebians can survive.

Also to your point young people need help with directing them into an education that can leave them with a better opportunity to find a decent job. College no matter what degree however should not cost this much. Everything is designed to keep is I'm debt our entire lives.

[SomeGuyCalledTom]

No such thing as "forgiving" student loans, their repayment just gets reshuffled out to the working class taxpayers. Which doesn't exactly help reduce animosity between the working class and the mostly-middle class university students.

[Googlemyahoo]

Instead of forgiving loans why not make education free

[Jamie05rhs]

🎯 #nailedit

[Dargil]

No. How about forgiving my credit card, car payment and mortgage?

[exitseven]

If they can get the colleges to take a haircut I would be OK with it. Putting taxpayers on the hook for the debts of others is tantamount to thievery .

[Jamie05rhs]

I am against bailouts of any kind. They incentivize recklessness.

[maximumpower]

In general - nope.
You take out the loan, you pay it back.
Only exceptions have to do with specific public or government service - especially in hardship fields.

[Gangactivities911]

No because we are almost 30 trillion dollars in debt and if we don’t balance our budget out country will actually end.

[jshm2]

Americans students tend to be largely stupid.

They may have a second rate education, but first rate pigheaded ignorance of how the world works.

[msc545]

You know this how, exactly?

[KrakenAttackin]

@msc545. I will say the quality of secondary education has gone down with many institutions becoming degree mills, while the costs has gone up.

[msc545]

@KrakenAttackin The quality of secondary education has certainly declined precipitously. The quality of college education has declined with the advent of online education, unfortunately.

[KrakenAttackin]

@msc545 Agree completely.

[Sargentcaptain]

Theft is never a good thing.

[Anonymous]

You borrow you pay unless you die or go bankrupt

[Shamalien]

Fuck that

[fireforeffect]

No, not at all.