Right now we have around 1.5T in outstanding student debt. If all of this debt were to be cancelled, who would be left holding the bag? What would that do to the economy? IMO if we cancel all student debt, this would seriously rock our economy because we suddenly decided to take 1.5T in debt assets out of the economy.
Student Loans. Medical Debt. Criminal Justice Fees. Cancel It All.
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Re: Student Loans. Medical Debt. Criminal Justice Fees. Cancel It All.
#12Cancelling student debt won't solve the student debt problem, unless we stop giving out student loans.
Cancelling student debt would pretty much immediately stop new loans. I don't see how another loan for the same amount could be granted afterwards.
Re: Student Loans. Medical Debt. Criminal Justice Fees. Cancel It All.
#13The terminology of "cancelling" the debt is the most dishonest, twisted abuse of the English language.
There is no "cancelling" debt. There's only forcing other people to pay.
The incentives here are entirely backwards. All the people who made good decisions around cost-benefit of their education, all the people who made frugal choices, all the people who worked hard for the delayed gratification of their long-term planning get penalized and have to pick up the tab for the people who spent 4 years partying without any concern about cost of their education or lifestyle.
This is just so evil, it's insane that people have been tricked by the terminology making it sound it's a morally good choice. Imagine if we instead cancelled car loans or mortgages- everybody who's driving a honda or renting an apartment now (through taxes) shares the burden of paying off the Ferrarri's and mansions, but they're still driving their junker while the people who had chosen to load themselves with debt get to enjoy their sports cars and houses.
Re: Student Loans. Medical Debt. Criminal Justice Fees. Cancel It All.
#14> Historians sometimes refer to it as “jubilee,” a term used for household debt forgiveness decrees in ancient Israel that were similar to debt forgiveness in ancient Egypt, Babylon, and elsewhere. The widespread existence of this type of debt forgiveness in antiquity profoundly attests to the universality and persistence of this debt accumulation issue. It's important to note that Jubilee was not at all the same as…
At least in the Jewish version the law also said you can't take into account the nearness of the the jubilee to not make a loan. I'm not sure if/how much that was respected though.
Re: Student Loans. Medical Debt. Criminal Justice Fees. Cancel It All.
#15Okay, NYT, you start. Make your work free.
(It's an NYT opinion piece, so straight into the garbage it goes, but it's written by Astra Taylor, who I value for her contributions to unschooling way back when, but since it's not free, I can't be bothered)
Re: Student Loans. Medical Debt. Criminal Justice Fees. Cancel It All.
#16Unlike the rest student loans are taken out by choice (you can’t accidentally be hit by a university or be mistakenly accepted to an expensive school). I don’t see why people that made bad choices should be bailed out while I made better choices yet continue to suffer.
Re: Student Loans. Medical Debt. Criminal Justice Fees. Cancel It All.
#17Student debt is the epitome of rent-seeking. You can't even discharge it with bankruptcy. Cancel it.
Re: Student Loans. Medical Debt. Criminal Justice Fees. Cancel It All.
#18Cancelling student debt won't solve the student debt problem, unless we stop giving out student loans.
Its worse than that, its a lottery. Those graduates who have already paid off their debt, lose. Those soon-to-be students who have to pay high tuition, also lose. Indeed, since colleges will see loan forgiveness as an option, tuitions will rise.
> Those soon-to-be students who have to pay high tuition, also lose.
There's a significant number who would not afford tuition and not apply. Universities would lose a lot students unless they changed fees significantly.
If it's a proper reset on the debts, we can't expect everything to continue working as before.
Re: Student Loans. Medical Debt. Criminal Justice Fees. Cancel It All.
#19> Historians sometimes refer to it as “jubilee,” a term used for household debt forgiveness decrees in ancient Israel that were similar to debt forgiveness in ancient Egypt, Babylon, and elsewhere. The widespread existence of this type of debt forgiveness in antiquity profoundly attests to the universality and persistence of this debt accumulation issue. It's important to note that Jubilee was not at all the same as…
At least in the Jewish version the law also said you can't take into account the nearness of the the jubilee to not make a loan. I'm not sure if/how much that was respected though.
>you can't take into account the nearness of the the jubilee to not make a loan
What's preventing you from getting a huge loan 1 day before the jubilee?
Re: Student Loans. Medical Debt. Criminal Justice Fees. Cancel It All.
#20The terminology of "cancelling" the debt is the most dishonest, twisted abuse of the English language. There is no "cancelling" debt. There's only forcing other people to pay. The incentives here are entirely backwards. All the people who made good decisions around cost-benefit of their education, all the people who made frugal choices, all the people who worked hard for the delayed gratification of their long-term p…
That's a lot of supposition. Who has to pick up the tab? Unless you're a large loan conglomerate, I'm not sure you're picking up any tab.
In a rational economic system those arguments should hold water. We have nothing like that now. Paying attention to the last 20 years of egregious hoarding of wealth should make that clear.
Ignoring the strawmen, the systems at issue (school debt, medical debt and government debt) are nothing like a free market. They are so highly regulated, the abuses so entrenched, its reasonable to consider changing them.