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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.

#51

Post by legitster »

rjbwork wrote: post #21

Great let's do it. And of course, my parents, who paid tens of thousands of dollars for my tuition, and I, who have paid off tens of thousands of dollars of student loan debt will be reimbursed for our absolute stupidity in being financially responsible, right?

On the other hand, I received free tuition at college but took out the maximum amount of subsidized Stafford loans (at the time, they were pretty close to free money) so I could have a comfier college lifestyle and only pay off the minimum each month.

I could really make out like gangbusters on this thing.

Re: Student Loans. Medical Debt. Criminal Justice Fees. Cancel It All.

#52

Post by gruez »

thatfrenchguy wrote: post #50
floor2 wrote: post #13

The 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…

> There is no "cancelling" debt. There's only forcing other people to pay. Not really, given that in the US, the central bank could just take over those public loans, not collect on them, and likely not much would happen. They’ve already proven that during Covid with corporate bonds. The real issue with cancelling student loans is that it doesn’t fix the tuition cost for the next generation. We need a 20-year tuition…

>Not really, given that in the US, the central bank could just take over those public loans, not collect on them, and likely not much would happen.

Isn't that just helicopter money with extra steps?

Re: Student Loans. Medical Debt. Criminal Justice Fees. Cancel It All.

#53

Post by bluGill »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #20
floor2 wrote: post #13

The 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)…

My retirement is invested into a large collection of companies, some of which own these loans. I fully expect that this will cost me. If I had instead not invested for my future and just partied hard I'd be better off.

Re: Student Loans. Medical Debt. Criminal Justice Fees. Cancel It All.

#54

Post by jvanderbot »

deregulateMed wrote: post #40
faitswulff wrote: post #17

Student debt is the epitome of rent-seeking. You can't even discharge it with bankruptcy. Cancel it.

I like democracy, but you see this and wonder how many people are short sighted (answer- most people). Maybe we really do need AI overlords. Op- you haven't attempted to think of the repercussions of such an event. If you want to weigh pros and cons, you can. For everyone else, is today's candy of free college worth a collapse of faith in our financial system? Is it better to get rid of college debt and have people n…

This debate confuses public debt with private debt. I doubt USA is going to tell someone else they cannot collect a debt. But as a creditor, USA has the option to call a loan of its own lending forgiven. See Public Student Loan Forgiveness for precedent.

Re: Student Loans. Medical Debt. Criminal Justice Fees. Cancel It All.

#56

Post by ferrisford »

rjbwork wrote: post #21

Great let's do it. And of course, my parents, who paid tens of thousands of dollars for my tuition, and I, who have paid off tens of thousands of dollars of student loan debt will be reimbursed for our absolute stupidity in being financially responsible, right?

The only thing fair in life is a ball hit between first and third.

Re: Student Loans. Medical Debt. Criminal Justice Fees. Cancel It All.

#57

Post by viraptor »

adamsvystun wrote: post #22
viraptor wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I think you are misunderstanding what people mean by "cancelling debt". They don't mean they will force lenders to suffer a loss, they mean that government will cover the debt.

If the gov actually decided that the current situation is not sustainable and it's better for everyone to cut the losses and cover everything... why would it guarantee another loan like that the next day?

The companies themselves could be interested in that loans of course, but without the previous guarantee the risk would be too high.

Re: Student Loans. Medical Debt. Criminal Justice Fees. Cancel It All.

#58

Post by jimbob45 »

theandrewbailey wrote: post #7

Cancelling student debt won't solve the student debt problem, unless we stop giving out student loans.

Yeah this is my issue with the idea too. In 20 years, you're going to have the same problem again with new borrowers unless you make some fundamental changes to college to stop predatory student loans from being given out.

To be fair, I find this thread to be a bit misguided. Everyone here is talking about canceling 100% of student loan debt but I've only ever heard suggestions where the amount of loans above 100k or above 50k are forgiven. Conceivably, those loans were never really going to be paid off so money isn't really being lost.

Re: Student Loans. Medical Debt. Criminal Justice Fees. Cancel It All.

#59

Post by thatfrenchguy »

hpoe wrote: post #42
keanebean86 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would it though? The government paid for my college then wrote down I own them. They want me to give them that money back eventually. Are they using my promise to borrow money somewhere else? Or is it just an expense for a budget year that gets added as income years later? Also how much interest have we paid collectively on that 1.5 trillion? If we've paid that much already then what? Can't we just consider it an inv…

Well it would result in deflation because $1,500,000,000 disappears from the economy overnight. This means that the money supply shrinks and that kicks of a deflationary cycle.

I would argue this would actually cause inflation: all of those folks who have to pay for those student loans will start buying more goods, houses and services, increasing demand, which could increase prices in turn.

Re: Student Loans. Medical Debt. Criminal Justice Fees. Cancel It All.

#60

Post by rayiner »

viraptor wrote: post #12
theandrewbailey wrote: post #7

Cancelling 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.

Student loans are almost entirely made by the government.
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