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U.S. forgives 40k student loans

reuters.com

11–20 of 483 posts

Re: U.S. forgives 40k student loans

#11
post #3

> At least 40,000 borrowers will receive immediate debt cancellation under the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Program. How is this news?

I think historically, the number of loans actually forgiven by the PSLF program has been very very low, even for people that qualify.

Re: U.S. forgives 40k student loans

#13

If we're going to be forgiving loans, we shouldn't be giving them out in the first place. Otherwise, we're going to be in the same spot in one generation's time.

Just stop guaranteeing them, let students default on them. All these guaranteed loans that can't be discharged allows academic institutions to ratchet up the price. Let them calculate risk and price them accordingly.

Re: U.S. forgives 40k student loans

#14

If we're going to be forgiving loans, we shouldn't be giving them out in the first place. Otherwise, we're going to be in the same spot in one generation's time.

Is not giving out loans at all necessarily better? Stop giving out loans, and higher education becomes even more elitist and out of reach.

Re: U.S. forgives 40k student loans

#16
post #4

If we're going to be forgiving loans, we shouldn't be giving them out in the first place. Otherwise, we're going to be in the same spot in one generation's time.

They were cancelled because it turns out the schools were scams. So it was a situation where the students got into a lot of debt, and got nothing(like an education or a worthwhile diploma) in return.

Are the schools no longer scams? All this does is help the schools, if new students think they might not actually have to pay that debt at the end.

Re: U.S. forgives 40k student loans

#18

If we're going to be forgiving loans, we shouldn't be giving them out in the first place. Otherwise, we're going to be in the same spot in one generation's time.

I agree in theory. If the U.S. were a company dedicated to profit for its shareholders, then it certainly shouldn't give out bad loans.

However, since the U.S. is a country dedicated to the benefit of its citizens then it's absolutely okay to provide loans as a form of social welfare, and accept a higher than normal rate of default. After all, providing these loans instead of the market was the entire point of the exercise.

Re: U.S. forgives 40k student loans

#20
They should require banks to forgive loans, rather than forgiving Federally-backed loans.

If you require banks to forgive loans (or if you allow loans to be dischargeable in bankruptcy), you create an incentive for the banks to loan money only for college education that results in useful careers. The Federal government is immune to market forces, so forgiving Federal loans just means you encourage the type of college degrees that are not useful.

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