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U.S. forgives 40k student loans

reuters.com

141–150 of 483 posts

Re: U.S. forgives 40k student loans

#141

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.

Don't forgive the loans, force the universities to refund the money. I shouldn't be punished for their malfeasance.

Re: U.S. forgives 40k student loans

#142

what happened to the free market economy? the incentive structure is fucked. As a person who worked my ass off this decade, it is unfair :(

Free market needs to be allowed to fail, so bring back student loan bankruptcies and watch the problem mostly fix itself.

Anyway, you could get loans paid off if you worked public sector, but you usually come out ahead working private sector in the same field.

Re: U.S. forgives 40k student loans

#143
post #27

Please, please, please take note before commenting: These are being forgiven under the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, created in 2007 (fifteen years ago), which eliminates your remaining debt after you've made ten years of payments while working in the public sector (government or non-profit). This has nothing to do with current debates around loan forgiveness.

Seeing tons of comments about what people THINK an article says or about their opinion on something related is causing me to use this site less and less.

Completely agree that some of the comments are off the wall. But in all fairness the Ruerters article doesn't highlight the public sector part enough. To learn more you'd have to do your own research to find that PSLF has stringent requirements.

IMO this is more an example of how bad journalism can have damaging effect on even a well versed audience.

Re: U.S. forgives 40k student loans

#144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People in the US are always punished for being financially responsible.

People who have paid their student loan debt are in exactly the same situation they were after this forgiveness than they were before: that is, they have no student loan debt. People in the US are not punished for being financially responsible. They are rewarded for taking risks, but not punished for being responsible. Very different.

Well, that is a fair point. I think the US Government should give me 1 billion dollars. This actually is a Pareto-optimal action too, since I will then have 1 billion dollars and the rest of you will be no worse off. In fact, you will be exactly the same amount off as before.

Re: U.S. forgives 40k student loans

#145
post #5

I wish they'd just make the interest on existing federal loans 0 and be done with it.

Sounds ideal in principle (principal?), but low interest/risk on student loans is what allowed tuition to inflate well beyond general inflation in the last several decades.

Which is why they need to allow bankruptcy. If the answer is "students will just declare bankruptcy after graduation" then at least the moral hazard is on the other foot.

Re: U.S. forgives 40k student loans

#146

I could imagine there's a lot of people who: 1. Are paying/had paid their mortgage properly. Usually implies being down to earth and choosing a home you can actually afford. 2. Paid their student loans. 3. File and pay their taxes properly. 4. Have never went unemployed, or better yet, they're self-employed. 5. Never played stock market bets, as they're more conservative and prefer to save money in a predictable way…

This is about a 15 year old program and nothing to do with current political sentiment. Those same people always had the choice of complying with this program as well.

It was a tangential comment and I never mentioned politics, at all. 15 year old program or not, what do citizens who meet all those things I mentioned get in return?

Please don't tell me it is "the satisfaction of knowing that their hard work and taxes benefit others who are less fortunate than them".

Re: U.S. forgives 40k student loans

#147

I know every European seems to ask this of every American but what is the resistance to a welfare state? if you look at a government as investing in its citizens like a VC fund, then providing education and medical care is sensible, and some will turn out fine and others will be Bezos and then you can get your investment back via tax. I am honestly trying to avoid the flame war here - but I do it know how else to fra…

We see ourselves as a nation of immigrants. Where you came from, perhaps you had a social contract passed down through generations of the history of your people/ tribe/ ethnic group. But you gave that up when you came here.

Americans see themselves as the descendents of their own unique "first generation" ancestor who broke ties with his people of origin and came here to stand on his own two feet. We don't see ourselves as responsible for YOUR first generation ancestor's home country problems or failure to make it here. We may in our newly formed ethnic enclaves take care of each other, but that's opt in. Patriotism to us is about preserving that independence- not a shared lineage. I am generalizing here obviously, but you were asking a kind of zeitgeist question. Hope I help something click for you.

Re: U.S. forgives 40k student loans

#148

When you say "cancelled", do you mean "told the creditors to eat shit" or "we paid the creditors off"? Because everyone thinks #1 is happening, when usually it's #2.

People know very well that #1 is happening, but they usually justify it with "but the military spends $XXX billion a year" or some other whataboutism.

Re: U.S. forgives 40k student loans

#149
> Some 43.4 million borrowers are carrying about $1.6 trillion in outstanding student loans from the Federal Loan Portfolio, an average of more than $37,000 each, according to the Education Data Initiative.

And yet the content of a college education can be had for free on YouTube. Colleges don't sell education, they sell a credential.

Public policy has been lagging behind technological reality for decades on this one.

Re: U.S. forgives 40k student loans

#150
post #12

It's crazy to cancel student loans and still keep issuing the exact same loans. If we believe the loans are unjust then the government should stop handing them out as the very first step.

>> It's crazy to cancel student loans and still keep issuing the exact same loans. If we believe the loans are unjust then the government should stop handing them out as the very first step.

A wise man once told me "The first thing you should do when you find yourself in a hole is stop digging". This is my standard response to the student loan crisis and many others.

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