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U.S. forgives 40k student loans

reuters.com

451–460 of 483 posts

Re: U.S. forgives 40k student loans

#451
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.

This sounds like an attitude og “If you believe your driving to fast, open the door and jump out the car. Pushing the brake won’t bring you to a stop immediately”

This loan forgiveness is for a very specific subset of lenders who have been making payments for 10 years but not yet paid of the loans. Eliminating loans all together would not have put them or society in a better position, it would just mean that next semester there would be hardly any new students accepted at any higher education and the entire education sector in the US would be bracing for impact and trying to figure out how on earth they are going to continue while their normal revenue disappears overnight.

If anything would be crazy, that would be it.

Re: U.S. forgives 40k student loans

#452
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.

In this case I also think the article was really thin on details. Some people get $10,000 written off, others get some other limit to how much they will pay and so on. No clear details I could see about what the limits are and who will be targeted. There probably are details somewhere but this was not really answering my questions.

Re: U.S. forgives 40k student loans

#453
post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They better themselves, they better the economy and taxes What if they want to get a PhD on how autumn leaf colors in New England impact the emotions of rattlesnakes from Texas? You want to pay for that?

Not trying to vet every single edge case in my five sentence vision statement. For one thing PhD's teach statistics no matter what's studied...and if more people...you included....were good at statistics to evaluate good policies, the world would be much better off.

and if more people...you included....were good at statistics to evaluate good policies

I learned statistics as part of the CFA program. I also learned economics and can spot a dead weight loss when I see one.

Re: U.S. forgives 40k student loans

#454
I don't see allowing bankruptcy as a problem. Companies are in the business of lending to students, that doesn't dry out overnight. There are periods of more risk on, and risk off so there would also be cycles. A car analogy: cars can be repossessed but minus covid area a used car tends to be a bad investment (not an investment at all) - a money looser and even on repossession ends up at a loss. Yet banks still lend out to cars. What happens when banks don't lend? Dealer incentives and financing. Colleges are not going to simply put their hands up and say, well students can't afford us anymore. Colleges, which are in the business of selling degrees, will evolve and find a way to lend money. Their main target market depends on getting these loans.

Re: U.S. forgives 40k student loans

#455

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So first off, remember that the people taking out the loans are typically between 17 and 20. I don't know about you, but when I was 18 I was a fucking idiot. I mean I still am, but more so back then. I would be surprised if you weren't (and you probably aren't even the median case!). Also consider that a lot can happen in 4 years, especially at that age. Your interests typically rapidly change, you learn more about w…

The age argument is an interesting one. Should we be redefining what the age of majority is? Because if 18 year olds aren't competent enough to make borrowing choices for college, it follows that there are plenty of other consequences they shouldn't face.

In the US, an 18 year old is too young to drink, old enough to vote, old enough to send to war, old enough to be tried as an adult in a court of law, and too young to rent a car.

It seems our age of majority is already an arbitrary measure.

Unless students are educated in financial literacy and professional life as part of the curriculum, I'm not sure we can expect them to be making competent, experience-based decisions on the cost benefit of education on a 20+ year timescale.

And that's not to mention that many loan providers use predatory tactics, including the companies that administer federal loans.

Re: U.S. forgives 40k student loans

#456
post #399

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm aware. and but these things are being trotted out by people as 'look hes (biden) done so much!!' when in reality: hes done jack shit except what already is suppose to happen! I promise you biden's PR group is the force behind these articles.

As demonstrated by the last admin it doesnt have to happen so feel free to complain about the current President doing “jack shit” until the last guy wins the next election… Sometimes keeping promises are important.

I'm perfectly capable of complaining about both. biden hasn't done jack shit beyond not being a raging asshole.

working american's are still getting shit on; american's are still being disenfranchised of their votes.

and none of his action are helping the very real situation of income inequality.

and I'm still waiting for him to actually deliver on campaign promises.

Re: U.S. forgives 40k student loans

#457
post #391

Earlier quoted context omitted.

or you know we could just make student loan eligible for bankruptcy.... then just let the courts deal with it as usual.

I'm not inherently opposed to allowing for bankruptcy on student loans, but it will probably have a similar effect--banks won't want to lend to people with no credit or income and college will mostly only be affordable for the kids whose parents can pay for it. It's probably not much worse than the status quo, but my instinct is that we need to account for employability in the financing equation. A teenager shouldn't…

bankruptcy has regulation already. you have to actually show an inability to pay, etc.

i'm not suggesting terminating the federal loan program either. just make it possible to default to get out of these situations to ensure they are not predatory.

Re: U.S. forgives 40k student loans

#458
post #448
post #400

Earlier quoted context omitted.

this isn't targetted relief. this is shit that was already suppose to be done. also regressive stimulus are not even a thing. maybe you're thinking of regressive taxes? which still wouldn't be right.

>also regressive stimulus are not even a thing. maybe you're thinking of regressive taxes? Regressive taxes favor the rich over the poor. By "regressive stimulus" I'm presuming he's talking about stimulus that favors the rich (eg. well off layers/doctors with high student loan debt but high earning potential) over people with modest student loans but low earning potential.

which still isn't correct. it doesn't hurt the poor that the upper middle class will also receive this benefit. regressive taxes do. in fact this policy still helps the lower income class because many of them will also benefit from it and far more than the upper middle class.

this means testing bullshit has got to stop.

Re: U.S. forgives 40k student loans

#459

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Student debt is massive, yes, but why are so few people asking where that money actually went? A cursory search says student loan debt is roughly $1.6 trillion dollars and there are around 4,000 to 6,000 colleges/universities. This is a rough number and the actual amount depends on your criteria, but the gist is that you have a ton of money flowing into a relatively small pool. Yes, I know not every dollar of loans g…

Just housing and feeding around 50 million borrowers while they attend school for 4-ish years ends up being a damn lot of money.

I thought college was expensive until I looked into historical tuition prior to the modern era. Turns out our grand parents, parents, and siblings just lived in a golden age of fair wages and massively affordable and available education.

Re: U.S. forgives 40k student loans

#460
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Particularly a while ago it was nearly impossible to utilize the program because it was a bureaucratic and underfunded mess. So the number who qualified was effectively zero. Now it's marginally less terrible and actually forgiving some people's loans.

Specifically, the previous Dept of Ed administration torpedoed the program. When the first class of PSLF candidates hit the 10 yr mark in 2017, 99% were rejected [0].

[0]: https://www.politico.com/story/2019/05/23/public-service-loa...

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