Any debt forgiveness in the first world is essentially a transfer of wealth, and it forgives everyone who very well could have paid, but hung out to get it forgiven. I took out a loan and it took me years to pay it off, why can’t others do the same.
Cancel student-loan debt? That’s making the working class subsidize the elite
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Re: Cancel student-loan debt? That’s making the working class subsidize the elite
#22Opinions like this are why we can't have nice things in the USA. People look at some subgroup getting a benefit and are encouraged to think "Why should they get this thing when I get nothing? These people don't deserve it" and so they block the new benefit, and we fall farther and farther behind countries like the Nordics, where this is somehow not a problem.
Your logic being that any time we give money or subsidize some group, it must be good?
The logic is that when you give money or subsidize some group, then that is not _necessarily_ bad. Maybe it really is bad, but the fact that it involves giving money to a specific group is not enough to conclude that.
Re: Cancel student-loan debt? That’s making the working class subsidize the elite
#23I think the most reasonable thing to do would be to cancel student debts and to then make college affordable again. When I went to a NY State SUNY school in the late 80s / early 90s, it was heavily supported by the taxpayers of NY. My tuition was $675 a semester, or $1350/year and the fees were minimal. The NY minimum wage at the time was $3.35/hr. That meant that by working a minimum wage job for the summer, I could…
Change bankruptcy law so student debt is discharge. Don’t let government back loans. Lenders will only lend to people have a decent chance of paying it back. So no more nonsense degrees unless your rich. Colleges have grown fat on easy money. This will slim them up again
I think everyone who has taken a loan out should pay SOMETHING - a settlement sum perhaps, based on their last year tax return. IE. The government will forgive 80% of your loan, but you must pay the remaining 20% on an affordable, no interest payment plan. Failure to pay that your only option is to declare bankruptcy and have it discharged. I have a real problem with anyone getting off totally free.
Re: Cancel student-loan debt? That’s making the working class subsidize the elite
#24Opinions like this are why we can't have nice things in the USA. People look at some subgroup getting a benefit and are encouraged to think "Why should they get this thing when I get nothing? These people don't deserve it" and so they block the new benefit, and we fall farther and farther behind countries like the Nordics, where this is somehow not a problem.
Because collection and redistribution of wealth and assets has never worked anywhere in the world, ever. Any plan to dress it up as “debt forgiveness” is easily shredded for its narrow view that it’s a one and done, when this could be like tolls: Once in place they never go away.
Re: Cancel student-loan debt? That’s making the working class subsidize the elite
#25Any debt forgiveness in the first world is essentially a transfer of wealth, and it forgives everyone who very well could have paid, but hung out to get it forgiven. I took out a loan and it took me years to pay it off, why can’t others do the same.
Depends on when you took your loan and what the cost of tuition was then, but this is really about reversing the insane inflation that only came about as a result of the loans in the first place.
Re: Cancel student-loan debt? That’s making the working class subsidize the elite
#26Free public libraries? Paid for by tax dollars? That's making the working class subsidize the elite. Free public roads? Paid for by tax dollars? That's making the working class subsidize the elite. Etc.
This is not analogous at all.
Everyone uses roads. Everyone has access to public libraries.
Re: Cancel student-loan debt? That’s making the working class subsidize the elite
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
Your logic being that any time we give money or subsidize some group, it must be good?
The logic is that when you give money or subsidize some group, then that is not _necessarily_ bad. Maybe it really is bad, but the fact that it involves giving money to a specific group is not enough to conclude that.
But the true logic of American government and finance is that if something is good you tax and regulate into the ground, until you’re then forced to subsidize it. The often-attributed quote to Reagan sounds globe but it makes a lot of sense.
We should be throwing more responsibility at the system, not money.
Re: Cancel student-loan debt? That’s making the working class subsidize the elite
#28Any debt forgiveness in the first world is essentially a transfer of wealth, and it forgives everyone who very well could have paid, but hung out to get it forgiven. I took out a loan and it took me years to pay it off, why can’t others do the same.
In my opinion, a more equitable solution is to simply give everyone who took out a student loan a fixed amount of several tens of thousands of dollars. If you paid off your loans already, great, your reward is free money.
Re: Cancel student-loan debt? That’s making the working class subsidize the elite
#29If we want government to pay for college then we need to have government treat it as it does Medicare and such. Assign dollar amounts to each course and course hour with a set amount per degree. Oh there will be gnashing of teeth of that I am sure but you can damn well bet colleges, and good ones at that, will create the programs by which they can rest assured of steady pay.
Now this may end leaving some degrees and courses by the wayside and this is a correct outcome.
Finally we should rethink how we treat endowments and tax breaks many colleges, private or public, receive. Many of the same receive very large property and other tax breaks which then fall upon the communities they are based in to make up by taxing the public.
Re: Cancel student-loan debt? That’s making the working class subsidize the elite
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
Change bankruptcy law so student debt is discharge. Don’t let government back loans. Lenders will only lend to people have a decent chance of paying it back. So no more nonsense degrees unless your rich. Colleges have grown fat on easy money. This will slim them up again
I think everyone who has taken a loan out should pay SOMETHING - a settlement sum perhaps, based on their last year tax return. IE. The government will forgive 80% of your loan, but you must pay the remaining 20% on an affordable, no interest payment plan. Failure to pay that your only option is to declare bankruptcy and have it discharged. I have a real problem with anyone getting off totally free.
Variations of bankruptcies require paying.
If have some income it tends to be a sliding scale. Chapter 13.
You have to be very broke to get everything wiped off. Chapter 7