Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Canceling any new or old measly $10k of student loan debt is the dumbest idea. What is the payment on that, a mere $100/month?
Instead, the struggling folks need help - the ones buried under 75k, 100k, 300k of debt for over 20 years who, because it's been 20 years, obviously they can't pay it! And I mean 20 years since school completion, not 20 years of qualifying payments, huge difference.
my 2 cents
For me, canceling $10k of my debt would have halved my monthly payment. I’m one of the teachers who got screwed over under the last administration. I was supposed to have my debt entirely forgiven.
Why is your student loan my responsibility to pay off?
Because the ballooning of federal student loans was a product of ill-guided federal policy (under both Dems and Republicans), student loan debt is hindering US economic growth, and college graduates are a benefit to an industrial/post-industrial society not just a private benefit. Also, student loans are the product of the divesting of support from state governments for public education that prior generations benefitted from. Think of it as a scholarship for completing college rather than a forgiveness of loan. I don't have student loans--but it was federal and state policies that created the student loan mess and I'm all for having them help clean it up. It will benefit everyone--student loan holders and not.
Bless your heart. If I thought about it as a scholarship for finishing college, I would be wealthy. I finished a PhD with zero debt by working my A$$ off and I am not getting a scholarship for graduating college and grad school. I understood the impact of taking out $100k worth of loans on my future, even at 18.
Explain how it benefits me or my children? I have been saving for their college since before they have been born, not hoping for loan forgiveness. I have worked jobs I don't particularly liked, lived in a house that is less than dcum standards, and driven by many a starbucks to save a dollar so that they can have a college education. Again, how is giving away 10k when there is no other clean up of the college cost mess included benefiting anyone but the people before them? I don't understand the logic.
You are not directly benefitted by many of the ways society gives out tax breaks, credits, benefits etc. but you want to participate in that society. You are getting some benefits somewhere--most PhD programs are subsidized by master's and undergraduate programs to pay for RAships, TAships and their associated benefits such as tuition remission, health insurance credits, stipends. This is because society values having experts and recognizes that PhD programs represent a long investment that may not make financial sense. Government agencies allow that sort of distribution of costs to reflect that--but it's not particularly "fair" on any individual level.
In your savings for your kids, did you benefit from the tax break of a 529 plan? Those tend to privilege those who have a HHI of 100k or higher a year, which is far above the median. Why should all the those making 60k pay for your tax break? (Because whether we call it a credit, a break, forgiveness, etc. it's all coming from the same pot).
I'm sure since you have finished a PhD (as have I) you have had the good fortune of more intelligence than average--I trust you can be aware that not everyone had the same intellectual resources to work with. You likely (though not necessarily) have some family background that helps you (even if your parents didn't go to college, and didn't contribute financially to your undergraduate education, they likely had higher than average intelligence if they have a kid who completed a PhD) I think it is problematic that we have drifted into being a society that encourages families to believe that every kid--regardless of their aptitude--will do better if they go to college, and I have no problem with correcting that. I am glad that the student loan forgiveness is being built on an earlier initiative for far greater investment in community college which makes sense for more students. I see the loan forgiveness as an effort to help clean up some of the mess that the government contributed to around college costs/encouragement of 4 year college for all, and I want it followed up with continued investment in community college, greater support for trade education and on-the-job training, and significant public investment in excellent 4 year colleges rather than treating it primarily as an individual good that people purchase.