Why is Biden extending the student loan repayment pause?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The US is not a meritocracy. If it were, a STEM major from a random university would get the same or better job opportunities than someone with a social science degree from an Ivy that they were admitted to as a legacy.

Engineers coming out of college make more than social science majors.

A state school engineering major isn’t being offered a $110k+ job at 22 from MBB or Oliver Wyman.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The US is not a meritocracy. If it were, a STEM major from a random university would get the same or better job opportunities than someone with a social science degree from an Ivy that they were admitted to as a legacy.

Engineers coming out of college make more than social science majors.

A state school engineering major isn’t being offered a $110k+ job at 22 from MBB or Oliver Wyman.

It depends what type of engineer but yes they are. I know this because I own an engineering firm.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Those who never went to college and never had a federal student loan will wind up paying for those of higher socioeconomic status who did. No wonder the wealthy are going woke: many progressive policies benefit them rather than working saps.

I assure that my tax dollars are currently funding all sorts of rural initiatives that are not to my own benefit.

I promise you that if this country was all about benefits and initiatives being associated with those whose tax $ are funding it, a large portion of this country would go bankrupt.

I, for one, didn't appreciate a massive farm bailout that was created by Trump's idiotic tariff fight.

Support for our own country's agriculture is in the interest of anyone who eats food.

You mean corn and soy beans? This is what America grows and it’s largely used as cattle feed.

Which we then eat.

[maremart]

If they can bail out banks and airlines, offer huge corporate tax breaks, and cut taxes for the wealthy, what's wrong with doing the same for working professionals? I don't have a problem with it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm trying to figure out the root issue that this policy is trying to solve. I gather it is: The cost of higher education is increasingly unattainably high. That cost is either preventing people from getting that higher education or causing them to have limited earning power upon graduation.

The way to solve that is through forward looking policies that reduce the cost and/or provide more alternative pathways to financial stability that do not require higher education.

What I don't understand is how loan forgiveness actually solves the root problem. It does nothing to help anyone entering college or the workforce in the coming years, right?

It doesn’t. Which is why rational people are opposed to this unless it is part of a systemic change (which can only be done with Congress, unfortunately)

[Anonymous]

I greatly appreciate some subjects, but I seriously question offering degrees in them for money.

[Anonymous]

Most of the blame should fall on the government (state and federal) both in their defunding universities causing tuition to skyrocket, and in their lack of oversight over universities’ frivolous hiring and building projects.

Little blame should fall on middle and lower class individuals who were trying to better themselves and their families, unless you think middle and lower class Americans are morally weaker than their economic counterparts in Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Denmark, or the Netherlands.

That said I don’t know if loan forgiveness is the answer.

[Anonymous]

I’d like corporations like Walmart and Starbucks to continue to offer tuition assistance for workers, but not for crappy asynchronous online degrees. I think in-person college classes have become a hot commodity post-COVID. I saw that last year when many poorer college students felt the need to take all online classes to avoid having to pay rent near campus, while wealthier students moved to campus and took hybrid classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The US is not a meritocracy. If it were, a STEM major from a random university would get the same or better job opportunities than someone with a social science degree from an Ivy that they were admitted to as a legacy.

Engineers coming out of college make more than social science majors.

Yes, on average they do. But it depends... like implied originally a social science major from an Ivy can easily make their way into many very high paying jobs almost immediately if they want to. But that isn't because the system isn't a meritocracy. It's because many of those ivy social science majors are actually very intelligent and talented.

Engineering degrees are not that valuable, and STEM education overall is hugely oversold. I have an engineering degree. It was never that useful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The US is not a meritocracy. If it were, a STEM major from a random university would get the same or better job opportunities than someone with a social science degree from an Ivy that they were admitted to as a legacy.

Engineers coming out of college make more than social science majors.

Yes, on average they do. But it depends... like implied originally a social science major from an Ivy can easily make their way into many very high paying jobs almost immediately if they want to. But that isn't because the system isn't a meritocracy. It's because many of those ivy social science majors are actually very intelligent and talented.

Engineering degrees are not that valuable, and STEM education overall is hugely oversold. I have an engineering degree. It was never that useful.

You will never convince me that a sociology or women’s and gender studies degree is harder than a STEM degree from basically anywhere. SO MANY talented kids go unnoticed because of the recruiting practices you’re supposedly fine with.

Lots of recruited athletes in sports no one cares about, donor kids and legacies gliding into elite consulting firms. Meanwhile the first Gen kid who paid their own way to get a physics degree with a high GPA from “podunk state” is forgotten.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The US is not a meritocracy. If it were, a STEM major from a random university would get the same or better job opportunities than someone with a social science degree from an Ivy that they were admitted to as a legacy.

Engineers coming out of college make more than social science majors.

Yes, on average they do. But it depends... like implied originally a social science major from an Ivy can easily make their way into many very high paying jobs almost immediately if they want to. But that isn't because the system isn't a meritocracy. It's because many of those ivy social science majors are actually very intelligent and talented.

Engineering degrees are not that valuable, and STEM education overall is hugely oversold. I have an engineering degree. It was never that useful.

It is in no way, shape or form a meritocracy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The US is not a meritocracy. If it were, a STEM major from a random university would get the same or better job opportunities than someone with a social science degree from an Ivy that they were admitted to as a legacy.

Engineers coming out of college make more than social science majors.

Yes, on average they do. But it depends... like implied originally a social science major from an Ivy can easily make their way into many very high paying jobs almost immediately if they want to. But that isn't because the system isn't a meritocracy. It's because many of those ivy social science majors are actually very intelligent and talented.

Engineering degrees are not that valuable, and STEM education overall is hugely oversold. I have an engineering degree. It was never that useful.

Major eye roll here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The US is not a meritocracy. If it were, a STEM major from a random university would get the same or better job opportunities than someone with a social science degree from an Ivy that they were admitted to as a legacy.

Engineers coming out of college make more than social science majors.

Yes, on average they do. But it depends... like implied originally a social science major from an Ivy can easily make their way into many very high paying jobs almost immediately if they want to. But that isn't because the system isn't a meritocracy. It's because many of those ivy social science majors are actually very intelligent and talented.

Engineering degrees are not that valuable, and STEM education overall is hugely oversold. I have an engineering degree. It was never that useful.

Major eye roll here.

Agree. With any degree, it is really what you do with it that matters. Many people are just average and that’s ok. Not everyone will use the degree they hold. I have an art history degree but work in tech.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The US is not a meritocracy. If it were, a STEM major from a random university would get the same or better job opportunities than someone with a social science degree from an Ivy that they were admitted to as a legacy.

Engineers coming out of college make more than social science majors.

Yes, on average they do. But it depends... like implied originally a social science major from an Ivy can easily make their way into many very high paying jobs almost immediately if they want to. But that isn't because the system isn't a meritocracy. It's because many of those ivy social science majors are actually very intelligent and talented.

Engineering degrees are not that valuable, and STEM education overall is hugely oversold. I have an engineering degree. It was never that useful.

You will never convince me that a sociology or women’s and gender studies degree is harder than a STEM degree from basically anywhere. SO MANY talented kids go unnoticed because of the recruiting practices you’re supposedly fine with.

Lots of recruited athletes in sports no one cares about, donor kids and legacies gliding into elite consulting firms. Meanwhile the first Gen kid who paid their own way to get a physics degree with a high GPA from “podunk state” is forgotten.

Does it matter if it's harder? Just because something is harder doesn't mean the person engaging in that something is any good. Engineering is sold as some great thing but reality is it is a pathway to a lifetime of middle class irrelevance. We have more than enough STEM graduates in this country, by all reasonable accounts. The politicians push STEM because it sounds good and is better than pushing people into the careers that made them wealthy, like law.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Pay what you owe. Unemployment is near where it was pre-pandemic. There are literally no more excuses for these freebies. Do you know why there's inflation? Because there is too much money everywhere. Making people pay what they owe is one way to reduce too much consumption that's driving so much inflation. That may be an unpopular view, but it's true. US household wealth and savings has exploded during the pandemic due to multiple stimuli and huge amounts of money printing. Time to take money out of the system and make people pay their bills.

The household wealth that has exploded is the boomer household wealth. Boomers don't owe student loans because the Great Generation adequately funded public universities. Of course the boomers then cut funding for those very public universities and gave themselves a tax cut.