Student Debt Forgiveness

C

caroln

Senior Member
Location
Kentucky
I've been hearing a lot about Biden's plan to reduce/forgive everyone's student debt by $20,000 if they earn less than $125,000 a year ($250,000 for married couples).

I would think anyone who has struggled to pay off their student loans in the past with no help from anybody are incensed by this.

Frankly, I think anyone making $125,000 a year should be able to make the payment on their loan without help from the government. It's probably just a political ploy to get votes. And will backfire.
 

It is odd to me that the government feels so strongly about the burden of student loan debt when it is the government that made them so easy to get with government guarantees.

IMO paying student loan debt is about priorities.

I feel bad for the kids that took them seriously and worked hard to pay them off before they took on credit card debt, auto loans, mortgages, etc…
 

IMO, anyone who takes on debt should only do so if they have the means to pay off that debt....be it student loans, credit cards, cars, mortgages, etc. Anyone who expects the taxpayers to cover their poor decisions deserve little sympathy. About the Only exceptions I would agree to would be if they suffer an illness or accident that leaves them disabled.
 
A big part of the problem is predatory lenders for college loans that prey on young, low income prospective borrowers who are desperate to climb out of poverty and want a better life but perhaps don't have the ability to make good decisions. They're excited about the prospect of going to college and perhaps being the first in their families to do so and they trust these vultures.

A lot of the predatory lenders work for private, for-profit colleges. When the student shows up for class, the instructors are often unqualified or sometimes they don't even have an instructor. I doubt any of them have an actual professor teaching the classes.

When student loan programs first went into effect in the '60s, the money went to schools to make them affordable. The schools oversaw the distribution of money and could be held accountable for waste and inefficiencies.

During the '70s, money started going directly to the students who could decide whether to go to public, private not-for-profit, or private for-profit universities and that's where the problems began. College became just another money making enterprise and educating the students became secondary. So began the "college industrial complex."

Profit is all that matters any more.
 
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As far as the "I suffered so other people should suffer, too" mantra, that's total B.S. It's like extending a war so that those who already died won't have died in vain. That was an excuse used to justify continuing the Vietnam war.

Tuition and living expenses are higher now than ever before and far higher than they were just 25 years ago when housing costs and tuition started skyrocketing. It's tougher to go to college now than perhaps any time in recent history, but you can't earn a decent living now without a degree, so it's kind of a catch-22: you either go to college and go into debt or you take some crap job where you'll never get anywhere.
 
Here is a link about college tuition in other countries...some countries have free tuition and others no payment due until the person is earning a substantial income and low fees on what they borrow....in other words they are helping people get an education...it's not a unique idea and I'm sure the people appreciate the help.
President Biden has had plans for years for help with low income student debt and now that he is elected president it can happen.

https://studentloanhero.com/featured/student-loans-different-countries-international/
 
The money that they'll no longer have to send to those predatory lenders every month will be plowed back into the economy. (Sure, maybe some will take off & move to Fiji but not many I wouldn't think.)
 
Ruthanne said:
Forgive them all. Education should be free!!!
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Not on the backs of thoses that never had a chance to go, or do not desire to go, known as tax payers !!!

And please don't tell me how ancient art studies , womens studies , etc have a positive effect on mankind. If a person want's to study that stuff & party for four years ? Let them dig in their own pocket ........ Not mine !
 
SeniorBen said:
As far as the "I suffered so other people should suffer, too" mantra, that's total B.S. It's like extending a war so that those who already died won't have died in vain. That was an excuse used to justify continuing the Vietnam war.

Tuition and living expenses are higher now than ever before and far higher than they were just 25 years ago when housing costs and tuition started skyrocketing. It's tougher to go to college now than perhaps any time in recent history, but you can't earn a decent living now without a degree, so it's kind of a catch-22: you either go to college and go into debt or you take some crap job where you'll never get anywhere.
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"or you take some crap job where you'll never get anywhere."

Describe some crap job .... and never getting anywhere ......... There are many good paying jobs/careers out there that do not require college .

If we are talking educating the young ? How about we educate them on the fact that they do not need a 3000 sq/ft house with a 60" TV in everyroom, and the do not need to drive a $75-100,00 SUV [one for each parent] they do not need the latest & greatest smart watch ..... the minute it hits the market .... or to vacation in Cabo every year. Make coffee at home , as opposed to a $3. 50 -5.00 cup at Starbucks etc ..... You know, a true education on life.
 
It would be nice if all education was free. It would be nice if healthcare was free. It would be nice if a lot of things were free.

But to steal a quote (slightly out of context): Freedom isn't free. We enjoy a lot of benefits here, but we shouldn't expect everything to be served up on a silver platter, free for the taking.

At least not until some future "star date" where all of mankind exists just to improve themselves, money is no longer used, and anything you want can be delivered via a replicator. :giggle:

There are ways to help people pay off their student loans (as a previous poster stated) without slapping the faces of all the people before them who diligently scraped and saved to pay off their debts.
 
In my day, going to college was a privilege's. Many of us boys felt pressure to go to college to avoid getting drafted when we graduated from high school. If you went to college you got a 'student deferment'. Which gave you four years to finish, then you still would get drafted, but you would go in as an officer. The Vietnam war was in full bloom and I wanted nothing to do with that. I did not have the money to go to college so So I had to get two student loans. I do not recall how much money they were, but they later were a burden on us.

Later, during my Sophomore, year I married my girl friend and started going to night school while I worked full time during the day. I could not carry a full load in night school, so I lost my deferment. A few weeks after that I got my draft notice. I was rated 1A! Lord help me...I ended up flunking the physical as I had been injured in high school football. I went from 1A to 4F. Thank God! Right away I had to start making two payments on my student loans at both at $26.00 a month. That was very difficult as we had a baby on the way and my wife could not work. Somehow we made it, at the time it seemed like paying off those loans took forever, but when we finally made the last payment it was real good. I did eventually get a college degree and later in life I went back and got an MBA.

The college helped me get jobs and to move up within companies. Looking back, it was a good investment in our future....and yes that girl I married is still with me 52 years later. We earned every thing we got, we appreciate everything we have. If the government offered me a handout, I don't think I would have felt right about it. I probably would have taken it, but still it just would not have been right!

Our Government needs to address the problem, the high costs of tuition and the over payment of college professors and administrators, it is all out of wack!
 
rgp said:
"or you take some crap job where you'll never get anywhere."

Describe some crap job .... and never getting anywhere ......... There are many good paying jobs/careers out there that do not require college .

If we are talking educating the young ? How about we educate them on the fact that they do not need a 3000 sq/ft house with a 60" TV in everyroom, and the do not need to drive a $75-100,00 SUV [one for each parent] they do not need the latest & greatest smart watch ..... the minute it hits the market .... or to vacation in Cabo every year. Make coffee at home , as opposed to a $3. 50 -5.00 cup at Starbucks etc ..... You know, a true education on life.
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Absolutly agree!
 
You know in my long life I have bought 4 sets of hearing aids at great expense, I recently read that there will be new legislature that good hearing aids will be available to buy over the counter, I look on this as good news for all the people that need hearing aids.....I am not raging about 'poor me' and what it cost me in the past..same with the help on low income students debt and it is HELP, not free....with the very high cost of an education $10K or some 20K for others in no way should be labeled as a 'free' education.
 
C50 said:
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Someone else mentioned that & I agree. Not elective medical, but diseases that come out of nowhere . [cancer , heart disease] & such.

Cut [if we can] the fees charged by the hospitals & the doctors.

Yes I know they [docs] go to school for a long time ..... but now they want to go to school free ! ..... then graduate and still charge outrageous fees !
 

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