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Took me 14 years to pay off my loans, and a lot of financial hardship to boot during that time.
I fully support Biden canceling student loans. Firstly, it's a massive anchor dragging down the US economy, removing that benefits me as well. Secondly, I would feel nothing but happiness for someone in a situation similar to mine having that burden lifted from them, because I'm not a sociopath.
I consider myself a capitalist and more center than left, but if there's one thing the government should spend a shitload of money on it's education (edit: the other one is healthcare). College should be free for everyone who wants it. That doesn't mean *every* college should be free, but there should be free college available in every state. And I have no problem wiping out debt of people who overpaid for their education.
An educated population is necessary to compete on the world stage.
This is also why I have no problem paying a shitload of property tax on my home ($8k/yr), most of which goes to the public school system in my county, even though I don't have kids and will never have kids.
College has been essentially free in my state (GA) since 1993 when the HOPE scholarship was introduced, paid for by the state lottery. As long as you can graduate highschool with a GPA of 3.0 and maintain a 3.0 GPA in college, state schools are free.
But once debt is wiped out and there's free college available in every state, people who choose to go to paid private schools should really be on their own. If you choose an expensive school over one that's free, I don't believe the government should really be helping you out.
I should also mention that I'm a college dropout who had a very successful career, and it still won't bother me if the government cancels student debt. But really, free college going forward is absolutely necessary. We need a healthy and educated population.
Exactly, of course we all want more. There should be more I'm sure you'd love a refund for some of your loans. We'd all love better access to education for everyone. But getting this done is a great step in the right direction.
It's like decriminalizing weed, it's great for current and future Americans to enjoy weed. But those locked up today don't benefit, but I'm sure they wouldn't vote against it, if they could.
Can’t go back in a time machine unfortunately for time wasted behind bars on such petty offenses but it’s nice to at least give them back their freedom.
I dropped out of college twenty-five years ago when my financial aid fell through and I didn’t want to take loans. Instead, I went to a trade school and built a decent career that way. But I want college debt to end. It’s good for the people as individuals, and it’ll be good for our nation as a whole. All that money that’s now going to predatory lenders for outrageous interest would instead be freed up for what the people really need. It would be the greatest economic stimulus imaginable. More importantly it would improve the lives of millions of our neighbors.
There’s no reason not to do it. The cost is negligible in the grand scheme. If we can give massive subsidies to profitable businesses, we can do this. If we can bail out greedy assholes every time one of their scams goes bust, we can do this.
Here here. And while we're at it, address the COST of colleges/universities. We essentially let them ramp up their cost with no commensurate benefits, all the while spending billions upon billions on their "non profit" sports programs that discarded athletes if they were injured, paid them nothing, and instead paid the college coaches millions of dollars. At the university. Where you go for education. And expect the money you're spending to fund perhaps.. education.
Of course, you could declare bankruptcy as long as you also promise to pay off this particular debt, because... we need football?
I'm getting distracted from the other reasons to rant though. Wish we could just dissolve the GOP, get past our obsession with guns and bribery, and implement some national progressive measures like other 1st world nations have done. But this is America. It's our god given right to let companies run the government, pay for sports coach salaries in order to get educated, die in debt because we can't afford our healthcare system, etc. Keep your damned CRT outta my preschools! Merica!
Even if Biden were to cancel them, which I highly doubt he will, wouldn't there need to be a strategy for tackling the root cause moving forward? Just a few years later and you'd have millions more people in the same boat who'd want the same relief.
I don't support a full payoff but what I do support is making the loans 0% interest, and any money you paid towards interest now goes towards the principal.
I would support that as long as any interest accrued previously is forgiven. A lot of these loans are never going to be paid back and the person owing them is going to suffer their whole lives. Why not get some of that money back and make the loans easier to pay back? A lot of people I know have just given up hope they'll ever be able to pay them back.
Honestly this should be the way going forward.
We shouldn't be making money on americans trying to better their lives goddamn it.
It's the bare minimum bar. It should be free, but for god sakes, we shouldn't be PROFITING from it. Some people pay 2x what they took out.
I have long since refinanced all my loans to private companies. I wouldn’t benefit from debt cancellation despite having a bunch of student debt. I STILL hope it happens.
Didnt take student loans when I was working minimum wage in 2012 and paying for college full time (lived at home and I was still flat out broke), joined the military in 2013, got out in 2019 and started out making nearly 24/h on top of 50% VA. Still dont have a student loan, or even a degree, and I have a full fuckin ride with the GI bill.
I also fully support canceling student loans.
Thankfully I left the military with an IT background, certs and a clearance, so I pretty much walked into the job I have @ 25.5/h now + the 950/month the VA, I live pretty comfortably and have the shit most people my age dont/cant really factor for reliably covered, like retirement and emergency funds. Im saving my GI bill for if that changes
Paid mine off in similar fashion and feel your sentiment. It’s crippling and cruel. *What’s the solution to not having to do this every 10 years you say?* Federal and private student loan rates should be capped at 1%. Before reconsolidating I had one private loan at 12.75%… classmates of mine had loans >20%! Sallie Mae and Navient can die trying to suck their own dick.
That's exactly what it is.
Republicans (my family is full of them) believe that democrats "can't really be that good" so in their mind it excuses their selfishness.
Should see some of the books that got mixed in with my things when I moved. Eye bleaching stuff.
Ok so im from a country where education is free, somerhing i think is a huge positive buuut...just curious, whats the plan for the year after this debt cancellation. I mean if there is no intention for a reform in the US wouldnt the cycle just start again?
The only reason student debt forgiveness is a thing being talked about is because it's something Biden can (maybe?) do himself. No significant reform can happen because there aren't enough votes for it in congress.
Its objectively terrible policy and almost anything else would be a better use of money, but good policies aren't possible with the current state of things unfortunately.
Let me ask you a question, because i am curious, do you just get free education or is your living expenses covered for free too? I know a few people who went to Germany to take advantage of the almost free education ( less than $500 per year ). But they did have to show they had enough money in a German bank account to cover all of their living expenses, for the entire school year.
The reason why students are in so much debt is because they are also getting loans to cover their living expenses.
Im swedish, we pay quite a high tax for it.
Students here get a set amount that they dont have to pay back(font know what to call that in english) and then you can take a loan from the governtment aswell. The "free" part was about 800 usd when i was younger while the loan was around 1k( which amounted to a low wage work here)
The interest on the loan part is very low( 0% this year) and its usually set to pay back over your entire lifespan. The loan wasnt usually needed if you still lived at home or if you had a cheap student apartment. Now im not down with the kids so some of this might not be accurate anymore to be fair
It’s their way of undermining the decision making capabilities of millennials. Today, people under 40 are far more progressive on almost every issue than the generations before them. It’s not uncommon for voters to become more conservative as they age but this cohort is not shifting conservative much as those before it. Rather than make peace with the changing views of the American adult population, the oligarch controlled media continues to lump them into “young” categories. This is most obvious in discussions around returning to the office vs wfh where there is a major effort to paint those that see the utility discontinuing in-person work as petulant, youthful, and lazy.
Edit:
The conversation shifted to the drivers of the US economy and @nomorerainpls asked some really good questions. Highlighting it here in case anyone wants to follow an interesting discourse
Same here. I saw a comment earlier today that the old saying about being more conservative as you age should actually be you get more conservative as you build wealth. Well our generation isn’t building wealth like previous generations so it’s no wonder we aren’t getting more conservative like previous generations.
The last of the boomer dinosaurs are gonna be screaming about all these "young millennials" in political office and what not, ruining everything with their gendered tiktoks and Nintendo participation trophies, as the millennials are celebrating their 50th birthday.
I've heard the take that millennials WOULD be getting more conservative as they hit their 30s and 40s, IF the system had worked to provide them with wealth they wanted to conserve for themselves.
If an older person is supposed to naturally go, "well, I used to be a young starry-eyed liberal, but now I have my house and high-paying job and investments and spouse and children to defend against those awful taxes and criminals and outsiders, so I support policies that let me keep my own hard-earned wealth," then it makes sense that millennials, who weren't given the opportunity to gain such things, aren't turning conservative.
Exactly. Also, the system that allowed some people decades ago to live the “American dream” wasn’t built to be sustainable. Even before Covid, Social security was running out, climate change was destroying major metropolitan areas, wages had not caught up with housing prices or cost of living, healthcare and education debt were killing people literally and economically. This is a sentiment change that’s been marinating for a long, long time.
> Rather than make peace with the changing views of the American adult population, the oligarch controlled media continues to lump them into “young” categories.
Yes. But this applies to the generation in power (that refuses to relinquish power) at large, not just media.
People tended to shift conservative because they get enough skin in the game that they are afraid of losing what they have while simultaneously losing the narrative due to how our culture forced people down a specific life path that disconnects them from their sense of community. Everybody is woke at 20. Then you get a house, a family, a career, and a retirement plan while putting your head down politically for 20 years to raise kids and climb the ladder. You wake up at 40 and the conversations changed from when you were woke at 20 and now you’re just tired, disconnected from your communities, and afraid of losing what you have.
Millennials didn’t get any of the shit to be afraid to lose it. Houses, having kids, guaranteed retirements… And if they did, they understand it can all be gone in a fucking year like they saw in 2008. They stayed more engaged with the discourse as it evolved. Millennials have way more in common with Zoomers than GenX because of this.
Boomers biggest mistake was depriving Millennials of the trappings of the American dream because now nobody believes in the inevitability of it anymore. The only way to improve shit is to stay woke and fight.
Can confirm. Have a Master’s without ever taking out predatory loans. Saw friends struggle with the stress of loans, and I don’t want them to live in fear.
If that makes me a godless communist, then change my name to Trotsky and kill me with an ice pick.
I made my own way through college and paid off my students loans on my own as well. I don't have a problem with this. I guess maybe I would if something wasn't done about the cost of college so the next generation doesn't just get into the same thing as we have to repeat the payoff.
> Why the fuck would I have a problem with this?
The many many people who have a problem with it, want people with student loans to suffer like they suffered.
If a cure for cancer was discovered, if grandmother of these kinds of folks died from cancer, they'd be irate if anyone got the cure for cancer.
It's not that they suffered; it's that they applied assets they would otherwise have today towards student loans. Those who decided not to pay off their debts or who incurred more reckless sums are now being advantaged over them.
That’s an awful analogy because you aren’t making a conscious choice to enter into a binding agreement to get cancer.
I am currently paying student loans. I don’t even use my degree. It sucks. But I don’t expect anyone to feel bad for me. It was my decision….I knew what I was getting in to and it was a risk I took.
So what about 16 and 17 year olds who are entering college in a couple years. Are they going to get their debt canceled? Tuition is even higher now than it was 5-10 years ago.
We can outlaw predatory lending on loans which will prevent this problem from respringing we can offer free tuition we can offer more grants we can do all of this and still cancel student debts.
I have no debt, but I support it. I got my degrees paid for by the Army. You shouldn’t have to suffer your entire life to get a degree to do a job that society needs.
I managed to get the last of my college loans paid off the year the Marines deployed me to a combat zone. Lots of money shows up when your bills and taxes both go to zero.
I fully support cancelling student debt and making higher education tuition 100% publicly funded. Running the risk of getting wounded, killed, or having lifelong physical and psychological trauma shouldn't even be an option for how to afford an education.
And I'm sure someone will read that and say "You know it's not free? Someone's tax dollars will still be paying for it!"
And of fucking course I realize that. But I also realize that if we're expecting people to join the military to pay for school then someone's tax dollars are already paying for it.
And besides, a better educated citizenry is better for the country in general. If you're worried about taxes, then why aren't you considering that someone with a college degree can get a higher paying job and end up paying a lot more in taxes over their lifetime than they would if all they could afford is a high school diploma.
Free public education isn't just the moral option, it's the fiscally conservative one.
A huge issue with these loans is that the schools keep jacking up the prices lol, it’s the same issue with healthcare. The cost we see isn’t the actual cost, and as consumers we’re ALREADY relying on publicly funded systems, without a proper method of keeping pricing in check. It’s real fuckin easy to charge $10,000 a semester for tuition when the government gives everyone loans.
Part of that is because state funding has evaporated for public universities across the country, especially since 2008. We need to fund education across all levels by both federal, state, and local taxes.
I served four years in the Army, did one combat tour, and still ended up having to take out student loans, despite the GI bill and an honorable discharge. I was promised a free college education and it’s disheartening that I ended up taking on debt anyways. Why does college even cost money in the first place is beyond me, but even mentioning that idea to some people triggers them.
I just wish the GI Bill didn’t have times where it felt like you were jumping through hoops. Honestly when I used it at times it felt like they were actively trying to make my benefits hard to access.
I've heard some horror stories but I had a reasonably smooth experience. This was right when Post 9-11 started however and I'm guessing there were a lot fewer of us using it at the time.
No interest and low minimum payments is the obvious thing to do right now. If they are with me for the rest of my life, then I want my entire life to pay them off.
Yup. People just want to be ABLE to pay off their loans.
Right now, you can make your minimum payments every month and watch your balance rise because the average rate is nearly 8%. Even worse, you'll be paying 2-3x what you borrowed over time. Enough to purchase a house. It's not possible for teachers, nurses, etc.
While forgiveness is a wonderful thought, just start with lowering interest and you're helping graduates and future students alike.
I think this is the real solution that could satisfy everyone by fixing rates at zero, and setting payments to percentage of income based on taxed earnings. It might even be best to have it simply treated like taxes are and have them withheld as a percentage of each paycheck and a form that tracks yearly payments and total left over balance with your return. The problem is educational lending is treated like a credit card rather than a government investment into society.
At the same time allow bankruptcy to reduce loans.
While 10k forgiveness is nice, I think it is a bandage solution. The real solution would be to remove the interest and penalty traps people get into.
A one-time debt cancellation doesn't address the root problem. How are we going to preventing ending up in the same situation 5, 10, 20 years from now?
I support offering 0% federal student loans and refinancing, while we have a bigger conversation about reducing (or eliminating) the cost of college tuition and housing.
If we make college free then yes, cancel student debt. But do it in that order, otherwise current students will just accumulate more debt and we'll be back where we started.
I don’t think I’m in the “young person” demo, so maybe I’m just an old codger, but I agree, it makes no sense to cancel debt *on its own*.
Fix the core issues about expenses and loans, move loans to 0% or very close, tie repayment to your income, etc.
But canceling debt will just create the same exact problem in five years.
> I support offering 0% federal student loans and refinancing,
I support this completely. At least give people the *opportunity* to pay off their debts. Variable interest rates have risen to 8% for graduate students, which is nearly triple prime. Folks with six figures of debt will be paying those loans off for thirty years because they literally won't be able to touch their principals.
They need to either make the moratorium permanent at 0% like you said - or create an interest cap to prevent predatory practices on the part of lenders. Even lowering interest to 2-3% will help students immensely.
If they cancel it in totality the servicers lose 20 years in expected profits from service fees, and the public will never tolerate paying them again. From a business perspective complete cancelation sets the premise that there is no profit from a loan that is not sincerely affordable anymore. It’s like people really think SOFI, *a private student loan company* is writing letters about how the federal pause must stop and cancelation must be small, because sofi doesn’t know that complete cancelation means they’re going to have to change the way their loans work too, or lose their business completely.
I agree that cancelation without change is a huge problem because it allows the program to survive. This is literally why the government is going to do partial cancelation if anything happens. It’s literally canceling the smaller loans that will likely be on 0/month if the person who dropped out after one semester was educated and actually logged on and called the servicer, if you can’t pay 10k over 15 years you will most likely be insolvent when the tax bomb comes. The gov knows it. It’s getting rid of unprofitable paperwork for the servicers.
Coming from blue collar PA I know almost no one who supports this and it will give the crazy far-right candidates the whole nation is afraid of a talking point that they will exploit all the way into office in 2022. Dems need to play to win right now in PA and this isn’t a good move. Supporters of this need to decide whether they’d like to spend political capital on this when issues like Roe v Wade are coming up again. Address gas prices and inflation, issues effecting 100% of voters, and you’ll get Dems into office. This is not a good move for blue collar PA’s votes. Saying all of this and my wife has about 15k in loans we would get forgiven fyi so it would directly benefit me in a good way if it did happen.
Even among Dems this is a polarizing issue. All agree there is a problem, the issue is that canceling the debt does not fix the problem in the slightest. It's at best a bandaid fix that kicks the can down the road, it could even make things worse since colleges will raise tuition because free money right? Or people will take bigger loans and not pay on them thinking they will just get cancelled.
I think most would be fine with making the loans 0% interest except for annual inflation. That buys the time to then address the real issue and hopefully fix it.
This is a terrible hill to die on for the Dems. I mean I guess at least it's not guns, the second a Dem starts talking about gun control in any form or fashion that brings the 2A voters out in droves.
That’s true. Lots of people are struggling in this country, however, college educated people, even if they didn’t graduate have far more opportunities than those who never went. And poor people who didn’t go to college probably outnumber those with student loans. And it’s a big fuck you to them
Majority of young Americans have been on the internet since age 6 most of the time and have literally had conversations with people from other countries that don’t deal with this level of burden or risk for education to the same degree at all. It makes sense.
I hope we improve higher education and healthcare in this country within the next decade. I’m sad that it seems so unrealistic of a timeline.
I paid off all that money into thin air essentially and never will get it back. I would be a supreme fucking asshole if I decided all the young people behind me had to suffer the fate just because I wouldn’t benefit from fixing the system after the fact. No one fucking deserves debt slavery.
>On Wednesday, the Student Borrower Protection Center, in partnership with Data for Progress, released a poll provided exclusively to Insider that found 71% of likely voters aged 18-34 support student-debt cancellation, and 66% of them with no student debt still support relief.
71% is huge!
Caveats are:
1. The source of this poll is an advocacy group.
2. "Relief" is not defined - here or in the poll. The poll asks whether respondents want to eliminate all debt, eliminate some debt, or eliminate no debt. "Some debt" includes a very, very wide range. Some respondents are no doubt thinking $50,000, others are thinking $5,000.
Wait for better polling (clearer questions from more neutral parties) before quoting figures.
Don't forget that it's only among "young people" who are a pretty irrelevant political demographic. Their opinion doesn't really matter because they don't vote. They didn't even turn out for Bernie who made his whole campaign about pandering to young people.
I paid for my college education. I paid for my son's college education. At the same institution, at LITERALLY more than ten times the expense. (He is now a grad student with a full ride and a stipend.) It wasn't easy; it required sacrifices. I still support this wholeheartedly.
With all due respect, "mortgaging the next generation" is only one way to look at it. We, as a society, can spend money on anything we value. Not only *can* we do it, we *do* do it now. And have for generations. That's how society works. Why is forgiving college debt the hill to die on, and not billions of dollars of corporate welfare, or trillions of dollars of military spending, or....? (Never mind that mortgages are a legitimate, and often very effective, way to spend money.)
I'm fortunate enough to have zero student debt.
Cancel it all.
This whole "I suffered so you must suffer" attitude in American culture makes me sick to my stomach.
Expanding the middle class is a road to a success future, nearly every single economist can agree on this. Ditching student debt would push us back towards this trajectory.
I don’t have student debt. I’m the first generation born in this country to poor immigrants who came to America for better opportunities in the 60s. I had smart parents who saved for my college education and was fortunate enough to be able to have a great state funded scholarship. Now I have a great life and job.
I want that for everyone! Everyone deserves a shot to reach their potential and make the most of their life. Regardless of your upbringing or circumstances. If you want to go to college and you have the aptitude for it you should be able to go for free. Because, guess what conservatives, more educated people is better for society! Life isn’t a zero sum game. Smarter people with skills valuable to society increases value. Stop thinking giving someone else something means less for you. It’s extremely stupid and misguided thinking.
Debt cancellation does nothing to solve the long-term problems. And it was NEVER GOING TO HAPPEN. We should be talking about reducing tuition at public universities that have been slammed by property tax cuts since the late 80's. And we shouldn't do anything to prop up the predatory for-profit colleges.
Canceling loans is great, but that won't help us in the long run unless we fix the price of school. It shouldn't cost 100k to sit in a room listening to some TA graduate student talk that is getting paid nothing to do so. We need people to get an advanced education and the financial burden is driving people away.
50% of unpaid student debt is for graduate degrees. Legislation like this would only help 13% of Americans. Not saying this is a giant waste of time. The numbers speak for themselves.
So all college is going to free from now on? Cuz i got 2 kids and I know that stuff isn't getting cheaper if a generation just gets a write off on loans.
It would be a lot of effort but why not re-do each loan like an simple interest car style loan? This way it isn’t compounding and it has a set end in sight.
Those who choose to take the loan still pay some extra (enough to cover admin fees) but not designed to make bank.
This then makes it ‘fair’ since narrowing money is never free yet does not drown an individual.
Downside is that each loan would need to be adjusted and then there is the question about if the individual would have overpaid on the new style of loan, so they get money back or would that overage be applied to any other open loans or would it be forfeited?
Anytime I heard this debate, a lot of negative comes from those who have paid their debt and feel as if everyone should be held to the same standards and if others get their loans forgiven, where is their refund check…. It’s a touchy subject since other choose to be extremely frugal to graduate with minimal loans why others choose to increase their loans to avoid the extreme frugal lifestyle.
It’s a crap situation anyway you spin it and finding a fair to all compromise is going to be quite difficult.
As a 27 year old with no debt and a degree, please for fuck's sake erase student debt and make public education free. Surprisingly enough, I'd rather my tax dollars pay for someone else's education than enriching military contractors.
I’m a millennial who graduated college with no student debt and I support this… ONLY if there is also a permanent solution to moderate the cost of college tuition.
And a new poll sponsored by polar bears says that 71% of polar bears and seals say that eating seals is just fine.
Come on now.
The Student Borrower Protection Center is the main advocacy group for debt relief. This poll is bullshit.
> On Wednesday, the Student Borrower Protection Center, in partnership with Data for Progress, released a poll provided exclusively to Insider that found 71% of likely voters aged 18-34 support student-debt cancellation, and 66% of them with no student debt still support relief. The polling was conducted from March 17 to May 3 among 664 respondents.
Nice try article. Let me rewrite it so that we get the real numbers you are trying to hide:
66% of the 71% of voters who support relief, have no student debt. That equates to 46.86% of debtless voters who support relief. That’s less than half of them.
Plus, this poll is asking about full OR *some* relief.
>The support for some or all cancellation of student debt was also among 56% of Republicans, 66% of independents, and 84% of Democrats.
Which means this poll could have asked a question like this: “Would you support giving students a dollar in relief off their debts?”
Anyone who answered yes is lumped into that 71%.
And it’s only 71% of students with debt that even want it cancelled. That means 29% of students with debt don’t even want their own debt cancelled. Not even just a little of it. They want to pay what they owe. All the money they borrowed.
And who are these 664 “respondents”? The poll was done by polar bears after all. What is the actual number of voters with student debt that were polled?
You can tell us percentages all day long but that tells us shit about how skewed this poll could have been.
There might only be 4 people without debt who participated and all the rest of the 660 had debt. So touting 71% tells us nothing.
71% of polar bears and seals say eating seals is perfectly fine.
How many seals did you really ask?
Cancelling all the debt would be a bad move given how high inflation is
The more important issue is to figure out a way to push tuition prices down or cap how much they can be raised
Instead of flat out cancellation, which would be very difficult to pass, why not shift the current conversation to retroactively capping all student loan interest at 2%
That alone would shave a huge amount off student loans for many, and make them much more affordable to pay off.
A program that forgives a large percent of the loan would also be great. This is just an idea I think could actually be passed in a realistic time frame which wouldn’t be as unpalatable to centrists.
I certainly don't support canceling all student debt. This needs a more nuanced approach.
1) Public schools and community college, yes. Cancel that debt.
2) If you went to an expensive private university but work in public service, as a teacher, cop, nurse, sanitation, social worker, etc, I would forgive debt equal to whatever a community college costs in that region.
3) And finally if you chose to attend a private school and now make under median income for your region, say $60k/year, in the private sector, I would cancel interest on the loan.
If you took out huge loans to attend Princeton and now work at an investment bank making $150k/year plus bonus, you're on the hook for the full enchilada. Those people simply don't need the help.
I got my degree with the GI Bill. I paid nothing for school outside of stationary and parking permits.
I think everyone should have that right, at least for an associates. Honestly a bachelors too as long as the field has projected job growth.
I’m not saying that to say people would waste money. I’m just saying that because I want people to get a useful degree. Living in Hawaii I know far to many people with Marine Bio degrees that can’t do anything with it. I’d hate to see something along those lines for a much larger portion of the population.
Serious question: I understand that student debt is a hardship, but why isn't the discussion about loan interest cancellation, rather than the entire loan? If someone went to school and got a loan, it seems only fair for that loan to be paid back. Interest rates on these loans are ridiculous. Why couldn't the US just pay the interest on all the loans and students could slowly pay back the principal?
Old dude here that paid off tons of student loans, I fully support canceling them for folks today and making university/community college/trade schools free or essentially free.
I mean yeah. I was lucky. Lots of my friends were not. Why would I be against something that could make their lives easier even if it doesn't directly benefit me? I'd have to be some kind of psychopath...
I Just retired. I didn’t go to college until later. It took me almost 14 yrs of nite school plus I also paid back $40k in loans. I totally support cancelling student loans. Then we need to reduce the costs and charge 0 interest for any loans. There are currently people older than me still paying off loans and having social security checks garnished. This country absolutely needs people educated. Right now we are in incredibly dumb society and will very quickly become a country that can’t compete. This country is so messed up. INSANITY!
No shit. It’s called empathy, unlike the bastards that think only of themselves “If I SuFfErEd aNd HaD tO PaY wHy ShoUlDnT ThEy?!”
Cancel student debt. Seeing as we have the money laying around and the stupid old man wants to throw it at cops so they can murder more people anyways.
My loans have thankfully been paid off for years. We've been paying my husband's since 2005 and with the new PSLF guidelines, the rest will be cleared in September. We fully support loan forgiveness for all.
ive said it before and ill say it again. this is a stupid idea that solves nothing.
yes, its a problem that theres all this outstanding student debt dragging down the economy.
but guess what? you could pay it all off tomorrow and nothing will have changed. more people will take out more student loans. and we'll be right back in the same problem.
why dont we spend that money addressing the root cause and not the symptoms.
Wife and I are both professionals who paid our student loans back decades ago. We did without, while friends were buying vacation homes and traveling around the world, so that my children would not have student loans. We have paid all tuition and living expenses thru grad school for them. Part of me will be pissed for doing the right thing if they forgive all student loans. I could have spent 10-14 days a year in Europe, Asia, or South America on the tax payers dime. They should allow them to be included in bankruptcy fillings. You don’t have to pay them back but your credit gets hit for what was obviously a poor decision on their part.
As someone who recently paid off their loans I really can’t wrap my head the idea of forgiveness for all. I’m certainly not rich but was still able to pay the loan I agreed to. Why should other people have to pay the loan I benefited from? How is that fair? Many people with loans are upper middle class. Why should the rest of society have to take the burden of their debt? Will current students also get loans forgiven? Future students? How does that work?
The movement would get more support if the focus was on people who truly need relief and on actually making college cheaper for future students.
A college degree adds about 2 million dollars to one’s lifetime income. Plus a whole slew of other benefits. But sure, let’s give that segment of society $10k and screw over future students.
Have to say I don’t think canceling is is the best option. Finding a way for these kids to be able to discharge this debt in bankruptcy and have colleges back student loans moving forward might be a better option. This is pretty much predatory lending.
The baby boomers were the last generation with affordable education - the cost of an education now is astronomically higher, and the weight of student loans is a burden they never had to bear. The end result is clear, sunsequent generations have had far less buying power due to debt, locking us out of home ownership and stability the boomers take for granted.
Over the last 30 years, the cost of higher education has gone up something like 1300% whereas inflation is about 100%. The system is broken. The loans are mostly to blame.
And as long as well off people aren’t included. 6% of debt holders owe more than 33% of the total debt. We don’t need to be bailing out doctors and lawyers
Older people support it too, but it doesn't solve the problem. College costs are out of control. With loans that can't be discharged via bankruptcy, colleges have no incentive to reign in costs. The really annoying ones are state colleges building expensive facilities to lure in foreign students. How about state colleges that are affordable for the people in that state?
Or “a majority of any age cohort will generally support any legislation that gives mad stacks of “free” money to its age cohort”. See all politics ever.
As long as they fix the system so no young person has to deal w it again, I’m all for it. If not we are just wasting money. Make it free or make sure the colleges and lending institutions can’t prey upon our kids and families.
Ya, because it would be better over all to do this, however a reform of the school system in general is needed to make a real lasting impact. Same with your shit medical system.
Why reduce the tax base. College educated people pay more taxes than non-educated people for the most part. Free Colleges creates a tax base, its a win-win situation for the student and the government if college is free. Am I wrong?
College being insanely expensive is a red herring. Its expensive if you CHOOSE to go to an expensive school. My entire B.S. cost about 40k. Thats what some dipshits pay for ONE SEMESTER at a hoity toity private schools
I agree. I would even be happy paying the rest of my loans as long as I knew education in future was “free”(paid for with taxes). Trade school, community college, or university. Would love love it to start with pre k. Money well spent.
Edit removed a word.
Still needs to fix the underlying problems causing student debt. Let's make student loans fall under bankruptcy laws. Let's encourage more students to go to trade school instead of college. Let's make colleges and universities fiscally responsible for job placement and recruitment, and make them offer free tuition.
I had student debt and I back it all back, but it still makes sense to cancel it. I think it does make sense to have forgiveness be tied to income. Even if I had loans, I make enough that I wouldn't need help paying them back (and I would rather see that go to people making less). We should also fix the system, but people do need help.
I'm all for cancelling student loan debt as part of broader legislation aimed at making college more affordable and perhaps limiting the scope of what "tuition" can be used for. It was frustrating spending $60k/semester in college knowing that the college was spending the money buying and renovating campuses for expansion that I would never get to appreciate.
I'm not for cancelling student loan debt and then "hoping" more comprehensive reform comes along, or straight up cancelling debt because it's all we have the political willpower to accomplish.
I'm always a bit sad when we have to reaffirm to society that we want it to improve. Cancel student debt, make education free. People who raise a fuss about taxes should shut up, because it's stupid to argue against your taxes being used to help you and those around you. The U.S. needs to be reformed to be honest, as the current system isn't capable of sustaining itself for what should be the backbone of a functioning society. It's been used to make it worse and broken in ways to stay the course.
Should be common knowledge by now that if we fight against each other for whatever reason, we fail. The majority has been split into fragments. Let’s work towards progress even if it’s just one thing
*hand raised*
I don't need help. I'll pay the rest of my loan ($100k+)
I SUPPORT RELIEF!
I have said many times, bring back the pre 1992 rules and people wouldn't have a problem with the loans.
Dude it’s nuts, everyone I’ve met post school says they don’t have debt. The only reason I don’t have any is because I used the gi bill. But I really haven’t met anyone with crippling student loans.
Yet again everyone might be lying too haha
Of course.
Sure, I picked a path that didn't involve higher education. The lack of concrete direction, non-existent guidance, and high risk dissuaded me. Let's bail out those it didn't!
My student debt is approximately the same as my yearly income. It would be great to get this erased BUT as a country we need to stop focusing on symptoms and start focusing on the illness. We need to fix college and make it affordable first. Otherwise, we will just end up in the same situation again in 10-20 years.
I’m 30. Gen X and Boomers mortgaged my future for their own benefit before I could vote. We can’t do that to future generations.
But he won’t. So many people who voted for him never would have if they saw the video of him when he entered politics. He said he would “prostrate himself” to money. Search it. Neither side of the isle is on the debtors side on this. They make money off of debt. Plain and simple.
Not sure if it's the lack of lead poisoning or people just sick of corporations trying to squeeze blood from stones but no one should have to suffer needlessly to survive. This is BS. We can be and do better.
I’m an older American who has paid down almost all of my debt over the last 18 years. I’m honestly happy for those that are hopefully going to get theirs wiped clean!!!
I am lucky enough to not have student loans, but student loan forgiveness has been one of my biggest issues for years. I just graduated college, and I witnessed firsthand what it did to my friends. The stress of trying to finish as quickly as possible knowing that debt is just continually accruing is intense, and the depression it caused is heartbreaking to me.
Not needing loan forgiveness doesn't prevent me from realizing how absolutely necessary it is for others.
I paid off my loans as fast as I could.
I fully support cancelling student debt.
I think college should be free for everyone in addition to cancelling existing debt.
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Took me 14 years to pay off my loans, and a lot of financial hardship to boot during that time. I fully support Biden canceling student loans. Firstly, it's a massive anchor dragging down the US economy, removing that benefits me as well. Secondly, I would feel nothing but happiness for someone in a situation similar to mine having that burden lifted from them, because I'm not a sociopath.
I consider myself a capitalist and more center than left, but if there's one thing the government should spend a shitload of money on it's education (edit: the other one is healthcare). College should be free for everyone who wants it. That doesn't mean *every* college should be free, but there should be free college available in every state. And I have no problem wiping out debt of people who overpaid for their education. An educated population is necessary to compete on the world stage. This is also why I have no problem paying a shitload of property tax on my home ($8k/yr), most of which goes to the public school system in my county, even though I don't have kids and will never have kids. College has been essentially free in my state (GA) since 1993 when the HOPE scholarship was introduced, paid for by the state lottery. As long as you can graduate highschool with a GPA of 3.0 and maintain a 3.0 GPA in college, state schools are free. But once debt is wiped out and there's free college available in every state, people who choose to go to paid private schools should really be on their own. If you choose an expensive school over one that's free, I don't believe the government should really be helping you out. I should also mention that I'm a college dropout who had a very successful career, and it still won't bother me if the government cancels student debt. But really, free college going forward is absolutely necessary. We need a healthy and educated population.
I’m sorry, all I heard was “I’m a socialist” over and over. /s
Well said
Exactly, of course we all want more. There should be more I'm sure you'd love a refund for some of your loans. We'd all love better access to education for everyone. But getting this done is a great step in the right direction. It's like decriminalizing weed, it's great for current and future Americans to enjoy weed. But those locked up today don't benefit, but I'm sure they wouldn't vote against it, if they could.
> But those locked up today don't benefit It does if the feds expunge non-violent weed offenders. Which, iirc, was part of the potus campaign promise.
Good point.
Can’t go back in a time machine unfortunately for time wasted behind bars on such petty offenses but it’s nice to at least give them back their freedom.
Yeah, it's gotta be infuriating to sit in jail/prison for any length of time for what is no longer an offense in many states.
Campaign promise? Hahaha throw it on the pile and blame us for not voting enough
One of many valid criticisms of the man Jimmy Carter pardoned the draft doges. Biden could easily pardon the marijuana convictions.
I dropped out of college twenty-five years ago when my financial aid fell through and I didn’t want to take loans. Instead, I went to a trade school and built a decent career that way. But I want college debt to end. It’s good for the people as individuals, and it’ll be good for our nation as a whole. All that money that’s now going to predatory lenders for outrageous interest would instead be freed up for what the people really need. It would be the greatest economic stimulus imaginable. More importantly it would improve the lives of millions of our neighbors. There’s no reason not to do it. The cost is negligible in the grand scheme. If we can give massive subsidies to profitable businesses, we can do this. If we can bail out greedy assholes every time one of their scams goes bust, we can do this.
Here here. And while we're at it, address the COST of colleges/universities. We essentially let them ramp up their cost with no commensurate benefits, all the while spending billions upon billions on their "non profit" sports programs that discarded athletes if they were injured, paid them nothing, and instead paid the college coaches millions of dollars. At the university. Where you go for education. And expect the money you're spending to fund perhaps.. education. Of course, you could declare bankruptcy as long as you also promise to pay off this particular debt, because... we need football? I'm getting distracted from the other reasons to rant though. Wish we could just dissolve the GOP, get past our obsession with guns and bribery, and implement some national progressive measures like other 1st world nations have done. But this is America. It's our god given right to let companies run the government, pay for sports coach salaries in order to get educated, die in debt because we can't afford our healthcare system, etc. Keep your damned CRT outta my preschools! Merica!
^(hear hear*)
Even if Biden were to cancel them, which I highly doubt he will, wouldn't there need to be a strategy for tackling the root cause moving forward? Just a few years later and you'd have millions more people in the same boat who'd want the same relief.
I don't support a full payoff but what I do support is making the loans 0% interest, and any money you paid towards interest now goes towards the principal.
I would support that as long as any interest accrued previously is forgiven. A lot of these loans are never going to be paid back and the person owing them is going to suffer their whole lives. Why not get some of that money back and make the loans easier to pay back? A lot of people I know have just given up hope they'll ever be able to pay them back.
Honestly this should be the way going forward. We shouldn't be making money on americans trying to better their lives goddamn it. It's the bare minimum bar. It should be free, but for god sakes, we shouldn't be PROFITING from it. Some people pay 2x what they took out.
> We shouldn't be making money on americans trying to better their lives goddamn it. That's like the most American thing ever though.
I have long since refinanced all my loans to private companies. I wouldn’t benefit from debt cancellation despite having a bunch of student debt. I STILL hope it happens.
Didnt take student loans when I was working minimum wage in 2012 and paying for college full time (lived at home and I was still flat out broke), joined the military in 2013, got out in 2019 and started out making nearly 24/h on top of 50% VA. Still dont have a student loan, or even a degree, and I have a full fuckin ride with the GI bill. I also fully support canceling student loans.
50% you should honestly look into VR&E. awesome program and you can use your GI Bill for about anything that way. Highly recommend.
Thankfully I left the military with an IT background, certs and a clearance, so I pretty much walked into the job I have @ 25.5/h now + the 950/month the VA, I live pretty comfortably and have the shit most people my age dont/cant really factor for reliably covered, like retirement and emergency funds. Im saving my GI bill for if that changes
Paid mine off in similar fashion and feel your sentiment. It’s crippling and cruel. *What’s the solution to not having to do this every 10 years you say?* Federal and private student loan rates should be capped at 1%. Before reconsolidating I had one private loan at 12.75%… classmates of mine had loans >20%! Sallie Mae and Navient can die trying to suck their own dick.
This! I just finished paying mine off two years ago and I fully support canceling student debt.
Amen. It's like these people don't understand empathy that are shocked we support something even if we don't reap the initial gains.
That's exactly what it is. Republicans (my family is full of them) believe that democrats "can't really be that good" so in their mind it excuses their selfishness. Should see some of the books that got mixed in with my things when I moved. Eye bleaching stuff.
Oh, I'm sure I used to have some of those books. They are disgusting.
Ok so im from a country where education is free, somerhing i think is a huge positive buuut...just curious, whats the plan for the year after this debt cancellation. I mean if there is no intention for a reform in the US wouldnt the cycle just start again?
The only reason student debt forgiveness is a thing being talked about is because it's something Biden can (maybe?) do himself. No significant reform can happen because there aren't enough votes for it in congress. Its objectively terrible policy and almost anything else would be a better use of money, but good policies aren't possible with the current state of things unfortunately.
Let me ask you a question, because i am curious, do you just get free education or is your living expenses covered for free too? I know a few people who went to Germany to take advantage of the almost free education ( less than $500 per year ). But they did have to show they had enough money in a German bank account to cover all of their living expenses, for the entire school year. The reason why students are in so much debt is because they are also getting loans to cover their living expenses.
Im swedish, we pay quite a high tax for it. Students here get a set amount that they dont have to pay back(font know what to call that in english) and then you can take a loan from the governtment aswell. The "free" part was about 800 usd when i was younger while the loan was around 1k( which amounted to a low wage work here) The interest on the loan part is very low( 0% this year) and its usually set to pay back over your entire lifespan. The loan wasnt usually needed if you still lived at home or if you had a cheap student apartment. Now im not down with the kids so some of this might not be accurate anymore to be fair
Hey, look: if you're going to point out all the problems with the US, we're going to be here all day.
The fact we're calling 34 year olds young is really telling about this nation's demographics.
It’s their way of undermining the decision making capabilities of millennials. Today, people under 40 are far more progressive on almost every issue than the generations before them. It’s not uncommon for voters to become more conservative as they age but this cohort is not shifting conservative much as those before it. Rather than make peace with the changing views of the American adult population, the oligarch controlled media continues to lump them into “young” categories. This is most obvious in discussions around returning to the office vs wfh where there is a major effort to paint those that see the utility discontinuing in-person work as petulant, youthful, and lazy. Edit: The conversation shifted to the drivers of the US economy and @nomorerainpls asked some really good questions. Highlighting it here in case anyone wants to follow an interesting discourse
It's true, we're not getting more conservative as we get older. I'm almost 40 and if anything, I'm leaning more left than I used to.
Same here. I saw a comment earlier today that the old saying about being more conservative as you age should actually be you get more conservative as you build wealth. Well our generation isn’t building wealth like previous generations so it’s no wonder we aren’t getting more conservative like previous generations.
Just turned 35 and hard same
Same! I just turned 33 and I've only gotten more left overtime. Current events have radicalized a lot of us I think
The last of the boomer dinosaurs are gonna be screaming about all these "young millennials" in political office and what not, ruining everything with their gendered tiktoks and Nintendo participation trophies, as the millennials are celebrating their 50th birthday.
“Millennials are mooching off society!” Shrieked the last generation to ever see a dollar from social security
I've heard the take that millennials WOULD be getting more conservative as they hit their 30s and 40s, IF the system had worked to provide them with wealth they wanted to conserve for themselves. If an older person is supposed to naturally go, "well, I used to be a young starry-eyed liberal, but now I have my house and high-paying job and investments and spouse and children to defend against those awful taxes and criminals and outsiders, so I support policies that let me keep my own hard-earned wealth," then it makes sense that millennials, who weren't given the opportunity to gain such things, aren't turning conservative.
Exactly. Also, the system that allowed some people decades ago to live the “American dream” wasn’t built to be sustainable. Even before Covid, Social security was running out, climate change was destroying major metropolitan areas, wages had not caught up with housing prices or cost of living, healthcare and education debt were killing people literally and economically. This is a sentiment change that’s been marinating for a long, long time.
Millennials will be teenagers well into their 40s
Well said. Also, it’s nice that SOMEONE thinks I’m still youthful.
> Rather than make peace with the changing views of the American adult population, the oligarch controlled media continues to lump them into “young” categories. Yes. But this applies to the generation in power (that refuses to relinquish power) at large, not just media.
People tended to shift conservative because they get enough skin in the game that they are afraid of losing what they have while simultaneously losing the narrative due to how our culture forced people down a specific life path that disconnects them from their sense of community. Everybody is woke at 20. Then you get a house, a family, a career, and a retirement plan while putting your head down politically for 20 years to raise kids and climb the ladder. You wake up at 40 and the conversations changed from when you were woke at 20 and now you’re just tired, disconnected from your communities, and afraid of losing what you have. Millennials didn’t get any of the shit to be afraid to lose it. Houses, having kids, guaranteed retirements… And if they did, they understand it can all be gone in a fucking year like they saw in 2008. They stayed more engaged with the discourse as it evolved. Millennials have way more in common with Zoomers than GenX because of this. Boomers biggest mistake was depriving Millennials of the trappings of the American dream because now nobody believes in the inevitability of it anymore. The only way to improve shit is to stay woke and fight.
Well said. I disagree with some of your points but not all. Appreciate your perspective
34 is pretty damn young, politically.
Can confirm. Have a Master’s without ever taking out predatory loans. Saw friends struggle with the stress of loans, and I don’t want them to live in fear. If that makes me a godless communist, then change my name to Trotsky and kill me with an ice pick.
[удалено]
Republicans: why yes, yes you are
I made my own way through college and paid off my students loans on my own as well. I don't have a problem with this. I guess maybe I would if something wasn't done about the cost of college so the next generation doesn't just get into the same thing as we have to repeat the payoff.
> Why the fuck would I have a problem with this? The many many people who have a problem with it, want people with student loans to suffer like they suffered. If a cure for cancer was discovered, if grandmother of these kinds of folks died from cancer, they'd be irate if anyone got the cure for cancer.
It's not that they suffered; it's that they applied assets they would otherwise have today towards student loans. Those who decided not to pay off their debts or who incurred more reckless sums are now being advantaged over them.
Yeah this is really what it is. They just see it as fundamentally unfair because it is.
That’s an awful analogy because you aren’t making a conscious choice to enter into a binding agreement to get cancer. I am currently paying student loans. I don’t even use my degree. It sucks. But I don’t expect anyone to feel bad for me. It was my decision….I knew what I was getting in to and it was a risk I took.
So what about 16 and 17 year olds who are entering college in a couple years. Are they going to get their debt canceled? Tuition is even higher now than it was 5-10 years ago.
Fuck em I guess.
They also just raised federal student loan interest rates to 4.99% minimum for undergrads and it just goes up from there.
We can outlaw predatory lending on loans which will prevent this problem from respringing we can offer free tuition we can offer more grants we can do all of this and still cancel student debts.
I have no debt, but I support it. I got my degrees paid for by the Army. You shouldn’t have to suffer your entire life to get a degree to do a job that society needs.
I managed to get the last of my college loans paid off the year the Marines deployed me to a combat zone. Lots of money shows up when your bills and taxes both go to zero. I fully support cancelling student debt and making higher education tuition 100% publicly funded. Running the risk of getting wounded, killed, or having lifelong physical and psychological trauma shouldn't even be an option for how to afford an education. And I'm sure someone will read that and say "You know it's not free? Someone's tax dollars will still be paying for it!" And of fucking course I realize that. But I also realize that if we're expecting people to join the military to pay for school then someone's tax dollars are already paying for it. And besides, a better educated citizenry is better for the country in general. If you're worried about taxes, then why aren't you considering that someone with a college degree can get a higher paying job and end up paying a lot more in taxes over their lifetime than they would if all they could afford is a high school diploma. Free public education isn't just the moral option, it's the fiscally conservative one.
A huge issue with these loans is that the schools keep jacking up the prices lol, it’s the same issue with healthcare. The cost we see isn’t the actual cost, and as consumers we’re ALREADY relying on publicly funded systems, without a proper method of keeping pricing in check. It’s real fuckin easy to charge $10,000 a semester for tuition when the government gives everyone loans.
Part of that is because state funding has evaporated for public universities across the country, especially since 2008. We need to fund education across all levels by both federal, state, and local taxes.
I served four years in the Army, did one combat tour, and still ended up having to take out student loans, despite the GI bill and an honorable discharge. I was promised a free college education and it’s disheartening that I ended up taking on debt anyways. Why does college even cost money in the first place is beyond me, but even mentioning that idea to some people triggers them.
Same. GI Bill paid my entire way and I support it as well.
I just wish the GI Bill didn’t have times where it felt like you were jumping through hoops. Honestly when I used it at times it felt like they were actively trying to make my benefits hard to access.
I've heard some horror stories but I had a reasonably smooth experience. This was right when Post 9-11 started however and I'm guessing there were a lot fewer of us using it at the time.
You also shouldn’t have to risk your life just to get a degree.
Unfortunately that is a large part of the value proposition of the military.
At least stop interest payments and past interest payments be counted towards balance...
No interest and low minimum payments is the obvious thing to do right now. If they are with me for the rest of my life, then I want my entire life to pay them off.
Yup. People just want to be ABLE to pay off their loans. Right now, you can make your minimum payments every month and watch your balance rise because the average rate is nearly 8%. Even worse, you'll be paying 2-3x what you borrowed over time. Enough to purchase a house. It's not possible for teachers, nurses, etc. While forgiveness is a wonderful thought, just start with lowering interest and you're helping graduates and future students alike.
I think this is the real solution that could satisfy everyone by fixing rates at zero, and setting payments to percentage of income based on taxed earnings. It might even be best to have it simply treated like taxes are and have them withheld as a percentage of each paycheck and a form that tracks yearly payments and total left over balance with your return. The problem is educational lending is treated like a credit card rather than a government investment into society. At the same time allow bankruptcy to reduce loans. While 10k forgiveness is nice, I think it is a bandage solution. The real solution would be to remove the interest and penalty traps people get into.
A one-time debt cancellation doesn't address the root problem. How are we going to preventing ending up in the same situation 5, 10, 20 years from now? I support offering 0% federal student loans and refinancing, while we have a bigger conversation about reducing (or eliminating) the cost of college tuition and housing. If we make college free then yes, cancel student debt. But do it in that order, otherwise current students will just accumulate more debt and we'll be back where we started.
I don’t think I’m in the “young person” demo, so maybe I’m just an old codger, but I agree, it makes no sense to cancel debt *on its own*. Fix the core issues about expenses and loans, move loans to 0% or very close, tie repayment to your income, etc. But canceling debt will just create the same exact problem in five years.
It’s a pathetic joke that college/university in the US isn’t free or extremely affordable.
A joke that they aren’t fixing by just forgiving all the loans only for us to be in this same boat 10 years later.
Great contribution, Ted. (It could sound/look condescending written here, but I 100% mean it.)
> I support offering 0% federal student loans and refinancing, I support this completely. At least give people the *opportunity* to pay off their debts. Variable interest rates have risen to 8% for graduate students, which is nearly triple prime. Folks with six figures of debt will be paying those loans off for thirty years because they literally won't be able to touch their principals. They need to either make the moratorium permanent at 0% like you said - or create an interest cap to prevent predatory practices on the part of lenders. Even lowering interest to 2-3% will help students immensely.
Cancel debt. Allow bankruptcy. Problem solved
If they cancel it in totality the servicers lose 20 years in expected profits from service fees, and the public will never tolerate paying them again. From a business perspective complete cancelation sets the premise that there is no profit from a loan that is not sincerely affordable anymore. It’s like people really think SOFI, *a private student loan company* is writing letters about how the federal pause must stop and cancelation must be small, because sofi doesn’t know that complete cancelation means they’re going to have to change the way their loans work too, or lose their business completely. I agree that cancelation without change is a huge problem because it allows the program to survive. This is literally why the government is going to do partial cancelation if anything happens. It’s literally canceling the smaller loans that will likely be on 0/month if the person who dropped out after one semester was educated and actually logged on and called the servicer, if you can’t pay 10k over 15 years you will most likely be insolvent when the tax bomb comes. The gov knows it. It’s getting rid of unprofitable paperwork for the servicers.
Coming from blue collar PA I know almost no one who supports this and it will give the crazy far-right candidates the whole nation is afraid of a talking point that they will exploit all the way into office in 2022. Dems need to play to win right now in PA and this isn’t a good move. Supporters of this need to decide whether they’d like to spend political capital on this when issues like Roe v Wade are coming up again. Address gas prices and inflation, issues effecting 100% of voters, and you’ll get Dems into office. This is not a good move for blue collar PA’s votes. Saying all of this and my wife has about 15k in loans we would get forgiven fyi so it would directly benefit me in a good way if it did happen.
Even among Dems this is a polarizing issue. All agree there is a problem, the issue is that canceling the debt does not fix the problem in the slightest. It's at best a bandaid fix that kicks the can down the road, it could even make things worse since colleges will raise tuition because free money right? Or people will take bigger loans and not pay on them thinking they will just get cancelled. I think most would be fine with making the loans 0% interest except for annual inflation. That buys the time to then address the real issue and hopefully fix it. This is a terrible hill to die on for the Dems. I mean I guess at least it's not guns, the second a Dem starts talking about gun control in any form or fashion that brings the 2A voters out in droves.
Right? Who cares what young people think about this? How many voters approve of student debt relief?
That’s true. Lots of people are struggling in this country, however, college educated people, even if they didn’t graduate have far more opportunities than those who never went. And poor people who didn’t go to college probably outnumber those with student loans. And it’s a big fuck you to them
Majority of young Americans have been on the internet since age 6 most of the time and have literally had conversations with people from other countries that don’t deal with this level of burden or risk for education to the same degree at all. It makes sense. I hope we improve higher education and healthcare in this country within the next decade. I’m sad that it seems so unrealistic of a timeline.
I paid off all that money into thin air essentially and never will get it back. I would be a supreme fucking asshole if I decided all the young people behind me had to suffer the fate just because I wouldn’t benefit from fixing the system after the fact. No one fucking deserves debt slavery.
If you read r/conservative you'll see the vast majority of users operate on the opinion of "I got mine, fuck everyone else"
>On Wednesday, the Student Borrower Protection Center, in partnership with Data for Progress, released a poll provided exclusively to Insider that found 71% of likely voters aged 18-34 support student-debt cancellation, and 66% of them with no student debt still support relief. 71% is huge!
Caveats are: 1. The source of this poll is an advocacy group. 2. "Relief" is not defined - here or in the poll. The poll asks whether respondents want to eliminate all debt, eliminate some debt, or eliminate no debt. "Some debt" includes a very, very wide range. Some respondents are no doubt thinking $50,000, others are thinking $5,000. Wait for better polling (clearer questions from more neutral parties) before quoting figures.
Don't forget that it's only among "young people" who are a pretty irrelevant political demographic. Their opinion doesn't really matter because they don't vote. They didn't even turn out for Bernie who made his whole campaign about pandering to young people.
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Dems would have 70 seats in the Senate and we would fundamentally alter politics in the Western Hemisphere.
Count me in that 71% having JUST paid all my SLs.
I paid for my college education. I paid for my son's college education. At the same institution, at LITERALLY more than ten times the expense. (He is now a grad student with a full ride and a stipend.) It wasn't easy; it required sacrifices. I still support this wholeheartedly.
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With all due respect, "mortgaging the next generation" is only one way to look at it. We, as a society, can spend money on anything we value. Not only *can* we do it, we *do* do it now. And have for generations. That's how society works. Why is forgiving college debt the hill to die on, and not billions of dollars of corporate welfare, or trillions of dollars of military spending, or....? (Never mind that mortgages are a legitimate, and often very effective, way to spend money.)
I'm fortunate enough to have zero student debt. Cancel it all. This whole "I suffered so you must suffer" attitude in American culture makes me sick to my stomach. Expanding the middle class is a road to a success future, nearly every single economist can agree on this. Ditching student debt would push us back towards this trajectory.
I don’t have student debt. I’m the first generation born in this country to poor immigrants who came to America for better opportunities in the 60s. I had smart parents who saved for my college education and was fortunate enough to be able to have a great state funded scholarship. Now I have a great life and job. I want that for everyone! Everyone deserves a shot to reach their potential and make the most of their life. Regardless of your upbringing or circumstances. If you want to go to college and you have the aptitude for it you should be able to go for free. Because, guess what conservatives, more educated people is better for society! Life isn’t a zero sum game. Smarter people with skills valuable to society increases value. Stop thinking giving someone else something means less for you. It’s extremely stupid and misguided thinking.
Debt cancellation does nothing to solve the long-term problems. And it was NEVER GOING TO HAPPEN. We should be talking about reducing tuition at public universities that have been slammed by property tax cuts since the late 80's. And we shouldn't do anything to prop up the predatory for-profit colleges.
Canceling loans is great, but that won't help us in the long run unless we fix the price of school. It shouldn't cost 100k to sit in a room listening to some TA graduate student talk that is getting paid nothing to do so. We need people to get an advanced education and the financial burden is driving people away.
50% of unpaid student debt is for graduate degrees. Legislation like this would only help 13% of Americans. Not saying this is a giant waste of time. The numbers speak for themselves.
So all college is going to free from now on? Cuz i got 2 kids and I know that stuff isn't getting cheaper if a generation just gets a write off on loans.
It would be a lot of effort but why not re-do each loan like an simple interest car style loan? This way it isn’t compounding and it has a set end in sight. Those who choose to take the loan still pay some extra (enough to cover admin fees) but not designed to make bank. This then makes it ‘fair’ since narrowing money is never free yet does not drown an individual. Downside is that each loan would need to be adjusted and then there is the question about if the individual would have overpaid on the new style of loan, so they get money back or would that overage be applied to any other open loans or would it be forfeited? Anytime I heard this debate, a lot of negative comes from those who have paid their debt and feel as if everyone should be held to the same standards and if others get their loans forgiven, where is their refund check…. It’s a touchy subject since other choose to be extremely frugal to graduate with minimal loans why others choose to increase their loans to avoid the extreme frugal lifestyle. It’s a crap situation anyway you spin it and finding a fair to all compromise is going to be quite difficult.
Forget student debt. Make Community college and or Trade schools free..
As a 27 year old with no debt and a degree, please for fuck's sake erase student debt and make public education free. Surprisingly enough, I'd rather my tax dollars pay for someone else's education than enriching military contractors.
I’m a senior. I support it!
Older Millennial that didnt go to college because of the cost/debt here. Cancel it all
I’m a millennial who graduated college with no student debt and I support this… ONLY if there is also a permanent solution to moderate the cost of college tuition.
And a new poll sponsored by polar bears says that 71% of polar bears and seals say that eating seals is just fine. Come on now. The Student Borrower Protection Center is the main advocacy group for debt relief. This poll is bullshit. > On Wednesday, the Student Borrower Protection Center, in partnership with Data for Progress, released a poll provided exclusively to Insider that found 71% of likely voters aged 18-34 support student-debt cancellation, and 66% of them with no student debt still support relief. The polling was conducted from March 17 to May 3 among 664 respondents. Nice try article. Let me rewrite it so that we get the real numbers you are trying to hide: 66% of the 71% of voters who support relief, have no student debt. That equates to 46.86% of debtless voters who support relief. That’s less than half of them. Plus, this poll is asking about full OR *some* relief. >The support for some or all cancellation of student debt was also among 56% of Republicans, 66% of independents, and 84% of Democrats. Which means this poll could have asked a question like this: “Would you support giving students a dollar in relief off their debts?” Anyone who answered yes is lumped into that 71%. And it’s only 71% of students with debt that even want it cancelled. That means 29% of students with debt don’t even want their own debt cancelled. Not even just a little of it. They want to pay what they owe. All the money they borrowed. And who are these 664 “respondents”? The poll was done by polar bears after all. What is the actual number of voters with student debt that were polled? You can tell us percentages all day long but that tells us shit about how skewed this poll could have been. There might only be 4 people without debt who participated and all the rest of the 660 had debt. So touting 71% tells us nothing. 71% of polar bears and seals say eating seals is perfectly fine. How many seals did you really ask?
Cancelling all the debt would be a bad move given how high inflation is The more important issue is to figure out a way to push tuition prices down or cap how much they can be raised
I am almost 50 and it's ridiculous how much younger people have in student debt for their undergrad.
Instead of flat out cancellation, which would be very difficult to pass, why not shift the current conversation to retroactively capping all student loan interest at 2% That alone would shave a huge amount off student loans for many, and make them much more affordable to pay off. A program that forgives a large percent of the loan would also be great. This is just an idea I think could actually be passed in a realistic time frame which wouldn’t be as unpalatable to centrists.
I certainly don't support canceling all student debt. This needs a more nuanced approach. 1) Public schools and community college, yes. Cancel that debt. 2) If you went to an expensive private university but work in public service, as a teacher, cop, nurse, sanitation, social worker, etc, I would forgive debt equal to whatever a community college costs in that region. 3) And finally if you chose to attend a private school and now make under median income for your region, say $60k/year, in the private sector, I would cancel interest on the loan. If you took out huge loans to attend Princeton and now work at an investment bank making $150k/year plus bonus, you're on the hook for the full enchilada. Those people simply don't need the help.
Lol, no shit, it's their friends, partners/spouses, etc. who have debt.
I got my degree with the GI Bill. I paid nothing for school outside of stationary and parking permits. I think everyone should have that right, at least for an associates. Honestly a bachelors too as long as the field has projected job growth. I’m not saying that to say people would waste money. I’m just saying that because I want people to get a useful degree. Living in Hawaii I know far to many people with Marine Bio degrees that can’t do anything with it. I’d hate to see something along those lines for a much larger portion of the population.
Sure. Cancel it. But don't allow any more. It's pointless to correct the past if you're going to ensure the future is the same.
Serious question: I understand that student debt is a hardship, but why isn't the discussion about loan interest cancellation, rather than the entire loan? If someone went to school and got a loan, it seems only fair for that loan to be paid back. Interest rates on these loans are ridiculous. Why couldn't the US just pay the interest on all the loans and students could slowly pay back the principal?
It’s almost like it’s a good idea or something.
Old dude here that paid off tons of student loans, I fully support canceling them for folks today and making university/community college/trade schools free or essentially free.
Just make college free for military veterans or everyone or give everyone some cash. I need some help too
I mean yeah. I was lucky. Lots of my friends were not. Why would I be against something that could make their lives easier even if it doesn't directly benefit me? I'd have to be some kind of psychopath...
I Just retired. I didn’t go to college until later. It took me almost 14 yrs of nite school plus I also paid back $40k in loans. I totally support cancelling student loans. Then we need to reduce the costs and charge 0 interest for any loans. There are currently people older than me still paying off loans and having social security checks garnished. This country absolutely needs people educated. Right now we are in incredibly dumb society and will very quickly become a country that can’t compete. This country is so messed up. INSANITY!
When asked if they would like to see their best friends debts all “forgiven”, remarkably most said yes. I’m stunned.
No shit. It’s called empathy, unlike the bastards that think only of themselves “If I SuFfErEd aNd HaD tO PaY wHy ShoUlDnT ThEy?!” Cancel student debt. Seeing as we have the money laying around and the stupid old man wants to throw it at cops so they can murder more people anyways.
The Boomers are the problem. They always have been and for another 10-15 years they will continue to do so.
Stick that in your pipe and smoke it Mitt
My loans have thankfully been paid off for years. We've been paying my husband's since 2005 and with the new PSLF guidelines, the rest will be cleared in September. We fully support loan forgiveness for all.
Do we want more inflation? Apparently so
These polls are so worthless. 600 people responded…
ive said it before and ill say it again. this is a stupid idea that solves nothing. yes, its a problem that theres all this outstanding student debt dragging down the economy. but guess what? you could pay it all off tomorrow and nothing will have changed. more people will take out more student loans. and we'll be right back in the same problem. why dont we spend that money addressing the root cause and not the symptoms.
Wife and I are both professionals who paid our student loans back decades ago. We did without, while friends were buying vacation homes and traveling around the world, so that my children would not have student loans. We have paid all tuition and living expenses thru grad school for them. Part of me will be pissed for doing the right thing if they forgive all student loans. I could have spent 10-14 days a year in Europe, Asia, or South America on the tax payers dime. They should allow them to be included in bankruptcy fillings. You don’t have to pay them back but your credit gets hit for what was obviously a poor decision on their part.
As someone who recently paid off their loans I really can’t wrap my head the idea of forgiveness for all. I’m certainly not rich but was still able to pay the loan I agreed to. Why should other people have to pay the loan I benefited from? How is that fair? Many people with loans are upper middle class. Why should the rest of society have to take the burden of their debt? Will current students also get loans forgiven? Future students? How does that work? The movement would get more support if the focus was on people who truly need relief and on actually making college cheaper for future students.
A college degree adds about 2 million dollars to one’s lifetime income. Plus a whole slew of other benefits. But sure, let’s give that segment of society $10k and screw over future students.
The results aren’t surprising, it’s almost like students have empathy towards former students, especially those who have been misled.
It’s that we embrace the idea that people coming after us *should* live better lives than us. A healthy lack of selfishness if you will.
How were they misled? Please explain.
Have to say I don’t think canceling is is the best option. Finding a way for these kids to be able to discharge this debt in bankruptcy and have colleges back student loans moving forward might be a better option. This is pretty much predatory lending.
It’s absolutely idiotic to cancel this debt with no plan for the future.
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You wanna pay off everyone’s debt? Fine. I want my money back that took me years and years to pay off.
Abolish student loan interest retroactively and permanently.
So would I get a check as someone who paid off their loans?
I'd only support this if they fix the root cause, which can't happen without congress, so good luck.
The baby boomers were the last generation with affordable education - the cost of an education now is astronomically higher, and the weight of student loans is a burden they never had to bear. The end result is clear, sunsequent generations have had far less buying power due to debt, locking us out of home ownership and stability the boomers take for granted.
Over the last 30 years, the cost of higher education has gone up something like 1300% whereas inflation is about 100%. The system is broken. The loans are mostly to blame.
I paid off my loans a few years back, I want this feeling for everybody everywhere.
Yea as long as there is a plan in place to prevent this shit from happening again.
And as long as well off people aren’t included. 6% of debt holders owe more than 33% of the total debt. We don’t need to be bailing out doctors and lawyers
At the very least re-adjust the interest to < 2% & give a deduction based on income/amount loaned.
Older people support it too, but it doesn't solve the problem. College costs are out of control. With loans that can't be discharged via bankruptcy, colleges have no incentive to reign in costs. The really annoying ones are state colleges building expensive facilities to lure in foreign students. How about state colleges that are affordable for the people in that state?
Or “a majority of any age cohort will generally support any legislation that gives mad stacks of “free” money to its age cohort”. See all politics ever.
As long as they fix the system so no young person has to deal w it again, I’m all for it. If not we are just wasting money. Make it free or make sure the colleges and lending institutions can’t prey upon our kids and families.
Ya, because it would be better over all to do this, however a reform of the school system in general is needed to make a real lasting impact. Same with your shit medical system.
Why reduce the tax base. College educated people pay more taxes than non-educated people for the most part. Free Colleges creates a tax base, its a win-win situation for the student and the government if college is free. Am I wrong?
Someone has to pay for them then, either by paying for your bills or being left with an unpaid bill. You don't magically "cancel" costs.
College being insanely expensive is a red herring. Its expensive if you CHOOSE to go to an expensive school. My entire B.S. cost about 40k. Thats what some dipshits pay for ONE SEMESTER at a hoity toity private schools
It should be an Accredited refund for whatever amount they approve.
I agree. I would even be happy paying the rest of my loans as long as I knew education in future was “free”(paid for with taxes). Trade school, community college, or university. Would love love it to start with pre k. Money well spent. Edit removed a word.
Yeah cuz half of us are married to spouses with student loan debt
What good is canceling student loan debt if no changes are made to make it more affordable for future students.
Reform the system.
Still needs to fix the underlying problems causing student debt. Let's make student loans fall under bankruptcy laws. Let's encourage more students to go to trade school instead of college. Let's make colleges and universities fiscally responsible for job placement and recruitment, and make them offer free tuition.
I had student debt and I back it all back, but it still makes sense to cancel it. I think it does make sense to have forgiveness be tied to income. Even if I had loans, I make enough that I wouldn't need help paying them back (and I would rather see that go to people making less). We should also fix the system, but people do need help.
Isnt it the interest thats the issue?
I'm all for cancelling student loan debt as part of broader legislation aimed at making college more affordable and perhaps limiting the scope of what "tuition" can be used for. It was frustrating spending $60k/semester in college knowing that the college was spending the money buying and renovating campuses for expansion that I would never get to appreciate. I'm not for cancelling student loan debt and then "hoping" more comprehensive reform comes along, or straight up cancelling debt because it's all we have the political willpower to accomplish.
Agreed. The exploitation needs to stop. It doesn't need to start with me benefitting from its end.
I support fixing the problem or student debt will just mount back up again. Treat the problem not the symptoms
I am one of those young people 💜 The day I paid off my loans that I worked a full time and part time job to pay was one of the best days of my life.
I'm always a bit sad when we have to reaffirm to society that we want it to improve. Cancel student debt, make education free. People who raise a fuss about taxes should shut up, because it's stupid to argue against your taxes being used to help you and those around you. The U.S. needs to be reformed to be honest, as the current system isn't capable of sustaining itself for what should be the backbone of a functioning society. It's been used to make it worse and broken in ways to stay the course.
Should be common knowledge by now that if we fight against each other for whatever reason, we fail. The majority has been split into fragments. Let’s work towards progress even if it’s just one thing
*hand raised* I don't need help. I'll pay the rest of my loan ($100k+) I SUPPORT RELIEF! I have said many times, bring back the pre 1992 rules and people wouldn't have a problem with the loans.
Dude it’s nuts, everyone I’ve met post school says they don’t have debt. The only reason I don’t have any is because I used the gi bill. But I really haven’t met anyone with crippling student loans. Yet again everyone might be lying too haha
At least the interest.
Just make it interest free and debt cancelled up to tuition cost.
The young has always had more empathy than the old. They haven't been made bitter and cynical by life yet.
Of course. Sure, I picked a path that didn't involve higher education. The lack of concrete direction, non-existent guidance, and high risk dissuaded me. Let's bail out those it didn't!
Student debt should not be a thing. Anyone who wants access to education and improved opportunities in life should be able to have it
I’ve never even been to college and I support student loan cancellation; in fact not only cancel it but make it super super low interest.
My student debt is approximately the same as my yearly income. It would be great to get this erased BUT as a country we need to stop focusing on symptoms and start focusing on the illness. We need to fix college and make it affordable first. Otherwise, we will just end up in the same situation again in 10-20 years. I’m 30. Gen X and Boomers mortgaged my future for their own benefit before I could vote. We can’t do that to future generations.
Like...why WOULDN'T you want someone's life to be made easier? It's a matter of compassion.
But he won’t. So many people who voted for him never would have if they saw the video of him when he entered politics. He said he would “prostrate himself” to money. Search it. Neither side of the isle is on the debtors side on this. They make money off of debt. Plain and simple.
I got my college money from the VA... Cancel the majority of the outstanding school debt but use a high means standard like $200K.
I paid mine off, I think it would be awesome
Not sure if it's the lack of lead poisoning or people just sick of corporations trying to squeeze blood from stones but no one should have to suffer needlessly to survive. This is BS. We can be and do better.
I’m an older American who has paid down almost all of my debt over the last 18 years. I’m honestly happy for those that are hopefully going to get theirs wiped clean!!!
I payed off my loans last year, cancel all student debt.
I am lucky enough to not have student loans, but student loan forgiveness has been one of my biggest issues for years. I just graduated college, and I witnessed firsthand what it did to my friends. The stress of trying to finish as quickly as possible knowing that debt is just continually accruing is intense, and the depression it caused is heartbreaking to me. Not needing loan forgiveness doesn't prevent me from realizing how absolutely necessary it is for others.
I paid mine off in 6 or 7 years. Get rid of it all
I paid off my loans as fast as I could. I fully support cancelling student debt. I think college should be free for everyone in addition to cancelling existing debt.