Should they wipe out students loan debts?

[hobie]

I worked my tail off in college, including working during the summer, and still had to get a student loan. And I paid back every last penny, so it leaves me with mixed feelings with all these ideas of wiping off all the debt for student loans.

I don't mind helping them, but when I see these students who don't work a day for college and take out a student loan for more than a average teacher makes in a year, it leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I think Bernie is a good man but cant see how he and Elizabeth Warren would think to cancel all the federal student loan debt.

Presidential Candidates on Student Loans: The Complete 2020 Guide | Student Loan Hero

 

[tango]

Wiping out student loans makes no more sense than wiping out car loans or home loans.

The fundamental problem is that it's too easy to borrow too much money. The easy supply of money simply encourages the market to mop up the extra funds, in the form of increased prices. It's happening all over the place.

It's sad when people end up with huge debts to get a degree they end up not using, ending up underemployed, but it's not as if anyone is forced to go to college. And a system that effectively imposes a tax on those who don't go to college to fund those who do (and who are statistically more likely to generate higher salaries) makes even less sense than most of what even the likes of AOC can come up with.

 

[Josiah]

Well..... I arranged things so that I didn't need any student loans.

But I'm sure Bernie will not leave me out. Perhaps he'll whip out my mortgage instead. I'd appreciate that. Bernie would NEVER be unfair about this.



.

 

[Lamb]

Should "they" wipe out student loans? That would really mean "us" as in those who work hard and pay taxes and never signed "their" promissory notes. I don't see why I should take on someone else's debt without my permission.

 

[tango]

Should "they" wipe out student loans? That would really mean "us" as in those who work hard and pay taxes and never signed "their" promissory notes. I don't see why I should take on someone else's debt without my permission.

This sums it up perfectly - the only way to "wipe out" the debts is to effectively dump them onto the people who didn't take them, didn't choose them and didn't benefit from them.

 

[Lamb]

This sums it up perfectly - the only way to "wipe out" the debts is to effectively dump them onto the people who didn't take them, didn't choose them and didn't benefit from them.

If the debt were TO ME then I could be generous and say don't pay it. But the debt is to the banks and they're not going to forgive those at all. If we want to reduce student loans we need to convince colleges to not charge so much. And that means lowering professor's salaries. I'm sure that not everyone needs to take ball room dancing as part of their degree so why offer things that people don't need in order to get a job?

 

[tango]

If the debt were TO ME then I could be generous and say don't pay it. But the debt is to the banks and they're not going to forgive those at all. If we want to reduce student loans we need to convince colleges to not charge so much. And that means lowering professor's salaries. I'm sure that not everyone needs to take ball room dancing as part of their degree so why offer things that people don't need in order to get a job?

It's not about convincing colleges not to charge so much, it's more about reducing the ease with which people can borrow in the first place. When people can borrow so easily, why would anyone be surprised that colleges quite happily soak up the extra money? The thing about "forgiving" debts is that it arguably isn't really forgiveness at all, merely the taxpayer paying off the loan.

We see the same thing all over the place. I can't comment on mortgages in the US but there was a time in the UK when a mortgage was three times salary, maximum. Then society shifted so more women chose to work, and banks would lend three times one salary plus the other salary. Needless to say the price of housing increased to soak up the extra cash. It's been a while since I looked at how flexible it is these days but when my wife and I bought our house we were theoretically able to borrow something like three times our combined salary including projected bonuses and the like. Not surprisingly, property prices explode as the market simply soaks up all the extra cash.

I'm not even sure we'd need to lower professors' salaries to cut college costs. I can't help thinking there are far too many jobs that notionally require a degree but it's really hard to see why someone needs to study in an academic setting for an extended period. The way things are going I'm wondering how long it will be before there are degree courses in mopping the floor and asking "do you want fries with that?".