What are your thoughts on student loan forgivness?
I guess the thing is that if someone loans you money, you should pay it back. It's only fair, right? That's the purpose of a mortgage, for example.
This page is a permanent link to the reply below and its nested replies. See all post replies »
dancingtongue · 80-89, M
Complex issue. Back in the last century when you had publicly funded state colleges/universities and junior/community colleges, such loans were not necessary. Then the government in reprisal for the 1960's student protests cut back on public funding. So they universities started jacking up tuition, turning to higher paying out-of-state and foreign students, and being more into research and intellectual property development to make up the shortfalls in funding. Being charitable, I will assume that Congress intended the student loan program to be a way of making college education affordable to most again, and the concept that those getting a college degree generally will earn more and therefore be able to repay makes sense. But the devil always in the details, and in this case the devil was the private financial institutions they turned the program over to without sufficient guidelines or oversight.
So those students who got marketable degrees and went into high paying jobs and can afford to repay make up a small percentage. They probably don't need relief, but if you cancel for some would it be discriminatory? Then you have a bunch who got degrees in subject areas and fields that really don't lead to employment opportunities but are needed and do, in many cases, enrich other aspects of our society. Should they be forgiven for taking out loans they knew they probably would never be able to repay? And then you have a large group of predatory loans where the lending agencies went out and actively recruited people to take out loans that both knew were highly unlikely to ever be repayable, but were guaranteed by the government. Much like what happened with the junk mortgages that burst the housing bubble back in the day. Many were absolutely fraudulent, guaranteeing jobs that were non-existent and in many cases had long ago been shipped overseas, and in cohoots with private training "insititutes" or "schools". These require prosecution, and hopefully refunding by the private companies involved rather than forgiveness by the taxpayers.
So those students who got marketable degrees and went into high paying jobs and can afford to repay make up a small percentage. They probably don't need relief, but if you cancel for some would it be discriminatory? Then you have a bunch who got degrees in subject areas and fields that really don't lead to employment opportunities but are needed and do, in many cases, enrich other aspects of our society. Should they be forgiven for taking out loans they knew they probably would never be able to repay? And then you have a large group of predatory loans where the lending agencies went out and actively recruited people to take out loans that both knew were highly unlikely to ever be repayable, but were guaranteed by the government. Much like what happened with the junk mortgages that burst the housing bubble back in the day. Many were absolutely fraudulent, guaranteeing jobs that were non-existent and in many cases had long ago been shipped overseas, and in cohoots with private training "insititutes" or "schools". These require prosecution, and hopefully refunding by the private companies involved rather than forgiveness by the taxpayers.