the-pi-guy said:
First thing to point out is that different candidates have different views on it. Elizabeth Warren has a $50k cap for forgiveness, and only eligible for people making less than $100k.
A couple of things here: -According to your criteria, only 1/3rd of a class could even do any of that. That doesn't even consider that it might not even be possible to do that. For example, you're assuming that it's possible to take classes that match up for both. My high school had special classes that were required for seniors, that were not something that would show up in a college curriculum. Beyond that you're assuming that every class could match up. That's not likely to happen.
Even your last paragraph said your particular school would only allow the top 1/3rd to be able to take advantage of that. Even if someone was able to pull off your entire dream scenario, the vast majority of students are literally locked out of it. Realistically even at the college you were mentioning, around $40,000 is what to expect.
>So what is my proposed solution? The issue is that you're focusing on punishment, instead of trying to figure out what would improve people's lives and the development of the country. The difference between housing and education is that the US has developed a public education system, which has costs getting wildly out of hand. >Putting that aside, what about going forward? I agree that more should be done to educate people on their choices to make education cheaper, but none of that's a fix. |
The 1/3 (Junior) and 1/2 (Senior) was a limitation that really didn't impact the majority of people who ultimately attended college anyways. Those who didn't qualify for this frequently weren't able to perform well enough to stay in college to begin with (which is an ENTIRELY different issue with our society). And the program lined up quite well so that both college liberal arts requirements and high school requirements were fully met. So I'm not quite certain how the vast majority are locked out of this?
I also miscalculated my tax refund info before. As college begins in Fall and ends in Spring, even attending 2 years will result in 3 tax credits, not 2. This will further reduce the costs by $1,750.
While I'm perfectly content discussing the matter with you, I rather lose this willingness when my 2 comments I've received pretty clearly say this is a "dream scenario" (EVERY single person I know in my college program qualified for this exact same stuff), as well as one comment further above indicating my numbers are ridiculous (while failing to post ANY sort of justification as to what makes these numbers ridiculous when they are very real, and very available to the population attending college).
Relative to you saying I'm suggesting a punishment, what about making somebody pay for something they signed up for is a punishment? When you bring a tv up to the checkout desk and they make you pay, is it a punishment? What about when you buy a car that you agree to pay for over say 5 years. Is that a punishment when you ultimately have to make payments for this, and society doesn't provide help? While it certainly sucks ass (I have to make loan payments and absolutely don't love it), I'm paying for what I received. People occasionally make mistakes in life, and it is perfectly reasonable to have to deal with the consequences of these mistakes. I absolutely don't believe relieving all of the student loans will drastically improve our society. People have a tendency to spend approximately 100% of the money they bring in (generally in the 1-2 weeks after they get it). I'd argue what is much more likely to happen is people will no longer have student loan payments, and thus will just buy bigger houses, newer cars, and newer gadgets with this newfound money. Will this technically bump our economy? It certainly will. Will people be better off? Unlikely. They will continue to live paycheck to paycheck, but simply have a different loan they have to service instead.
One thing I can say with absolute certainty, is I have never in my life met somebody who had an unsustainable amount of student loan debt that didn't have the choice not to have that amount be unsustainable. Whether it was a poor career choice, going on an expensive spring break trip every year, buying a new car while in college, the list goes on and on, there were many choices these people made that ultimately resulted in these student loans being a problem. Many people would probably even be surprised to discover they could make substantially more with a 2 year degree (a good friend of mine happens to make wellllllll in excess of myself and is well over $100k/year only about 5-6 years out of school). At my last job, the majority of our field employees earned substantially more than I did as an accountant, and they were pipefitters (requires a short night school program).
Once again, none of this fixes the current "issue". I can keep saying they just need to live with their mistakes. But what does this mean? It means maybe they need to work a second job for a couple of years and pay their debt down a little. Maybe they need to go "donate" plasma to earn some extra cash. Maybe they need to stop buying a new smart phone every year, going to the bars every weekend, a concert every month etc until their loans are more reasonable.
Just like the rest of decisions adults make, they need to live with them, and do what it takes to solve it. This won't solve 100% of the issues (no solution seems to in today's society as there are just too many one off scenarios), but it absolutely would fix the majority of the debt problem.
Money can't buy happiness. Just video games, which make me happy.