It is actually quite seditious. You have to go into collections before they do this, which means that the bankers have given up on getting the full value out of you: they've already taken the loss, written it off, and sold your debt for a fraction of its value to collectors.

Equally, this undercuts the predatory collection agencies by taking some of their business away.

Only problem is the damage to their credit rating. Folks who want to get out of college debt with their credit rating intact (like me!) can't turn to these people for help.

That's almost like saying collectors are taking the bank's business away, though. Banks have given up by the time they actually sell debt to collectors (vs. just hiring the collectors to collect), and those collectors have given up by the time they are willing to sell it to other collectors at this low of a rate.

So this gets a few people off the hook, but probably only the most dedicated of deadbeats, which I'm not sure is such a good thing. And the number is so insignificant that it does nothing at all to undermine the system in practical terms since getting your bad debt forgiven by OWS is about as likely as winning the lottery.

You obviously did not read the article. I scanned it, but picked up this. An example of what was paid of was for a woman with 18,000 in debt who got $600 paid off. Talk about a free ride and a belief-preserving bias on your part.

The initiative is a few years old now and doesn't only target student loan debt, but it never gets old listening to you bitch about how biased I am.

University should be free at point of need to start with. So we aren't seemingly punished for doing higher education and wanting something better out of life. The current situation is just disgusting.

Although good on occupy but my point is this shouldn't have to be necessary 

There is no such thing as a free lunch. 

There is if we all chip in together. Not free but cheaper 

Time should be only the currency to spend 

So that's a whopping one three-hundred-thousandth of student loan debt paid then.

Leading American universities cost far too much money to run for that to be feasible.

As for Britain, it was free until we decided that we had to quintuple the number of people going through it. Honestly, I think it would make a lot more sense for universities to be funded based on the quality of their teaching than for a PPE student at Oxford and student of modern dance at London Met to warrant the same amount of funding for their universities. One obviously costs far more to teach and creates far more value than the other.

Wow, just think at that rate someone can pay $19,000 in debt with just $500.