Most of us have experience as a student, parent or both with student loan re-payment. We voluntarily entered into an agreement to borrow money from banks via the US government to fund a portion or all of our educations. It was clear from the start that this money would have to be re-paid one day. Yesterday I saw video of three members of the Squad at a political rally asking for forgiveness for their student loans. AOC complained the loudest. All three are comped $174,000 annually plus Cadillac benefits for their duties. So far Joe Biden is said to have forgiven $32B in student loans. If true, that is enough to have built a wall across the entire southern border of the US and staffed it for the foreseeable future. I'm interested what you guys think about forgiveness of these loans.
Let's see if I have this straight? You signed up for a loan on the hope that a degree in Elizabethan Literature would lead to a six figure income and paying back your $200k loan would be easy. Turned out not to be the case, so now I have to pay for it? POUND SAND!
Forgiving student loans to folks mostly earning six figures...while at the same time giving $5,000 rebates for electric cars to rich folks who can afford them. Something wrong here. And don't forget the law of unintended consequences. The day after they passed the EV rebate the automakers raised the price of EV's. Getting loans that will be forgiven only incentivizes the universities to raise tuition and fees...Same thing with all the government scholarship grants. I am not opposed to them but the easier they are to get and the more students that get them, the more able the universities are to inflate their costs. If student loans are to be "forgiven" maybe they should be paid back by the universities. Shameless Purdue Plug; Purdue has frozen tuition and fees and not raised them since 2011-12. Also 10 years of no increases in housing rates. Overall cost of attending Purdue is less than it was in 2012-13. 60% of students graduate debt free (national avg is 39%). Oh, and guess what? When I was on campus last year they are throwing up new buildings like crazy. They have NOT cut staff or professors. I'm so sad that President Mitch Daniels is going to retire. He has been great. Purdue’s decade-long tuition freeze, record enrollment levels help counter state’s trending drop in college-going rate - Purdue University News
He's not done in Indiana. His supporters are trying to get him to run for governor. Our local sportswriter extraordinaire (IMO), Gregg Doyel, would like to see him as president of the NCAA, or of the country. I'm in that camp.
Still do...but it may backfire. All the folks who paid off their debts or put their kids or themselves through college...
Back during the financial collapse in 2009 the was hit by layoffs in just about every area exceptk government and education. While the laws of supply and demand governed corporate economics universities continued to raise the cost of tuition. Not coincidently the Obama administration had taken over student loans and loans to pay the increasingly higher tuitions was readily available. The result was increasingly heavier debt loads for graduates entering a tight labor market caused difficulties. And as previously mentioned students increasingly majored in areas that produced few lucrative jobs. (Art history and marine biology for example.) It's probably just coincidence but if you look up the largest donors to the Obama campaign, you'll find a number of universities like Cal Berkley. Heard someone on TV say what do you say to the individual who chose not to go to college and instead bought tools and has been working and paying taxes while others were attending college? His tax money is now supposed to pay off their loans?
Following Gipper's post above, my niece graduated from Ohio University with a Bachelor's degree and went on to Syracuse University and earned a Master's degree in Art History. Her goal was to work at one of the great museums in New York or Washington. She funded her education with student loans. Four years later she lives in Tampa and has just taken her third entry level job, all unrelated to her education and degrees. Contrast that to the son of one of my managers in my business. He graduated high school and immediately started trade in school studying HVAC repair and installation. As he approached completion they found him an entry level position and he began earning as he prepared to test for his certifications, which he passed. The process took him about five years but he was earning as he progressed. Now at the age of 37 he has a huge home, lots of expensive toys, a family and more work than he can handle. He consistently earns $250K or better. Never stepped foot in a university and never took a student loan.
My youngest son who joined the Corps, is a year away from his journeyman cert for electrical aviation mech. He can either reenlist next year, or step into a 100k job he's certified for. He'll also have 80k for college should he ever need it.
Not a popular topic in our household as well. We told our kids that we would foot the bill for their undergrad degrees - if they chose to go that route - but anything beyond was on their nickel - ROI kind of incentive as wife and I both believed it important for them to have enough skin in the game to get their attention. Son, got a degree in Computer Science had no interest in grad school so had a nice job waiting when he graduated, left the family payroll and moved to the west coast and is doing his thing. Daughter dreamed of being a Doc since she was in grade school. Busted her ass through undergrad, did all the right things and got accepted to med school and is beginning her 3rd year. 4/5 years of med school is ridiculously expensive but she knew the deal and is plowing ahead. We're helping her out some with living expenses, but she's footing the entire bill for tuition, etc and will come out a Doc, but she'll have a mountain of debt. It seems Joe and his progressive pals are happy to foot the bill for the art history, poli sci majors and romantic language lit majors as the world sorely needs their contribution to society, but pretty sure they're not gonna worry too much about my girl and all those like her.....it seems as if our incentives are a little out whack with our national priorities
This debacle is unbelievable. The Federal Government played a role in this "crisis"...the universities played a role in this "crisis"...the students who took out the loan contracts and agreed to pay the debt back played a role in this "crisis". The people who DIDN'T play a role in this crisis (other than electing idiots) are the ones who will pay for it. So prices go up some with more inflation...can I handle it? Sure. Who can't handle it?...the poor schmuck who never took out a college loan and is struggling with a low paying job, kids and a mortgage, etc. Normally I just roll my eyes at my political disagreements. This one makes me angry.
Its no wonder each succeeding generation is weaker than the one before. First it was the curved average on tests. Then it was pass-fail. No Dress code. No punishments. Participation trophies. Now we are teaching them that its OK to break contracts and stick other people with the tab.
The Biden rationale behind the loan forgiveness is that it somehow is justified by the "tax break given to only the very wealthy." Even the Wash. Post call out this lie months ago. But he and Word Salad keep regurgitating it over and over. WaPo fact-checker gives Biden’s claim about Trump tax cuts four Pinocchios | The Hill
As if giveaways aren't bad enough, consider where we are from a macro-economic context. The central bankers are presently aggressively tightening monetary policy to slow the growth in aggregate demand necessary to address the burgeoning inflation issue. This giveaway is simply more fiscal stimulus, necessitating ever greater tightening monetary conditions from the Fed, thereby increasing the probability of policy mistakes and resulting recession....all the while saddling the system with an increased tax burden. Not the recipe for economic success, timing not ideal to be certain, imho.....
Another large problem that's being created is the effect of inflation on the Social Security Trust Fund. Next year's COLA will probably reduce the life expectancy of the fund. What's becoming more and more apparent is that this administration is an anticipated one term event. President Shingles is ignoring the criticisms of his boarder policy, his energy policy, his economic policy and his foreign policy (from Afghanistan to Iran) The fact is even though his popularity is very low, SHINGLES DOESN'T CARE. The latest issue is crime. We need tens of thousands of new cops. Instead we're getting 87,000 new IRS agents. What the criminals don't take from you Biden's IRS will get.
Remember what I said earlier Gipper, when the people get truly tired of it, factions of this country's history reap their ugly heads again. Both good and bad.