Cancel Student Loan Debt to stimulate economy?

[Dorothy Wood]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jon-chattman/forgiving-student-loan-de_b_164103.html


I actually had this idea before, but didn't really think it through. now some people are really trying to get it done.

honestly, I think it would totally awesome. if my loan was forgiven, I'd have an extra $200/month to spend on candy and soda pop!

[Burnout18]

Dream on everybody...

[Bob]

i obviously support this idea and i have no interest in exploring the long-term ramifications of it (y)

seriously though, federal debt is actually not too bad. recently they started an income-based repayment program, which caps your payments at 11% of your income no matter how much you owe/earn, so that you're never really strapped with unpayable payments. i'm fine with that, and i'm not sure that waiving that debt would be better for the economy than me paying it

i kind of wish i'd known that would happen before i took out $50,000 in private loans though (i owe even more in federal loans, i'm not even sure how much)

[abcdefz]

No no no cancel cancel cancel.

[checkyourprez]

thats bullshit.


my school was paid cash money and ill be damned if i dont benefit from this.



what i think they should do its just significantly lower the cost of institutions however. some of the prices for school are completely ridiculous and really restrict the ability for people just as smart if not smarter than some in those schools to go to them. which in turn effects how much they can make ect.

[RobMoney$]

seriously though, federal debt is actually not too bad. recently they started an income-based repayment program, which caps your payments at 11% of your income no matter how much you owe/earn, so that you're never really strapped with unpayable payments. i'm fine with that, and i'm not sure that waiving that debt would be better for the economy than me paying it


Congratulations for being the only ethical lawyer I've ever met.

You made an obligation, better yet you entered into a contract with the federal government to borrow money for tuition.
Live up to it and repay it. Stop looking for a hand-out. (y)

I apply the same sentiment to mortgages

[checkyourprez]

Congratulations for being the only ethical lawyer I've ever met.

You made an obligation, better yet you entered into a contract with the federal government to borrow money for tuition.
Live up to it and repay it. Stop looking for a hand-out. (y)

I apply the same sentiment to mortgages

the problem with a lot of those mortgages that people got roped into (and once again its something both sides are guilty of) is that the banks had them paying a monthly payment that wasn't even covering what should have been their monthly interest. so it would literally impossible for them to ever pay off those debts. the money they owed was actually growing with each payment.

[Schmeltz]

I apply the same sentiment to mortgages

Same sentiment, completely different circumstances. Mortgages are not contracts with the federal government, they are contracts with financial institutions that are supposed to be regulated by the federal government, but which have instead been allowed to create a climate of total financial instability on the basis of nothing but barefaced greed.

Plus you don't typically have your home confiscated if you can't make your student loan payments. Or do you? I might be wrong about that.

[yeahwho]

I wonder if I can get my VISA card debt wiped clean? And perhaps my struggling auto payments and insurance taken care of. You know, just until I get my feet back on the ground in 2018 or so.

This seems like a good way to get me spending money like crazy again and that will make for a good stimulating economy on a very local level.

[Bob]

Same sentiment, completely different circumstances. Mortgages are not contracts with the federal government, they are contracts with financial institutions that are supposed to be regulated by the federal government, but which have instead been allowed to create a climate of total financial instability on the basis of nothing but barefaced greed.

Plus you don't typically have your home confiscated if you can't make your student loan payments. Or do you? I might be wrong about that.

give me 10 years and i'll get back to you on that

[RobMoney$]

the problem with a lot of those mortgages that people got roped into (and once again its something both sides are guilty of) is that the banks had them paying a monthly payment that wasn't even covering what should have been their monthly interest. so it would literally impossible for them to ever pay off those debts. the money they owed was actually growing with each payment.


Yeah, it's all the predatory lenders fault.
They told all those sub-prime borrowers either their signature or their brains would be on that half a million dollar mortgage.

[checkyourprez]

the problem with a lot of those mortgages that people got roped into (and once again its something both sides are guilty of) is that the banks had them paying a monthly payment that wasn't even covering what should have been their monthly interest. so it would literally impossible for them to ever pay off those debts. the money they owed was actually growing with each payment.

Yeah, it's all the predatory lenders fault.
They told all those sub-prime borrowers either their signature or their brains would be on that half a million dollar mortgage.


did you purposely ignore that part or did you just miss it? :confused:

[Dorothy Wood]

in case you guys missed it, I was only half serious, and looking for reasons why it wouldn't work. obviously I'm not expecting it to really happen. Just thought it would spark a discussion rather than just a bunch of statements.

I just wonder why giving billions of dollars to wall street and the auto industry, and dumping a few hundred bucks in everyone's accounts all at once is better than giving working educated people a break.

and I'm not looking for a hand-out, I just thought it was an interesting idea to get money moving back into the economy.

:rolleyes:

[HAL 9000]

I think the objection to the idea of writing off student debt would be
1)It is a cash handout to a largely middle class group who are society’s most able to pay off their debts anyway

2)Giving people cash generally just causes inflation and does not increase the spending power of consumers on a whole – it just redistributes it to those middle class graduates. So a student gets richer cos of a handout but everyone else becomes poorer because their money loses buying power. Overall there is a net loss to the areas of society that need the help most (eg retail industry, manufacturing and associated employees)

Ultimately, though, it is education and investment in research and development that drives economic growth so you need to manage costs in these areas.

On the other hand, you pretty much have to give money to the finance sector because the whole economy relies on it in order to function.

I disagree with bailing out the auto industry, I think any money spent there is better spent stimulating job growth in other sectors (thus limiting the unemployment fall out of losing the sector). The car industry could do with a complete rebuild from the ground up anyway IMO. If the car industry is failing because consumers can’t get credit – then bail out the banks so they can. If it is failing because people don’t want their crappy inefficient cars in a recession, then so be it – they need to make less crappy cars that are affordable in difficult times. If they are so inflexible that they cant move with the economic environment then they deserve to go to the wall (IMO).

[QueenAdrock]

Paying student loan debt sucks, but it's not impossible. They have ways of working out payment plans where you pay less at first and more later (when you've worked your way up the corporate ladder). Plus, you can write interest off your taxes.

I mean, I hate loans, but I hate being dependent on others as well. Once I finished paying off my car I felt so accomplished because I bought it all by myself. I view my education the same way. I personally hate it when I hear people who have parents paying completely for their education because they "want them to study while in school, not work to have to pay for it" (ie, their kids will just have more time to drink beer), and this would basically be the same thing in my opinion. People getting shit for free, not learning responsibility, and blowing the money they save on liquor.

Anyways, I could see them allowing for more tax credits or something, but not complete forgiveness.

[King PSYZ]

I get a guarantee in writting and notarized that my kids both get a paid college education and yeah you can write off that debt if you really think it's gonna do any good.

Until that happens 9and it won't) then no, pay what you owe.

On the mortgage tip, some people were generally hosed. My girlfriend's mother has to file chapter 7 and walk away from a house she's paid heavily into for the last 4 years in payments and improvements because of a bad loan.

Some of these "lenders" will tell a buyer one thing and put another in the paperwork and by the time the homeowner finds out it's far too late.

[Echewta]

I'm down for community service or the G.I. Bill type of situation but not cancel student loan debts. That would only help Apple and liquor stores.

Its often the first loan people take out and its an important lesson to learn about responsibility.

But then again, the deeper I read about the bailouts, etc., the more I understand why they happen. This would be a bailout that effects the people directly.

[Bob]

I'm down for community service or the G.I. Bill type of situation but not cancel student loan debts. That would only help Apple and liquor stores.

i'd say something but i'm drinking a beer on a tuesday and i just plugged in my ipod to charge the battery so you've sort of got me actually

speaking of something vaguely GI bill related actually, i have a friend who's in the marines and got called into active duty while he was in law school. his grace period on his loan ran out while he was in iraq (because he was not enrolled in school at least half-time) so he has to start paying that shit back immediately when he graduates, i find that kind of shitty

i guess that has nothing to do with the GI bill actually