To quote Krugman, a major principle of economics is people respond to incentives.
Say what you want about PPP, CHIPS, etc. but they are incentive based. Do X and you get Y. Your college "output" is not a factor for loan forgiveness, having the loan is all it takes! Deadbeat basement bro, the overworked teacher and the Anthropologist working at the coffee shop are all cashing those checks.
I support K-16 curriculum overhaul, taking a blowtorch to how we fund education, and loan dismissal for the most disadvantaged, but this feels like pushing the "easy" button.
It's OK. We don't need college graduates as nurses, teachers, civil engineers or business types in any of those places. They choose to live there.
By the logic of "I worked hard and paid mine" --- I should be as pissed as anyone. I paid off 65k of loans in the last 6 years on the salary of a early childhood data geek for the govt in Denver. Not exactly flying high. Last year I paid off the last 9k of my loans (all federal) when I got the only windfall of my life (6k). I could've just ridden it out and got it cancelled.
Am I pissed? Fuck no. This is such a good thing for the vast majority of <40 college grads that I know and work with.
We owed something like 8x the average in our student loans. Still paying em off. $10k is a drop in the bucket and I’m not sure we will even qualify. But hey, I’ll take it if we can. Already paying a shitload more than that in taxes this year.
It is total bullshit though. I’d rather they fix the system.
Interesting data. For all the handwringing in this thread about it not being fair about it be 125k line for the 10k -- it's people with less education and lower incomes that are more supportive of forgiveness. Please don't pull the paternalistic "people don't know whats good for them" argument -- or that "well this policy is not as good as it could be" -- we fucking know that. No policy is as good as it could be.
Those that oppose are more likely to be making 100k+, have post grad degrees, be 45 or older, and white. Now that doesn't sound like anyone on TGR....
Where do I find the details of the program to see who qualifies? I have a recent grad and a current student.
Data shows that this will move 500k black people from negative to positive net worth.
https://twitter.com/bakerdphd/status...9NRioSqmcHzv5w
If the numbers are true, regardless of what you think about the income caps, 95% of pell grant recipients had household incomes <$65k . Thats not upper class.
There should be a higher bar to clear besides "have a loan". Ex: Unfinished degrees are still eligible for forgiveness. I'd argue "Put skin in the game, finish your degree, and then cash your check".
No doubt, PPP's bar was too low. It has been covered hundreds of times.
Eh, i dont really buy that argument. I owned a 2x2 condo and lived very comfortably (by my standards) in the seattle area making a a good chunk less than $100k over the last 5 years. And i was able to save a good chunk every year too. I think most people are shitty with money and/or have unrealistically high expectations for their standard of living. Thats not to say there aren't plenty of people doing the right things and still scraping by, but the above statement is kinda BS IME.
It would be interesting to see the breakdown of what the professions are of people having debt forgiven, what their major was, and how old they are at the time of debt forgiveness. Also, would these people continue living in the poorer/rural/bluecollar communities if they didnt have a large amount of debt siphoning off their income?
crappy anecdotal sample of 1: One of the younger partners at my wifes law firm will be having $10k of debt forgiven despite making +$2mil in 2020 and likely to make +$5mil in 2023. They only get paid when cases settle/payout and go a couple years between big cases. She was advised to hold off paying down her $200k in loans in the hopes the biden administration would do a big student debt cancellation. She has only made her base salary of $45k last year and will again this year, so she qualifies i think?
There's no indication of how they will calculate salary yet from what I've seen. I would expect they are well aware the compensation packages for high earners look unlike those for low earners. Your anecdotal example is someone earning in the 0.1% -- hardly representative.
My wife's an example: she taught as an adjunct at a spending private university for the last 6 years because she loves teaching. Made ~45k a year. Has plenty of loans. We realized we wanted kids and simply could not make the math work unless one of us switch career paths -- especially if we ever wanted a house with a 2nd bathroom and a WFH space. We drive very expensive cars (2013 minivan and a 2007 civic.) She switched to being a SWE, works at a FAANG and has had a base salary of $125k for the last 9 months. No idea if she'll qualify, but it'd be cool if she does.
The only question I ask is how long will taxpayer money be needed to bail out student debt?
Or, did this really fix the problem?
I have been in this State for 30 years and I am willing to admit that I am part of the problem.
"Happiest years of my life were earning < $8.00 and hour, collecting unemployment every spring and fall, no car, no debt and no responsibilities. 1984-1990 Park City UT"
I wonder if they’re deliberately keeping it vague just to see where the challenges come from so they can adapt and adjust? Details would be nice…. It’s unclear if I’ll see any benefit from this, but even if that was clear I have some skepticism that it isn’t blown up before fruition.
focus.
Because it’s society’s responsibility to make sure people can have children? I thought the gov already gave tax credits for kids.
Why not line up the cap for student loan forgiveness with the cap for the child stimulus? More kids is long term economic play. But if those who went to college get some debt forgiven, they can have more kids.
This whole thing is about the economy right? Why not just give everyone under a certain income a tax credit school debt or not or just start sending stimulus checks out again but this time to households earning under $250k.
Maybe Andrew Yang is right and there should be universal minimum income. Maybe the dems are pandering to voters. Maybe I’m trolling with my above comments.
I’m more in line with Danno’s cartoon and we shouldn’t be arguing about not helping the poor out and closing the wealth gap but JFC, rip the damn bandaid off and quit piecemealing little short term fixes for specific populations.
Let’s go back to the cancer analogy. I’d be a lot happier if the gov earmarked matching funds that they’ll spend to student loans towards medical debt. Sure, medical debt can be counted in bankruptcy so shouldn’t be as important right? Bankruptcy is a choice right? Pulling yourself out of medical bankruptcy is a bootstrap thing right? It’s easy to do and live in a high cost area and have kids after washing away your debt in court right? Getting an expensive disease is a choice just like signing loan paperwork to go to school right?
I’m expecting supporters of the student loan forgiveness to vote in the next elections and put their support to either Yang or Sanders to really fix this stuff.
Yeah, I’m trolling.
Ok, don’t necessarily disagree with your point. But I’d be curious what, if any, measures are being put in place to prevent someone like me in Idaho Falls from getting the money. I make a fair bit less than $125k and if I don’t buy stupid shit can bank $1000+ a month. Why would someone meeting that demographic need this payout.
I’m not against this program, but it needs to be way more refined than how it’s being marketed. There are areas that could use a portion of this money way more than the top demographic of this plan.
And btw, having worked in largest city in the country there’s this thing called public transit for those who can’t afford to live there (like me).
I dont think anyone will argue that being a single parent makes things infinitely more difficult. Hell, being a parent with a spouse to help out is still extremely complicating and difficult.
I also dont think the example i quoted was talking about single parents, or someone with a kid.
I wuold assume that they will look at either your 2021 or 2022 tax returns to get your income, depending on when the forgiveness goes into effect. If the IRS only looks at your past years income, i doubt loan forgiveness will complicate that number with something like an average... especially with how much the pandemic fucked with some peoples incomes over the past few years.
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