Absolutely great article! I am one of the few with less than 40k in student loans having not even finished 3 years. I tried paying back my loans, but eventually just stopped. I couldn’t afford to pay 300 dollars a month or even 100 when I was making 10 dollars an hour. So it’s absolutely true! It isn’t money that needs to be repaid, the money is already not accounted for. Especially if we can forgive PPI loans for even more money a person we can do this.
I think a way to sway anyone that complains about “I paid back my loans that isn’t fair” then could see about a tax break for those people who paid off their loans. Benefit all even those who were financially able to pay it off or pay off a bulk of it.
Mr Biden, who has enabled the destruction of democracy by Trump, owes this to Americans, but also to cut-off further supplying of weapons and funding to Israel.
Even if Biden, who is just a bit younger then me, and no doubt raised in an atmosphere of never embracing debt, let alone reneging on re-payment, would embrace student debt cancellation wholesale and could convince all his supporters/staff & cronies to accept it - how long do you think that would survive under the GOP who have demonstrated in spades their determination to transfer wealth from low and middle income folks to themselves?
Student loans have proven to be the biggest non tax measure for hollowing out the path to prosperity for the baby boomers' succeeding generations. Whoever invented the idea of student loans, never imagined the immediate implementation of ways to scam both the federal government and its taxpayers.
Who benefited from the scam? Well, all the fake "educational/vocational" institutions ( won't dignify them as colleges or schools) and all the "legit" institutions whose enrollment and revenue soared enabling spending sprees on student, staff and executive amenities.... but not on the salaries of graduate assistants, or contract instructors, or lab workers or support staff, or..... and all the parasitic barnacles immediately encrusting the loans process and skimming off their - what's the word the mafia uses for their graft? the vig?
Oh well, just another corruption of government subsidies to oil & gas, Big Ag, the military/industrial complex, , big banks and wall street bankrupt gamblers, etc. ad nauseum. The all too familiar fails of overblown empires?
In two short months the USA will well and truly enter into the end stage of the world's biggest economic empire, done to death by its insatiable grifters, legalized bribery, election rigging, gerrymandering, legalized "enslavement" the whole nasty roll call of human malfeasance, embodied in governments that are nothing but kleptocracies..
Thank you! There are “educational” institutions like “Liberty” University that are nothing more than indoctrination mills, defrauding their students, which should be accountable to the false hopes they also dispense to students for career expectations.
I just emailed the White House to cancel all student loan debt..... and finally stop arms shipments to Israel-that would at least give some temporary respite to the Palestinians who haven't already been slaughtered.
Biden has neither the courage or vision to do this, and probably never did. He's from a mindset that believes that when you pay your dues, serve your time in a respectable way, you are simply entitled to receive respect and power in turn. The Bush family was a notably lame example of this also. Dubya and Jeb are probably still puzzling over it. Small men in big times.
Another reason he should cancel student loan debt is because the orange one has already vowed to cancel PSLF and income driven repayment plans. That will hurt tons of public service workers and teachers who have been putting in the time.
There are lots of insightful comments and sensible, fair minded ideas in the comment thread. Count me among those who think that student loan debt above the original loan amount and a reasonable (2%?) interest amount ought to be forgiven; the loans are exploitative; the first two years at a state college or a qualified trade school or apprenticeship program should be open to all and publicly financed; and the college loan regime is biased in favor of wealthy elites who can afford college without resort to loans.
Here’s my beef — can we please stop referring to handling student debt as “forgiving college loans”. That is not what is anticipated. It’s not as catchy a phrase to say we are “cancelling student debt that exceeds the original loan amount plus ___% interest”. While we are at it, the student loan interest rate should be capped at after the first two years of publicly funded advanced education at ___%. It is beyond cavil that having an educated society is in our national interest — unless, of course, you want to create a two-class society, elites and drones.
Good points. I do think that students who have not benefitted from their college degrees should have their debt cancelled, the original balances paid by those colleges that defrauded them in giving them false hopes of what career prospects they would have.
I agree that Biden could do a lot of things. I am not sure if he has the will to do anything. Student debt is a real issue and has an easy solution. It is not complicated. Issue the Executive Order and end it. The economy will thank you.
Bailing out billionaires through tax breaks is also a problem- but it is a separate problem. Because one group of people is being bailed out doesn't mean another group should be as well. All the bailouts need to stop.
These problems should be addressed at their core: college education should not be 1/5 of an individual's salary. There are two problems here: high education costs and low salaries. Let's focus on fixing those problems. Colleges have billion-dollar endowments. Harvard is $50B. They can more than afford to reduce their tuitions.
Good government would be to cap college tuition across the board. A school's business model shouldn't be to profit from tuition. Next let's raise salaries- not just the minimum wage but corporate ones as well. Government can enforce an employee/owner minimum ratio ie owners cannot make 1,000,000 times the salary of the employee.
Lastly I have a problem with cancelling 50 year old debts that weren't going to be paid back anyway. This is yet another problem. Government does need to protect the lender here as well. If I'm a lender and the government cancels the repayments that I'm owed without any compensation then that makes me very worrisome. I would lend less. I would scrutinize more. I wouldn't lend to students. Debts have to be repaid. If student loans are to be cancelled then it is entirely appropriate to use taxpayer money to do so. High tuition costs, low salaries contributed to this and therefore it is a community problem and using taxpayer money is appropriate. The money to pay for debts should not come from raising taxes but from cutting funding in defense, for example.
Some good points, but there are many who took out loans on the advice of colleges who also gave false hopes of graduates career prospects. There should not be a “blanket” approach.
"All bail outs need to stop." That sounds great -- so when do exploited working people get the relief already given to billionaires? Billionaires and billion dollar corps have been bailed out to the tune of $10T since the 1980s. Student debt by comparison is $1.7T.
You seem bent on protecting the exploitative lenders, billion dollar corporations, and uber wealthy, at the cost of working class people.
I did not favor nor support Obama's bank bailouts in 2008. Major corporations from banks to auto manufacturers were essentially rewarded for negligence. They should have justly failed. Not only were banks bailed out in 2008 but actually the Fed was bailing out banks in the late 1800s as well. This 100+ year old practice overall needs to stop because it enables and rewards negligence.
Compensating the public for the bank bailouts is a tricky issue to address. Student debt forgiveness only targets some of the population. Wouldn't the correct course here be to significantly raise employee salaries and raise taxes on the rich? Regarding taxing the rich, 10M+ salaries are more than enough to live comfortably in the US and made possible by disproportionate employee/owner pay ratios. They can afford to pay higher taxes.
Exploitative lending is a problem but again this is where there should be more government oversight. I do not agree with a solution of getting back at exploitative lenders through bailouts for the exploited. These are two different problems. #1 Stop exploitative lending. #2 Compensate the exploited. In my opinion it is a higher priority to to address #1 first to stop the hemorrhaging. How do you even determine an exploitative lender? That is the court's business, is it not? Government can address #1 by capping college tuitions. Government can support #2 by subsidizing legal fees to pursue exploited lenders in court. A system has to be followed.
Government should work on solving problems, not applying band-aids and tit-for-tat settlements that don't solve the underlying problems. That banks have been bailed out for 100+ years means something is wrong with the system and the gov needs to step in. These are the tough problems that I'd like politicians to tackle and present solutions to. I believe well-thought out solutions would be well-received by liberals and conservatives alike.
I enjoy reading your interesting opinions and I appreciate you allow me to do so for free. I could pay, but since I like many creators and have little time to read them all. Thus, it wouldn’t make sense to upgrade to pay.
.
Substack is an excellent platform. Ideal to exchange views and learn –primarily from ordinary people. It is, nevertheless, frustrating to find that much of the discussion on Substack is behind paywalls, especially when it comes to critical topics like Trump and democracy. Substack’s model allows creators to monetize their work, which often means putting interactive or in-depth pieces, including comment sections or opinion forums, behind a paid subscription. This setup creates a barrier for readers who want to participate in discussions or engage with writers on these subjects but aren’t paying subscribers. Some creators offer free content but still limit interactive options to maintain their revenue and focus on dedicated subscribers. It’s a common tension on platforms that aim to support writers financially while also fostering open discussion, and it does create a paradox for those who believe in widely accessible dialogue on crucial issues. Inflated sense of ego permeates the platforms. Some writers view their perspectives as so unique or vital that they’re only available at a price. Let’s call things for what they are: much of what’s shared isn’t necessarily groundbreaking or new; many of these arguments have been made before and freely elsewhere. The drive to charge for content is less about providing something truly unique and more about creating an exclusive image and capitalizing on loyal readers who simply want honest, accessible discussion. In my opinion is a cash grab rather than a meaningful contribution to public dialogue and “free speech” , or “free reading”, I should say.
I have some mixed feelings about student debt. Setting aside the possibility that education should be cheaper, which I think it should (it should be more publicly funded), we're talking about people who wanted an education they couldn't afford, asked for a loan, got the loan, and agreed to repay it, with interest. Some or perhaps many of them can afford to do that. They got their educations, and began careers that paid them well enough to meet the responsibilities to which they made commitments. So I don't think it's unfair or burdensome to ask them to do what they said they would do: repay a loan. If some can't, or it's burdensome, then those loans are worth reconsidering. And there is a mechanism by which if student loans aren't repaid by a certain number of years, they're written off. We still need to reconsider how we support public education.
And that answer is contained in two of the sentences in this post: "Our nation does not suffer from a lack of resources. We suffer from an excess of greed." I know it's a "third rail," but Obama, and Biden, had to reverse highly dysfunctional tax breaks given to the Americans who least needed even more money. We could have done a lot with that money, including making education cheaper, or free, and relieving students of educational borrowing.
Student loans are necessary for most, without that option they are more likely destined to flip burgers at McDonalds. If your parents have money then you will have no problem, even if you have bad grades. Also, primary education in the US has gone downhill, but was never very good to prepare ALL serious students for college, or for trades not requiring college. Certainly the main gist of your argument is that the individual has primary responsibility on how well they do in school, and whether or not to commit to loans. I agree, but that is too simplistic to address the issue of student loans. There are too many other contributing factors in my opinion. Thank you for your post!
In support of your point, I just back from lunch with a friend whose wife now has about $1M in education debt. The actual loans started out as about $140K in college and law school costs. But with accruing interest, it got up to $1M and a demand for $6500 PER MONTH! Which they couldn't afford. There's some sort of program called IBR which had pre-existed Obama's term, but was some sort of secret, but Obama made sure it was no longer a secret. My friend and his wife (and their three children, one of whom is special needs) have gotten a lot of relief.
It's possible it was Pell Grants or some other specific loan. What I heard was that after X number of years, the loan is just written off. I'm sure it's a public loan, and not a private one. I have every confidence that you're right about the tenacity of the private lenders.
But even so, and even if we agree that college shouldn't cost that much, the student did request, and receive, a loan, and if there are wages to garnish, then this graduate is working. Extracting repayment from potentially low wages might very well be a hardship, which gets us back to the initial problem of education which, if indicated, should be supported publicly. That means we're back to raising taxes on the people best endowed to pay more.
Fred, students are urged by colleges to take out loans. That is the only way they can survive financially. They get paid while giving students false hopes of career prospects upon graduation.
Yes, GnomeJoe, colleges charge a lot, the public doesn't support this education enough, and colleges do, as you say, urge students to take out loans. But they can't force them. A college loan is like a home loan or any other kind of loan. Whatever stimulates the borrower to do it, the borrower asks for a loan of money, gets the money, and agrees to repay it, with interest. And let's assume we're not talking about situations that are actually usury.
The loan is not the only way the student can survive financially. It's one of the ways the prospective student can attend college, which not everyone has to do. The prospective student could also be a better student, or have other skills, and get a scholarship, or work to support college. The latter is difficult, because the cost is too high at private colleges. But some college students do that.
Absolutely great article! I am one of the few with less than 40k in student loans having not even finished 3 years. I tried paying back my loans, but eventually just stopped. I couldn’t afford to pay 300 dollars a month or even 100 when I was making 10 dollars an hour. So it’s absolutely true! It isn’t money that needs to be repaid, the money is already not accounted for. Especially if we can forgive PPI loans for even more money a person we can do this.
I think a way to sway anyone that complains about “I paid back my loans that isn’t fair” then could see about a tax break for those people who paid off their loans. Benefit all even those who were financially able to pay it off or pay off a bulk of it.
Trump would reinstate student debt in a heartbeat, all so Elon and Peter Theil can afford more solid gold yachts.
Mr Biden, who has enabled the destruction of democracy by Trump, owes this to Americans, but also to cut-off further supplying of weapons and funding to Israel.
Biden welcomed Trump to the White House. That says it all for me. Sorry I ever defended the guy.
This would be one of the easiest actions for Biden to take on his way out. I'm not expecting anything.
Let’s start a petition to Biden to cancel student debt w this info on it. Who knows how?
Even if Biden, who is just a bit younger then me, and no doubt raised in an atmosphere of never embracing debt, let alone reneging on re-payment, would embrace student debt cancellation wholesale and could convince all his supporters/staff & cronies to accept it - how long do you think that would survive under the GOP who have demonstrated in spades their determination to transfer wealth from low and middle income folks to themselves?
Student loans have proven to be the biggest non tax measure for hollowing out the path to prosperity for the baby boomers' succeeding generations. Whoever invented the idea of student loans, never imagined the immediate implementation of ways to scam both the federal government and its taxpayers.
Who benefited from the scam? Well, all the fake "educational/vocational" institutions ( won't dignify them as colleges or schools) and all the "legit" institutions whose enrollment and revenue soared enabling spending sprees on student, staff and executive amenities.... but not on the salaries of graduate assistants, or contract instructors, or lab workers or support staff, or..... and all the parasitic barnacles immediately encrusting the loans process and skimming off their - what's the word the mafia uses for their graft? the vig?
Oh well, just another corruption of government subsidies to oil & gas, Big Ag, the military/industrial complex, , big banks and wall street bankrupt gamblers, etc. ad nauseum. The all too familiar fails of overblown empires?
In two short months the USA will well and truly enter into the end stage of the world's biggest economic empire, done to death by its insatiable grifters, legalized bribery, election rigging, gerrymandering, legalized "enslavement" the whole nasty roll call of human malfeasance, embodied in governments that are nothing but kleptocracies..
Thank you! There are “educational” institutions like “Liberty” University that are nothing more than indoctrination mills, defrauding their students, which should be accountable to the false hopes they also dispense to students for career expectations.
I just emailed the White House to cancel all student loan debt..... and finally stop arms shipments to Israel-that would at least give some temporary respite to the Palestinians who haven't already been slaughtered.
Biden has neither the courage or vision to do this, and probably never did. He's from a mindset that believes that when you pay your dues, serve your time in a respectable way, you are simply entitled to receive respect and power in turn. The Bush family was a notably lame example of this also. Dubya and Jeb are probably still puzzling over it. Small men in big times.
I believe the democrats (lower-case intended) are part of the same machine as the republicans, it being based on money.
Another reason he should cancel student loan debt is because the orange one has already vowed to cancel PSLF and income driven repayment plans. That will hurt tons of public service workers and teachers who have been putting in the time.
There are lots of insightful comments and sensible, fair minded ideas in the comment thread. Count me among those who think that student loan debt above the original loan amount and a reasonable (2%?) interest amount ought to be forgiven; the loans are exploitative; the first two years at a state college or a qualified trade school or apprenticeship program should be open to all and publicly financed; and the college loan regime is biased in favor of wealthy elites who can afford college without resort to loans.
Here’s my beef — can we please stop referring to handling student debt as “forgiving college loans”. That is not what is anticipated. It’s not as catchy a phrase to say we are “cancelling student debt that exceeds the original loan amount plus ___% interest”. While we are at it, the student loan interest rate should be capped at after the first two years of publicly funded advanced education at ___%. It is beyond cavil that having an educated society is in our national interest — unless, of course, you want to create a two-class society, elites and drones.
Good points. I do think that students who have not benefitted from their college degrees should have their debt cancelled, the original balances paid by those colleges that defrauded them in giving them false hopes of what career prospects they would have.
I agree that Biden could do a lot of things. I am not sure if he has the will to do anything. Student debt is a real issue and has an easy solution. It is not complicated. Issue the Executive Order and end it. The economy will thank you.
Bailing out billionaires through tax breaks is also a problem- but it is a separate problem. Because one group of people is being bailed out doesn't mean another group should be as well. All the bailouts need to stop.
These problems should be addressed at their core: college education should not be 1/5 of an individual's salary. There are two problems here: high education costs and low salaries. Let's focus on fixing those problems. Colleges have billion-dollar endowments. Harvard is $50B. They can more than afford to reduce their tuitions.
Good government would be to cap college tuition across the board. A school's business model shouldn't be to profit from tuition. Next let's raise salaries- not just the minimum wage but corporate ones as well. Government can enforce an employee/owner minimum ratio ie owners cannot make 1,000,000 times the salary of the employee.
Lastly I have a problem with cancelling 50 year old debts that weren't going to be paid back anyway. This is yet another problem. Government does need to protect the lender here as well. If I'm a lender and the government cancels the repayments that I'm owed without any compensation then that makes me very worrisome. I would lend less. I would scrutinize more. I wouldn't lend to students. Debts have to be repaid. If student loans are to be cancelled then it is entirely appropriate to use taxpayer money to do so. High tuition costs, low salaries contributed to this and therefore it is a community problem and using taxpayer money is appropriate. The money to pay for debts should not come from raising taxes but from cutting funding in defense, for example.
Some good points, but there are many who took out loans on the advice of colleges who also gave false hopes of graduates career prospects. There should not be a “blanket” approach.
🤡
"All bail outs need to stop." That sounds great -- so when do exploited working people get the relief already given to billionaires? Billionaires and billion dollar corps have been bailed out to the tune of $10T since the 1980s. Student debt by comparison is $1.7T.
You seem bent on protecting the exploitative lenders, billion dollar corporations, and uber wealthy, at the cost of working class people.
I did not favor nor support Obama's bank bailouts in 2008. Major corporations from banks to auto manufacturers were essentially rewarded for negligence. They should have justly failed. Not only were banks bailed out in 2008 but actually the Fed was bailing out banks in the late 1800s as well. This 100+ year old practice overall needs to stop because it enables and rewards negligence.
Compensating the public for the bank bailouts is a tricky issue to address. Student debt forgiveness only targets some of the population. Wouldn't the correct course here be to significantly raise employee salaries and raise taxes on the rich? Regarding taxing the rich, 10M+ salaries are more than enough to live comfortably in the US and made possible by disproportionate employee/owner pay ratios. They can afford to pay higher taxes.
Exploitative lending is a problem but again this is where there should be more government oversight. I do not agree with a solution of getting back at exploitative lenders through bailouts for the exploited. These are two different problems. #1 Stop exploitative lending. #2 Compensate the exploited. In my opinion it is a higher priority to to address #1 first to stop the hemorrhaging. How do you even determine an exploitative lender? That is the court's business, is it not? Government can address #1 by capping college tuitions. Government can support #2 by subsidizing legal fees to pursue exploited lenders in court. A system has to be followed.
Government should work on solving problems, not applying band-aids and tit-for-tat settlements that don't solve the underlying problems. That banks have been bailed out for 100+ years means something is wrong with the system and the gov needs to step in. These are the tough problems that I'd like politicians to tackle and present solutions to. I believe well-thought out solutions would be well-received by liberals and conservatives alike.
The population of the USA should be considered “too big to fail”, which was the mantra supporting corporate bail-outs.
I enjoy reading your interesting opinions and I appreciate you allow me to do so for free. I could pay, but since I like many creators and have little time to read them all. Thus, it wouldn’t make sense to upgrade to pay.
.
Substack is an excellent platform. Ideal to exchange views and learn –primarily from ordinary people. It is, nevertheless, frustrating to find that much of the discussion on Substack is behind paywalls, especially when it comes to critical topics like Trump and democracy. Substack’s model allows creators to monetize their work, which often means putting interactive or in-depth pieces, including comment sections or opinion forums, behind a paid subscription. This setup creates a barrier for readers who want to participate in discussions or engage with writers on these subjects but aren’t paying subscribers. Some creators offer free content but still limit interactive options to maintain their revenue and focus on dedicated subscribers. It’s a common tension on platforms that aim to support writers financially while also fostering open discussion, and it does create a paradox for those who believe in widely accessible dialogue on crucial issues. Inflated sense of ego permeates the platforms. Some writers view their perspectives as so unique or vital that they’re only available at a price. Let’s call things for what they are: much of what’s shared isn’t necessarily groundbreaking or new; many of these arguments have been made before and freely elsewhere. The drive to charge for content is less about providing something truly unique and more about creating an exclusive image and capitalizing on loyal readers who simply want honest, accessible discussion. In my opinion is a cash grab rather than a meaningful contribution to public dialogue and “free speech” , or “free reading”, I should say.
he's too busy killing kids in Gaza
I agree with Harry Chancey and Shylah Karvo.
I have some mixed feelings about student debt. Setting aside the possibility that education should be cheaper, which I think it should (it should be more publicly funded), we're talking about people who wanted an education they couldn't afford, asked for a loan, got the loan, and agreed to repay it, with interest. Some or perhaps many of them can afford to do that. They got their educations, and began careers that paid them well enough to meet the responsibilities to which they made commitments. So I don't think it's unfair or burdensome to ask them to do what they said they would do: repay a loan. If some can't, or it's burdensome, then those loans are worth reconsidering. And there is a mechanism by which if student loans aren't repaid by a certain number of years, they're written off. We still need to reconsider how we support public education.
And that answer is contained in two of the sentences in this post: "Our nation does not suffer from a lack of resources. We suffer from an excess of greed." I know it's a "third rail," but Obama, and Biden, had to reverse highly dysfunctional tax breaks given to the Americans who least needed even more money. We could have done a lot with that money, including making education cheaper, or free, and relieving students of educational borrowing.
Student loans are necessary for most, without that option they are more likely destined to flip burgers at McDonalds. If your parents have money then you will have no problem, even if you have bad grades. Also, primary education in the US has gone downhill, but was never very good to prepare ALL serious students for college, or for trades not requiring college. Certainly the main gist of your argument is that the individual has primary responsibility on how well they do in school, and whether or not to commit to loans. I agree, but that is too simplistic to address the issue of student loans. There are too many other contributing factors in my opinion. Thank you for your post!
In support of your point, I just back from lunch with a friend whose wife now has about $1M in education debt. The actual loans started out as about $140K in college and law school costs. But with accruing interest, it got up to $1M and a demand for $6500 PER MONTH! Which they couldn't afford. There's some sort of program called IBR which had pre-existed Obama's term, but was some sort of secret, but Obama made sure it was no longer a secret. My friend and his wife (and their three children, one of whom is special needs) have gotten a lot of relief.
I haven’t heard of any student loans written off. Reliant and the other finance companies will garnish wages instead.
It's possible it was Pell Grants or some other specific loan. What I heard was that after X number of years, the loan is just written off. I'm sure it's a public loan, and not a private one. I have every confidence that you're right about the tenacity of the private lenders.
But even so, and even if we agree that college shouldn't cost that much, the student did request, and receive, a loan, and if there are wages to garnish, then this graduate is working. Extracting repayment from potentially low wages might very well be a hardship, which gets us back to the initial problem of education which, if indicated, should be supported publicly. That means we're back to raising taxes on the people best endowed to pay more.
Fred, students are urged by colleges to take out loans. That is the only way they can survive financially. They get paid while giving students false hopes of career prospects upon graduation.
Yes, GnomeJoe, colleges charge a lot, the public doesn't support this education enough, and colleges do, as you say, urge students to take out loans. But they can't force them. A college loan is like a home loan or any other kind of loan. Whatever stimulates the borrower to do it, the borrower asks for a loan of money, gets the money, and agrees to repay it, with interest. And let's assume we're not talking about situations that are actually usury.
The loan is not the only way the student can survive financially. It's one of the ways the prospective student can attend college, which not everyone has to do. The prospective student could also be a better student, or have other skills, and get a scholarship, or work to support college. The latter is difficult, because the cost is too high at private colleges. But some college students do that.