I never hear anything about Biden cancelling the interest, just making borrowers pay back the principal over time. That’s probably something they’ll never be able to put together. $10K w/ means testing seems like the lamest option mostly for reasons listed above. And if you’re going to bother with means testing, why not wipe it all for the lowest income group? They aren’t your “rich surgeons and hedge fund managers” already being whined about.
Yeah I have no idea where the numbers came from. They used to say that Biden couldn’t do it himself, that he would certainly sign a bill but Congress had to pass that first. That was a pretty good dodge until Biden asked for the Education Dept memo about what he could do about loans. They still haven’t released that, maybe it said he could do it himself. If he cancels $10K now it clearly shows he thinks he has the power to do so. I guess he’d better prepare to answer why they arrived at that number, if anyone ever cares to ask.
I’m pretty happy dealing with the minutia of politics right now. But that’s because I’ve stopped giving a fuck about congress and the presidency (I don’t have time) and started caring about things where I can actually make a difference.
Y’all should go volunteer for a city council candidate or county supervisor and stop worrying about national shit that you have no control over.
Or just help a homeless person, or help someone get reproductive health care, or help someone who has done nothing wrong evade the police to stay in the country. I know it’s not one or the other, but effort towards direct action is more likely to have an impact than effort towards maybe convincing someone to vote for someone who may or may not win and then may or may not do what you hope they’ll do.
Well, economic whiz Larry Summers has solved student loans. There’s certainly no consequences in America with this solution! Biden gets the best people, who provide the best solutions.
the thing is though it’d never work if it could, because lenders know $150,000 on an art degree, really not being an elitist here guys, just reality talking, is inherently a really bad loan to give to a teenager with no credit that can’t tell his ass from his elbow, so student loans would either cease to exist or have the 15% APR that they probably should.
the real solution is not to have to take out a mortgage sized loan to get an education, but this is america, where education and intelligence is not only valued very little, but is seen as a character flaw.
I hate CA for a lot of things but i think they maybe “solved” higher education. their feeder system works great. I wouldnt be where i am without it. if you cant afford or get into a UC, try a cheaper cal state (which are still good schools), if you cant do that, you can go to community college for free and transfer within the system to wherever you want, often with generous grants, in my case.
it was sort of annoying and i had to keep my income below ~40k for a lot of years but i escaped college with a really decent degree with less than 5 figures debt, and the debt i did accrue was just so I could work less while studying my tougher upper divs. the state paid for it all.
Yeah, let’s continue that myth of “work hard, be respectful, do well in school” and then when you graduate and realize that’s all bullshit you get years of toilet credit scores and a crummy life. That’s Summers’ American dream. It’s not even a solution, it’s absurd. People have been warning about this guy for a while:
Bring in King Econ and his solution is bankruptcy, give me a break. Shades of the $2K covid relief that wasn’t really $2K, but a historical addition problem you could fool yourself with if you want. Let’s parse words here: if your loans are forgiven in bankruptcy, they’re still forgiven!
the whole means testing for student loans is fucking dumb too. just wipe out some amount for everyone at this point.
what if I’m 10 years into my career and for 9 of then i was below whatever too-low threshold they come up with on income, am i just fucked? I haven’t been able to figure that out yet, but it seems like yes, and that’s a really stupid and unfair way to do things that’s already less than the bare minimum and doesnt help a lot of suffering anyway
I thought this was a pretty good article digging into what student loan cancellation would actually cost the US govt. It explains a bit about how the Dept of Education and US Treasury issue and maintain the loans. It would be great if the MAGAs who just reflexively chirp, “Why should I pay for a lib to get a $150,000 degree in basket weaving” would read stuff like this but zero will.
Don’t see why we can’t treat a 4-year degree as though it’s an extension of high school and give everyone at least free community college. If you want a fancy education you can pay more but everyone should at least be able to go to a local college.
pretty much verbatim how it works in CA, except for people who can afford it, yet there’s this clusterfucky income range of like lower middle/middle class where you get no aid and also can’t afford it at all.
the elephant in the room is there’s no fucking way a STEM degree is worth anywhere near what some liberal arts degree is, I’m not saying they aren’t worth studying, but no one ever wants to point this out or talk about it outside of maga “basket weaving” memes. colleges are never ever ever gonna acknowledge this reality and charge different rates for different courses of study.
the flip side of that coin is that some stem degrees are far far more valuable than $150k, so maybe tuition goes up. I’d easily put the value of mine at $1m. that’s not hyperbole, my own life is an example of it, just having my degree means i automatically get interviews that colleagues i know that are better than me cannot get because they do not have it.
that gets into another problem of credentialism, I’m of the opinion that we should just teach more “college” stuff like critical thinking in highschool, I think college by its own merit is a huge waste of time if the goal is to produce good competent workers.
dunno had a guy with 5 years more exp than me get ghosted by the exact same company that was blowing up my inbox based on nothing other than my sparse linkedin that pretty much lists my education only. not hard to make conclusions there. seen it many other times too.
of course you dont literally need one to get a job or interview but I’ve heard from multiple recruiters lately that the degree is a thing that’s highly preferred. however it’s hardly controversial to say you definitely get more looks with one.
like my literal first job was entirely 100% solely because of my degree.
government recoups the expense of education anyway, because graduates in large end up in higher tax brackets and pay it back throughout their working years.
of course the conservatives want to close the higher education routes because it converts people from reliable conservative voters to reliable liberal voters.
