What are Dems doing with Student debt? And why??

There needs to be some sort of overhaul relating degrees to ROI. Athletic trainers in college have to have a masters degree for a job that pays in the 30s to 40k unless you get a rare gig. There is a pretty significant difference in earning potential and employment options for a PT vs PA which both require doctorates. Edit: (PA is a masters). We have an attorney here on this board who claims he had no problem paying off his loans so he' doesn't see a problem. I understand that there are plenty of attorneys that don't succeed for various reasons but while their lawschool costs significantly more than the schools I mentioned they practice in a field that can charge significantly more per hour than either of the prior fields in order to offset those costs.

Why did it become a "stupid decision" or "irresponsible" for a student to acquire significant debt for a "worthless degree" like physical therapy? I use this example because my wife is a PT but there are other fields that apply. I asked these questions tongue in cheek because the narrative that it's just basket weaving degrees or interpretive dance majors that are drowning in debt is a lame , over generalized party line argument. The costs have grown out of line with ROI for many fields. Some of these fields are still necessary. I keep hearing some pretty derogatory opinions about people who work some pretty noble and technical fields that are paying their debt back and then some.

Of course there are kids that lived beyond their means while taking out loans for degrees that were never going to pay off but the system has been working against students in all fields for a while now. Good lord, when did loan, publishing and real estate/housing companies become the good guys?

Edit: just as an example I had some pretty crappy PT for a knee injury I suffered at work. I didn't know it at the time because you don't know until you know but my PT has lead to hip and back problems. I'm a healthy active 40 something year old. My compensatory issues to my knee are a bigger hindrance to quality of life than my actual injury. My wife is a damn good PT and people would be lucky to have her guide her through a recovery and many clients have requested her personally because of it. I hear some pretty nasty generalizations about "irresponsible " people but she has never missed a payment and until she reorganized her debts, her principle grew despite paying over $400 a month for just one loan. Unfortunately she had to make the choice between paying for another year of pre reqs for ucf PT or fast track USA which is accredited and renknown for her field. She chose USA who then upped tuition every semester while their staff urged students to add more and more unsubsidized loans for a program they had already started.

Still paying. Not asking for handouts. But the system is screwed up and stacked against students. All we want to see is reform and maybe some restructuring but again, nuanced answers to these problems don't have a place in today's politics.

 

Love the term, “predatory loan”. No one puts a gun to anyone’s head to ever take out a “predatory loan” but if someone is stupid enough to do so, shame on them.

Again, life is all about choices and if you make a bad one, you suffer the consequences. It is really a simple concept that a bunch of liberals just don’t seem to understand.

 

I know I payed something similar up
Top. But I worked through my UF years to keep my debt low (almost worked full time), and paid back my student loans early so I could start on to bigger things. And I did it with a relatively low paying job out of college.
If the price tag on this is 600 billion eventually, and there are around 1500000 paying taxes. That’s 4K person to pay it off. I am almost singlehandedly likely to pay for someone’s forgiveness over time. Even if they dropped out, got a useless degree, chose a for profit school that surely had slews of honest scathing reviews, chose to be a stay at home mom or dad, or even are making 250k as a couple, which is the top end for this. Which would put them into to the top 7 percent or so I think. So someone making 50k is helping to bail them out.
It’s just shameless pandering that we can’t afford and penalizes those who did things right, and basically tells universities that tuition inflation is fine, the government will pay the tab..and oh yeah, the non college degree holders that pay in and likely have a far lower career earnings potential get to pay for this too.

So yeah, not exactly a fan.

and by the way, the government is about to totally forgive the debts of everyone who went to a specific for profit school. And as far as I know, nothing in the way of lawsuits to recoup any of the money.
So throw that log on the fire too.

 

BTW, the vast majority of people getting this debt relief are just having interest wiped off their ledgers.

Unless they are getting relief towards the principal which most won't, this has nothing to do with being paid by "tax dollars from plumbers and fry cooks" or whatever the idiotic GQP talking point is today.

 

This relief will help a lot of middle-class people with college degrees. And the myth of a barista with a Masters degree in a "worthless" field is just that. A myth. By mid-career, even the most "worthless" degree holder has an average salary of $40k a year, with most paying over $50k.

Yes, for those of us who no longer have student debt, myself included, but have degrees, this isn't fair. But you know what, life isn't fair. And I'm happy for those who do get to benefit, especially those who qualified for Pell Grants. My family made too much for me to qualify for a Pell Grant. Most people who do qualify for a Pell Grant come from lower class middle class households, and are often the first in the family to go to college. Grants, loans, and scholarships are their only options.

 

100% buying votes.

 

So is taking a tax payer funded vacation part of the plan?

U.S. student loan forgiveness has borrowers hoping for vacations, medical school

 

For whom?

 

Are you serious. For Biden and the Democratic Party. The democrats I’ve heard that like the policy say that Joe is making good on a campaign promise. Not that it’s a good program or a fair program but just a promise.

 

Not an unqualified fan of Leonhardt's morning column, but this column really sets the context. Key part:

The changes in wealth are even starker. Americans in their 20s, 30s and even 40s are poorer today than younger adults were three decades ago:


Chart shows median net worth, adjusted for inflation. | Source: Federal Reserve
A study by William Gale of the Brookings Institution and three other researchers concluded, “As for the millennial generation, their median wealth in 2016 was lower than the wealth of any similarly aged cohort between 1989 and 2007.”

That’s a remarkable — and grim — development, given how much G.D.P., stock prices and home values have grown over the same period. How could this be? One factor is that stocks and homes have risen so much since the 1980s that younger adults can’t buy into those markets as easily as their parents and grandparents could.





The Morning: The debt debate rages on

 

On the surface, it does seem outrageous. On the other hand, thinking at a 30,000 ft view, I find it does make a little sense in light of soaring housing costs and inflation. Its not like the govt is cutting a 10K check to people now. And those people who now take a vacation are also spending within the economy. We're also talking about people in educated positions of need like teachers that are simply trying to get by.

I think we all have made dumb decisions in our late teens/early twenties. With the crazy education costs nowadays, it depends now more than ever what degree you pursue. Most would be far better off gaining a vocational skill than their chosen college degree, but you can't turn back the clock. That something most don't realize until its too late. And, our generation could be viewed as just as at fault for not advising them appropriately as parents, like higher education valuation was the same as it was when we went to college.

Obviously, loan forgiveness can't become the norm, but this particular plan is fairly benign in the grand scheme of things.

 

Why? Are you saying only democrats can sue over policies they don't like?

The democrats running in the midterms would throw a party for the republicans if they took it to the courts now. It's hilarious how no one in the Biden Administration can explain how this will work. Let the media run with this.

I think for republicans that it is closer to not stopping the democrats from driving off the cliff and then challenging its unconstitutionality after the election. Works for me.

 

What votes does Biden need? I'm not totally disagreeing with you, btw. I don't believe Biden will run for re-election and am curious that if true, for whom is he buying votes? Would his policy somehow help elect another Dem president?

 

The Student Loan Giveaway is Much Bigger Than You Think - Marginal REVOLUTION

 

I heard Sen. Klobuchar say she would have preferred a program tailored to specific occupations for which we have labor supply issues - such as teachers and nurses. I thought that made some sense. The thought of forgiving student loan debt to a college graduate who is making $100,000 a year does seem a bit unfair to those who opted not to get a degree and go into a blue collar field.

 

I found the article and discourse on that link interesting. Thanks for posting...