I'll be honest, if Biden wiped out my college debt, I'd vote for him this fall. What do you want me to say? A guy who does something so massively in my interest is someone I want in office. If you don't like it or would feel like I got some unearned benefit... then you can suck it.
this is lame stereotyping. contrary to popular belief, any college major -- i mean anything, gender, underwater basketweaving -- outpaces HS diplomas. ANY college major is ROI.
I agree with a lot of what you say, but it's definitely possible to borrow 300k for college and only make an extra 10-15k a year. That's not a great financial decision.
You could buy rentals, make the 10-15k less a year, and come out way ahead. Just a "for instance" on how the always being pro-college can trick some people that don't understand money (not speaking about you directly).
i think we are wandering towards a truth, which is for all the smack talking on undergrad majors, i don't think that's where we rack up debt. at a lot of the truly expensive undergrads -- on paper -- it's just that -- paper. poor kids go for free. a lot of people don't pay anywhere close to sticker. and a lot of that is grants or scholarships. most of my liberal arts undergrad was academic scholarships or school grants or pell grants. so i am nowhere near sticker and not borrowing much at all. you're only allowed to borrow so much from the government for undergrad.
when public loans tend to skyrocket is grad/professional school. that's when it can hit 6 figures. but a lot of those people are law school or med school looking at 6 figure per year salaries. and those are the people i can think of who are in school 3-4 years and start to rack up some debt. that being said, when i was in grad school direct loans were capped at about $18k a year. for a 1-2 year masters that can't get anywhere near $300k. even 3-4 years of med or law school maxes out at like $72k. i think it's gone up slightly but not much. so we're still talking maybe $80k max from the government atop maybe $20k in possible undergrad loans -- you can't borrow that much per year undergrad. you just can't. that's maybe $100k.
setting aside if you are bright and in a PhD program it's usually funded.
so i am not sure what we are talking about, "$300K," without folks going to costly programs at which they do PRIVATE loans. those are not anything joe touches. joe can't wish that away. that's someone's decision to go to an expensive school and borrow privately.
i do think there are some distinctions to be made in grad school. it may be unwise to do an unfunded humanities grad program at a weaker school. or an arts MFA that costs very much. vs. med school, law school, MBA, and some others. funded humanities is fine because you're not paying and they are the type leading schools from which professors get hired.
re the "$15k" point, i do think someone who majors in certain subjects should watch their costs. but i think you're laser focused on ROI and not the original missions of education, learning, civic preparedness, leadership, rounding a human being, spiritual growth. i do think you shouldn't be on a multiyear expensive MFA to be a starving artist.
"this sounds cute as macro analysis but meanwhile people are struggling on the other micro end. like there are human beings carrying the debt load."
Uh, dismissive much? So, then, the train continues unabated down the track for the next politico to buy votes with by using my tax money?
And, yeah. Mortgages definitely cause price inflation. That's why the government leaning on banks to extend loans to uncreditworthy people caused 2008. Prices went bonkers because there was so much "surplus" money in the market with all of the new buyers.
lemme put it this way. school price is an abstract issue. student debt is a concrete one. particularly when a school's sticker price may be aeons from what they charge you, focusing on the sticker price is secondary. what we really want to know is what they charge, "drive-out." and the amount of debt you take on to make that happen.
to be blunt, i think it's crazy to say we can't deal with concrete student debt of human beings so that we can yak about how we would like the prices to come down. one is dealing with what actual humans have. and with the practical effects of pricing. and is actually doing something. the other is a talk shop. and the talk shop meanwhile the actual humans are accumulating the debt.
so, yeah, when i show up at the emergency room, i say do triage and care for me first, and think about specific plans for health care debts, and then worry in the abstract about the rising price of hospital bills. if you follow my comparison.
I would like to see a time-limited income-based repayment system.
Basically, everyone makes payments for X number of years post graduation (let's say 15). Your payment is linked to your annual income. Anyone over X amount (say 100K) makes a full payment and then those who make less will make a partial payment.
Regardless of how much you've paid, your loan is discharged after 15 years.
you have actually recreated biden's SAVE plan as well as a lot of the IDR (income driven repayment) plans. you tell the government/loan servicer what you make via tax documents. they set a repayment plan based on a percent of income. x number years you are out.
there are shorter versions of this for people who teach, or do other public interest work.
what folks are missing on criticizing biden is the folks who he just forgave had been on one of those sort of income driven plans for 10 years and made their payments.
It's bull. I worked and paid my way through school. Where is my free money.
I guarantee you, my wife and I paid off more student loans than you have. I’m happy to provide little debt relief for people. it allows them to spend more money on other things and more fully participate in the economy.
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