What are your thoughts on student debt being partially or entirely written off by the government? What do you think can be done instead of gov interventions. Just seeing how others felt and if a majority of people here paid their loans themselves or had some sort of help?

Americans are so selfish and short sighted. Eradicating student loan debt will pull the most people out of poverty than anything other federal initiative. These are the same people against universal healthcare, mandatory paid maternal/paternal leave, expanding subsidizes housing. No one wants their tax dollars to help the poorer because their class status is only of value when someone else is in the mud.

Americans don’t give a shit about each other, but will gladly fund trillions to our military and billions to space programs. I wish we could choose where our taxes are siphoned because I would prefer my taxes go towards student debt, expanded welfare, universal tertiary college, literally ANYTHING that will improve the quality of life of Americans.

Couple of thoughts: the issue still remains that college is inherently (at this point) unaffordable for many. Until that changes the issue will remain.

2. There’s some fair commentary around is this a regressive policy (college students likely have a higher income and earning potential than those who don’t) and that’s what I think should be the 2nd main concern besides education cost.

I personally have paid of my loans and it wasn’t too long ago, so I’d sure appreciate some sort of relief too but I’m not against the idea of it helping others. I think a truly progressive policy could be giving all Americans under a certain income a $10k tax relief or check and definitely make student loan interest way lower.

Why should I - as a taxpayer - be forced to subsidize someone else’s bad decision. Just cause you took out a bunch of debt to get a degree that provides you with an inadequate income that isn’t sufficient to service said debt is not my (or anyone else’s) problem. These loans should only be granted on the basis of expected income and ability to repay. Agree - they should not represent a meaningful profit center, but even then - why are you taking out a loan to get a degree that will not position you to repay said loan? The whole notion of bailing these folks out sets a dangerous precedent and is troubling to say the least…

Everyone’s educational debt should be written off. Why do any of you want to live in a country where anyone is saddled with student loan debt?

I don't have any student loans and I'm all for it. Not everything has to benefit me directly for me to support it.

I paid for college 100% on my own, had 82k in student loans and paid it off all myself. College is way to much and student loans are predatory and I am all for them cancelling others loans. Just because I’m proud of paying all mine doesn’t mean I don’t want others to have more freedom from the shackles of this ridiculous amount of debt.

Interesting role

I paid my loans myself but I have no problem with certain loans being written off (after a certain amount of time or if income is low or if people work in certain government fields).

I think it’s irritating because I worked in college to help pay expenses and then I continued living like a college student until I paid my loans off.

Instead I think the government put more pressure on the institutions to keep costs lower. They practically have blank checks.

It’s a stupid idea, maybe the government should put more stringent regulations and oversight on the universities. Literally I feel like every college and university is turning into a Phoenix university because they are just getting billions of revenue with no strings attached. Also, guidance counselors need to be better at their jobs, not everyone should go to college and people really need to assess if college is a good investment.

I worked 2 jobs while in college in order to afford it and paid my student loans in 10 years. Everyone can do it if they put their mind into it and forgo certain “niceties “ in life. The issue is that many people “binged” on student debt like it was credit card debt having a good time in college vs. working their butts off. I’m not saying all! Many professional degrees require a hefty tuition and people just don’t have a choice. The problem is complex. The schools are the culprit of the problem and they force / extort / blackmail our kids into economic slavery for life. We should cap tuitions. We should make education non-for-profit! There is no reason why Harvard has a $25,000,000,000 in its endowment and University of Connecticut doesn’t have pencils!

Community College must be free! Period! Perhaps, working while studying should be mandatory as long as it doesn’t impede on the coursework. College isn’t a nightclub. It isn’t Disneyland. It’s not for pot-smoking, beer-bongs, spring breaks, naked beach-volleyball, orgies, Daytona bubble parties, ecstasy and amphetamine fests, Miami Beach open-door fightclubs and shootouts, fraternities, video games competitions, general recreation! Kids must hustle and learn the value of hard work. College should be about studying and hard work! Unfortunately, many come out of school entitled and expecting to make a lot of money without any experience.

Look, college Ed is like any other investment that you’d make. The only difference in this case is that you are making an investment in yourself! One needs to judge the pros and cons of a degree and if that degree will be able to pay back with dividends the original investment. Hence, if you are getting a $250,000 dollar degree in social media and you aren’t expected to pay back the loan in 5 years and start making real dividends on that degree, why would you do it in the first place? If I tell you that the your investment in your 401k plan will fail and you won’t be able to retire, would you make that investment? If I tell you that you are investing in the stock of a company that will take you 130 years to make it back, will you buy it? I think, NO!

I think it's a great idea that my debt might get written off. I think it's a horrible idea that anybody else's debt gets written off.

I think the debt relief is necessary because student loans are extremely predatory but I don't think there should be debt relief until there's a plan to overhaul the entire system or else we could end up in the same predicament 20 years from now.

The solution to rising college costs is to cut administrative bloat at universities, cut programs that aren’t lucrative (womens studies, anthropology, sociology, African American studies, or any other form of grievance studies), and get the government to stop subsiding loans.

They agreed to the loans so they should pay it! So many routes to subsidize college cost like working at Walmart, McDonald’s, Target, etc. that offer tuition reimbursement/assistance. Not the government’s problem if you decide to go $100k in debt on an art degree.

It’s predatory lending, they throw student loans at you likes it’s candy. 18 year old can’t get any other loan at that age with no means of paying it back. It seems peoples only objection is, I paid mine 😒

I would like to know how those who already paid off their debts by living within their means and making smart decisions will be rewarded like the ones who didn’t. I also read that if you make too much you won’t be eligible. So again the people who are contributing to society are being punished in favor for those who are not. Meanwhile nothing is being done to fix the core problems. That’s another topic.

I don’t think interest should accrue on student loans during the normal program length (ie: the four years it’s standard to complete a BA/BS)

I also think the approval process for private loans should be similar to other loan applications. Many students are taking on a ton of debt they have no hope of paying off in their intended college program (ie: $60k/yr BFAs)

Funny the things we DO find money for... Failed wars, more prisons, but helping people get on their feet? Nah...

Americans as a whole are so selfish with crab in a bucket mentality. “It’s not fair BLAH BLAH BLAH.” Who cares?! Life has never been fair.

One of the main issues here that people do not discuss as much, is that I think a lot of people get into student loans without even knowing what the loans are (some of them are called financial aid?) and how much interest they are paying, which is really unfair for them. More transparency and education are needed and we should probably try to enforce lower interest and make sure the origin of the problem is somewhat controlled.

Then about the forgiving part, maybe it’s because of my background as an immigrant coming from a big government system, I just don’t trust government using tax payers money to try to interfere with things can solve any problems (usually they make it worse). I’m more than happy to help on a personally level - to help individuals finding better jobs that can help them pay off the loan, or help them with their financial planning, or donate to organizations that help with this type of problems. Instead of just trust that the government will do it right. Could be my PTSD, but my personal experience is every time government try use tax money for “good cause”, they don’t really solve the issue. People with real problems are not likely the ones get help, and problem worsen cause it’s even more unfair.