Student loans
 

If you borrow money to buy a home you must sign papers agreeing to pay the debt back. If you buy a car on borrowed money you must agree to pay the debt back.

Why is the thought that you didn't know what you were doing when you borrowed money to go to school? Why should other people pay your debt?

Are we losing common sense or what?

Total Debt for our 3 is 1.5 million. That was with substantial free money, due to grades.
Doctors go figure. No wonder it takes forever to get ahead. Two finished paying years ago. Last one is at $425,000, comes out of his paycheck. Are you saying they should’ve not paid them back?

But if Biden is going to forgive $10,000 for each student loan, he should refund those who paid their loans off on time or early, with no defaults. Better yet pay their parents who probably paid them.
Not a fan of Biden only forgiving the current students

It's called, Buying Votes.

Please do your best to discuss the topic/issue and not turn this into a partisan or political rant...or, the thread will be closed quickly.

Moderator

The two biggest issues are the overpriced cost of a college degree, and the amount of interest that is charged on a student loan. The Federal government involvement in higher education is the main problem. They created FAFSA which looks at your family income to determine whether or not you will receive any help with the cost of college. So you have an 18 year old kid who can vote, fight in a war and be charged as an adult in a crime. But you're going to base how much FREE taxpayer money or Grants they can receive based on how much money their parents earn or have in the bank. Once again another government system that penalizes you for trying to be responsible in life.

Here's what few people ever mention-
A lot of borrowers take extra money
(because the loan officers encourage it) to purchase cars,vacations and general lifestyle changes.

No college debt should not be forgiven. More emphasis needs to be placed on college alternatives such as trade schools. And administrative costs at colleges need to be brought under control.

So.. what are you promoting?
 

You seem to be promoting the idea that the grants should be based on the students income and not yours. Which would mean nearly every student gets the grants/ low interest loads for the college. Since at age 18 they are not likely to be making much money. This would cost a great deal, but likely worth it for society in the long run.

But, if you the parent, had been truly responsible in life you would have socked away money for their education. The government even has a tax free investment you could have made for the kids. And thus need less or no loans or grants. This is the current model.

The only people truly penalized are those making lots of money with no college savings and who's lifestyle requires spending all they make. And I would not call these people responsible.

College costs should be controlled as well. While it would be inappropriate for the Govt to step in and tell the college what they could charge, there has to be a way.

Without some kind of control, the colleges are incentivized to increase costs to meet available funds. If the Govt will give out $30K in loans then the college will charge $50K and if the Govt increases the loan amount then the college increases the costs - no reason to leave money on the table.

Yes, this is all my opinion/observation and may not be accurate or provable. But, I know that the increase in cost at the college I graduated from has far outpaced inflation or the increase in salaries. But they still fill the school - with a lot of help from Govt loans.

My solution would be to end the Government student loan program altogether. Let the students pay as they go or borrow money from banks at market rates and terms. College costs would come down enormously, and those who really wanted to get an education would get one. But, this will never happen.

Very true

I had a Stipend Grant which paid a portion of my costs at the U of Denver Graduate School of Librarianship and Information Management in 1983-1984. This Stipend required me to work in Nevada for a certain period of time as Nevada had no accredited library schools offering MAs.

I went to law school in 1986-1989 at the U of MN and that prevented me from working in Nevada and other stuff after 1989 also had that affect.

I fought for getting better information in libraries for survivors/victims of crimes using my 4 degrees (two BAs from the U of Nevada, Reno) and connections creating while getting these and the State of Nevada agency handling this Stipend Grant found that my work in other states helped the people of Nevada such that it counted for that time. I did have to give them a lot of documents and such. That ruling was around September of 2000.

There should be other ways to pay back student debt especially in times like these with the Corona Virus. Finally got my law school loans paid off in full last year.

The student loans won't be "forgiven". The cost of that education will be shifted to the taxpayer. Many - actually most - of those taxpayers did not have the advantage of a college education or paid their own way.

Another way to screw responsible people who work hard, make sacrifices, and save to put their children through college. I guess our daughter should have taken out loans that might not have to be paid back.

The cost of college accelerated because the government loaned money without regard to repayment ability to students Colleges took advantage of the government funding their income source. However, that does not mean that everyone pays full tuition. Scholarships are given out by private colleges and public colleges. My son went to a high end private college at $50K per year, he was given a 50% scholarship, and I paid 80% of the rest with him taking out about 20% of the tuition. Similar scenario with my daughter. I was unemployed at the time he started, and I took 100% loans out for myself, same for my daughter as a public university. So thank god for parental loans which were given out without payment requirements.

My daughter worked for the VISTA program which paid minimum wage, but would contribute $20K towards paying off college loans, and that was about what she borrowed. There are post graduation programs to work which will assist paying off loans. My son paid off his at his job by renting very very cheaply. But they were brought up being responsible.

But the US is trending toward rewarding victimhood, so people play up that angle in the media. But counter point, having automated people out of a job, jobs are trending toward commodity requirements, so minimum wage. That's part of

Amazon.com

so, the world operates on most people think that the current scenario will continue indefinitely, and that never happens. Expect continued trends towards smaller numbers of educated jobs and fewer people employed above commodity / service level status, with ever more requirements on highest learning. Its a slow long term trend, but its real, and age discrimination is part of that. I was part of an age reduction program at work, I survived, but also don't care if I get let go.

so expect that the student loan repayment of existing loans, even if they cancelled the program today, to continue to be an ever growing issue, due to employment trends, and population trends as the primary reasons.

so not sure that prior posts are all accurate. . . many generalizations and assumptions

sportsguy