First, I think the administration is just trying to buy votes from promising to settle student debt and secondly, yes: you should def receive a ten grand check in the post! 🤓
As someone who owes a substantial amount of money in student loans, and finds the subject very interesting, I felt compelled to comment. Many of my thoughts echo what you have described here.
This $10,000 in student debt forgiveness is like putting a band-aid over a bullet wound. Are there better ways the government could have gone about this? Yes. Is it better than nothing? Yes. If nothing else, the Biden administration has been doing noble, and quite frankly (in my opinion) underrated things by forgiving predatory college student loans. In regards to the student debt crisis, that is the most ethical, and probably most impactful thing to do. It's one of the things that Biden has gotten right.
But forgiving loans isn’t going to fix anything in the long-term. In addition to making college affordable, and ditching the for-profit thing altogether, it would also help to remove the negative stigma associated with essential, blue-collar jobs. For the last few decades in America, a college degree has been pushed as one of the most important indicators of ones success. To find oneself working in an occupation that is more associated with a trade/vocation, or didn’t require a degree of some sort, has almost become a mark of unfavorable distinction, which is unfortunate. It shouldn’t be that way.
For one, as you mention, college is not necessarily for everybody. This doesn’t have to be a bad thing! I’m a school psychologist, and as bad as this may sound to say, every year I see students that, to put it bluntly, lack the cognitive ability and drive to attend college, but are pushed in that direction due to societal expectations. In many ways, these young people are being up for failure. They often ended up being the kinds of students that those for-profit, predatory colleges relied on. It’s my understanding that in Germany students are set on a track to attend university, or learn a trade upon graduation from their equivalent of high school. While Germany is by no means perfect, I think the US could benefit from adopting something similar to this model.
I know some people are reacting to this minimal debt forgiveness with open criticism and resentment towards the government for it, and I do feel like it’s normal to feel a little remiss on a surface level. Of course there are many good, logical reasons NOT to be, but I do think it is a somewhat normal human reaction. I don’t think that a majority of the middle class people who have criticized the debt forgiveness are necessarily angry that others are getting assistance, as much as they are just a bit bitter that they weren’t afforded the same. I don’t think to be a bit envious and perhaps even slightly resentful is as malignant a reaction to have as some make it. Human beings are layered, and can’t be expected to experience all initial reactions with a sense of altruism. What’s baffling is that those espousing the most vitriol seem to be those who haven’t and never will have any student loans, or were wealthy enough to go to college without even having to consider the cost.
On the left, we like to bash the right-wingers quite frequently for not being able to comprehend or sympathize with nuance, and gray areas, but the reaction to the 10K student forgiveness is proving that lefties can be guilty of the same. Everyone is pissed no matter what. Some ultra-progressives who want all student debt absolved, are railing that the $10K forgiveness is somehow “racist” because white people have less debt and earn more than people of color. I am not an economist nor sociologist, but I can’t see how the act of forgiving an equal amount of loans to all borrowers is racist. The discontent never ends. To other loan forgiveness super-proponents, the government is now just a bunch of assholes who aren’t doing enough because they didn’t forgive all of it. To Republicans, the government is enabling an entire generation of sloths to get yet another free ride.
As someone who started out owing six figures in student loans (now down to five figures thanks to the Covid interest pause that I’ve been taking advantage of by continuing to make massive payments), this $10K forgiveness will make little difference for my debt, though I am grateful for it. There are, however, many people that will be very positively impacted by removing the burden of paying $10,000 less, and those are the important ones here.
I could go on and on here, there are so many layers to explore and examine in regards to student debt in America. Corporate greed, class disproportion in America, the flawed educational system, (ESPECIALLY the flawed education system), etc. It’s an extraordinarily layered problem that is in no way cut and dry, and clearly will not be eradicated without a number of other changes employed at numerous levels. Changes that unfortunately are unlikely to be enacted anytime in the near future.
For profit is part of the solution. The problem is, if education providers get the money regardless of whether the students end up with decent jobs, they're incentivised to cheap out on teaching resources - if the student never gets a job, the university still gets paid. If instead, education providers were on the hook for students unable to earn enough to repay their loans, they'd have to increase the price of degrees that are unlikely to lead to gainful employment, would be encouraged to push useful degrees, forge links with industry to hook people up with jobs, etc.
First, I think the administration is just trying to buy votes from promising to settle student debt and secondly, yes: you should def receive a ten grand check in the post! 🤓
I mean, fair's fair!
As someone who owes a substantial amount of money in student loans, and finds the subject very interesting, I felt compelled to comment. Many of my thoughts echo what you have described here.
This $10,000 in student debt forgiveness is like putting a band-aid over a bullet wound. Are there better ways the government could have gone about this? Yes. Is it better than nothing? Yes. If nothing else, the Biden administration has been doing noble, and quite frankly (in my opinion) underrated things by forgiving predatory college student loans. In regards to the student debt crisis, that is the most ethical, and probably most impactful thing to do. It's one of the things that Biden has gotten right.
But forgiving loans isn’t going to fix anything in the long-term. In addition to making college affordable, and ditching the for-profit thing altogether, it would also help to remove the negative stigma associated with essential, blue-collar jobs. For the last few decades in America, a college degree has been pushed as one of the most important indicators of ones success. To find oneself working in an occupation that is more associated with a trade/vocation, or didn’t require a degree of some sort, has almost become a mark of unfavorable distinction, which is unfortunate. It shouldn’t be that way.
For one, as you mention, college is not necessarily for everybody. This doesn’t have to be a bad thing! I’m a school psychologist, and as bad as this may sound to say, every year I see students that, to put it bluntly, lack the cognitive ability and drive to attend college, but are pushed in that direction due to societal expectations. In many ways, these young people are being up for failure. They often ended up being the kinds of students that those for-profit, predatory colleges relied on. It’s my understanding that in Germany students are set on a track to attend university, or learn a trade upon graduation from their equivalent of high school. While Germany is by no means perfect, I think the US could benefit from adopting something similar to this model.
I know some people are reacting to this minimal debt forgiveness with open criticism and resentment towards the government for it, and I do feel like it’s normal to feel a little remiss on a surface level. Of course there are many good, logical reasons NOT to be, but I do think it is a somewhat normal human reaction. I don’t think that a majority of the middle class people who have criticized the debt forgiveness are necessarily angry that others are getting assistance, as much as they are just a bit bitter that they weren’t afforded the same. I don’t think to be a bit envious and perhaps even slightly resentful is as malignant a reaction to have as some make it. Human beings are layered, and can’t be expected to experience all initial reactions with a sense of altruism. What’s baffling is that those espousing the most vitriol seem to be those who haven’t and never will have any student loans, or were wealthy enough to go to college without even having to consider the cost.
On the left, we like to bash the right-wingers quite frequently for not being able to comprehend or sympathize with nuance, and gray areas, but the reaction to the 10K student forgiveness is proving that lefties can be guilty of the same. Everyone is pissed no matter what. Some ultra-progressives who want all student debt absolved, are railing that the $10K forgiveness is somehow “racist” because white people have less debt and earn more than people of color. I am not an economist nor sociologist, but I can’t see how the act of forgiving an equal amount of loans to all borrowers is racist. The discontent never ends. To other loan forgiveness super-proponents, the government is now just a bunch of assholes who aren’t doing enough because they didn’t forgive all of it. To Republicans, the government is enabling an entire generation of sloths to get yet another free ride.
As someone who started out owing six figures in student loans (now down to five figures thanks to the Covid interest pause that I’ve been taking advantage of by continuing to make massive payments), this $10K forgiveness will make little difference for my debt, though I am grateful for it. There are, however, many people that will be very positively impacted by removing the burden of paying $10,000 less, and those are the important ones here.
I could go on and on here, there are so many layers to explore and examine in regards to student debt in America. Corporate greed, class disproportion in America, the flawed educational system, (ESPECIALLY the flawed education system), etc. It’s an extraordinarily layered problem that is in no way cut and dry, and clearly will not be eradicated without a number of other changes employed at numerous levels. Changes that unfortunately are unlikely to be enacted anytime in the near future.
For profit is part of the solution. The problem is, if education providers get the money regardless of whether the students end up with decent jobs, they're incentivised to cheap out on teaching resources - if the student never gets a job, the university still gets paid. If instead, education providers were on the hook for students unable to earn enough to repay their loans, they'd have to increase the price of degrees that are unlikely to lead to gainful employment, would be encouraged to push useful degrees, forge links with industry to hook people up with jobs, etc.