Sanders Bill Eliminates all Student Loans. Period

Boomers in absolute shambles.

 

Thank you. I'm shocked! ;-)

I had written two or three paragraphs similar in tone to your post and deleted them, except that it was about going to school in the 1960's. Maybe when you did. Here's the short version, without your excellent wage comparisons. I could work part-time (union wages), pay for a garage apartment 2 blocks from Hermann Park that was $65 a month, bills paid (no roommate, unless it was a girl), gas was about 28 cents a gallon, unless there was a gas war going on between 2 stations across the street from each other, when it could get down to 25 cents, sometimes less. I could afford to buy multiple LP's every week, while going to clubs and concerts (Velvet Underground for $1.50!), taking a chick out for Chinese beforehand. Tuition and fees were about $150 a semester at a major Houston state university. Books could be a killer at times, depending on what classes you had. Finished without being in debt. I spent money on things I cared about, but usually ate beans and rice at home. Get that degree? You could get a degree in literally anything and get a good job. My significant other, younger than me, got 2 degrees in sociology, got a job with the state working for the Lege for an important commission, and ended up becoming an executive making 6 figures. She recently retired with a state pension and health insurance.

I truly feel sorry for those graduating in today's world. We put our two kids through college, and they had the good sense to major in desirable fields, but it cost us a lot. Something radical needs to be done about it. In Texas, the state took the reigns off controlling tuition, with the universities making all sorts of promises (as did the state) to keep costs under control. Both failed, miserably. We're paying for that failure now, one way or another. I'm a supporter of higher education, to be clear. My father was a department chair for 30 years, and my uncle, more into administration (Dad tried it and hated the paperwork), retired after being the Dean of a college for several years. Both made more money doing consulting on the side and during summers than they did teaching. I know quite a bit about it. So what went wrong? A lot.

Oh, @glynch? You're supposed to change your moniker to something less political. Clutch's rules.

 

Don't like either plan, but I prefer Sanders' plan to pay off loans without any caps to Warren's plans to means-test borrowers.

He'd nationalize it.

I honestly doubt it. I think a class divide will be perpetuated between people with public college educations and people with elitist private college educations (much as we see now with public and private high schools). Private schools won't be able to compete at all on price, so they'll compete instead on exclusivity, quality, luxury, service (like career placement), etc. The more modest private schools might go out of business, but the elite ones will just be more elite. And, I fear the public schools will degrade in quality at the same time.

 

for all the hand-ringing about student debt, nobody is talking about the really BIG issue here . . . Al Sharpton has been walking around since 2004 with $900,000 worth of presidential campaign debt hanging over his head.

I want to see Bernie's plan to forgive presidential campaign debt.

https://nypost.com/2020/02/15/al-sharptons-2004-presidential-campaign-still-owes-over-900k/

 

about 20 failed Dem primary candidates just subscribed to your newsletter.

 

Nah, the only answer is...wage garnishment.

 

The should just sell their votes in congress for money to pay off their debt. It works for Trump.

 

How is this punishment? The forgiven debt isn’t going to be assigned to him nor is he going to lose anything other than his self-rewarded prestige of being one of the few who paid off his loan. By his logic, we shouldn’t ever create a new benefit for anyone because someone else will miss out. Thus, we can’t allow additional funding for curing a disease because some people died or suffered before it yielded results, we can’t send additional troops to promote peace in a hot zone because the previous troops there had to endure less secure conditions, and we can’t ever lower taxes because someone paid the higher rate for longer than someone else.

Isn’t there a medical term for this kind of psychosis?

 

It is unfair to people that already saved, paid, worked to avoid student loans. At the same time, I'm not in favor of doing the right thing for others because it wasn't done for those preceding them. Many of the loans were predatory and many of those issuing the loans at least at some point tried to disguise the nature and actual cost of the loans. I know that different loans had different structures and many were unscrupulous in trying to portray their structure.

I understand those that are mad because Sanders didn't get a chance to propose this action before their loans were paid off. It will be a tough sell. I still believe it is the right thing to do going forward. I also think there is a LOT of room for compromise on this issue.

 

Tend to agree with this. Plus if you guys are planning on having children, they too will come to that crossroads of a career path at the age of 18 and have to decide whether to take out a loan or pursue other career advancement opportunities. The debt forgiveness you didn't receive with your own education will be given to your offspring, should they choose a career that requires a college education. Just think, when those kids hit 18 that's even less financial help you might be inclined to assist in that can go to you and the wife's retirement.

To those old posters here whose kids have already finished college, your kids will likely raise families of their own in the future and wouldn't it be nice if they didn't have to feel the burden of covering their children's finances as they pursue higher education into adulthood? If not for your own kid's benefit, for your grand kids.

Point being is, it's all in how you spin this.

 

Sounds fair to let the tax payers foot the bill let’s celebrate.

 

As you know , I'm against the "forgiveness" idea.

What I wouldn't be against is the terms of those loans changing with rates no higher than the 1.8% Bernie is stating would be the cap. While ensuring that the date the interest rate began compounding was post graduation.

 

I am all in favor of cancelling loans, schools should not be for profit, their administrations are out of hand.

Time for higher education to go back to being reasonable.

And I paid off my loans, but think college should be govt supported as an educated populace is good for society.

DD

 

You cant just cancel debt , it wouldn't pass constitutional muster .... Someone has to pay the bill.


Higher education has always been rather exclusive , today its as available as its ever been thru out history.


State schools are one thing , private institutions another - this is just going to dive a wedge between the two.


I like the idea of limiting tuition costs and capping interest rates on those loans for state schools and those receiving government money but cant force private institutions to do the same.

 

One thing that is never talked about is exactly those predatory loans and of course as I mentioned before they hit minorities harder. Warren made a point that the wealth gap between black and white families would shirnk a large amount just by handling this loan issue.

People need to understand that just starting your life out with a huge debt like that isn't easy.

Sunk cost fallacy, that's what it is on a national scale.

One thing to consider too is that older people that claim they paid off their loans and young people do too just aren't taking the same shot. Loans were significantly...SIGNIFICANTLY less for Baby Boomers. I said it's like bragging about you making 9/10 of your layups while your opponent went 5/10 from three.

 

do we college grads get our money back too?

 

As I said there is a lot of room compromise and improvement on the way it is now.

 

Why not just forgive all interest? And reset all rates to ~inflation levels or slightly higher moving forward.