#46 President Joe Biden

HughFreakingDillon said:

Isn't "sending your kid to college" almost like a cultural thing in the US? It would seem to me that a lot of people feel social pressure to pay for their kids to go to college out of state (or for kids to get loans to do so). 

yes, that's irresponsible, but doesn't that exist?

I'm not sure sending you kids to college to out of state or private is cultural.   It's just bad decision making.  

Now if your kid gets into Cal, UVA, Michigan, Stanford or Ivy, then I can see paying a premium because if you get a wise degree,  it will pay off.  But paying out of state for Tennessee is silly.

dankind said:

And the Ivies and other pedigree schools are starting to matter less when it comes to corporate HR departments. Again, score another point for corporations on this one.

Yeah that could be true. Although the companies I am connected with value UVA and William and Mary very highly.  I think it's as much a network thing as anything else.  You have a Virginia degree in Virginia,  and you have a good job. 

The Juggler said:

cincybearcat said:

The Juggler said:

dankind said:

bootlegger10 said:

I just don’t think anyone should take out loans to go to a private school. Makes no sense to me.  Go to a state school. 

Cool. Now explain this to an 18-year-old who didn't have great examples of fiscal responsibility during their upbringing. 

I know right? Easy for someone with more than twice the amount of lived experience to say too....

I think you are selling kids way short.  I know plenty of 18 year old that are just starting college this year...each took $ into consideration.

I am sure there are plenty who took it into consideration. I am also sure there are plenty who did not. As dankind mentioned, it's a product of upbringing. My parents really didn't tell me anything about that stuff. I ended up with a lot of debt but, luckily, paid it all off. The debt I had was a fraction of what it would be in today's world though. 

Also, it really should be mandatory to have some kind of financial training in high school. 

I’m pretty sure I read at some point that Desantis signed something that made it mandatory to pass a financial course to graduate high school. I always thought it was ridiculous that there was zero finance training in school. It’s crucial in life. 

I just did a tax return for a 25 year old kid that lost $17K gambling through Barstool and another sports app.

Winnings were around $60K...losses $77K

I mean holy shit....horrible idea

I really don’t know enough or can relate to this. I’ve never had student loan debt. At first , it sounded good. But the more I read into it, the more it sounds like a whole lot of nothing. I don’t think this will really do much going forward. I read an article and this paragraph stuck out the most to me :

Any serious discussion surrounding student debt would ask the fundamental question of how best to reduce tuition price tags, as ours dwarf those of peer nations. But this isn’t a serious discussion. It is a bribe to Biden’s base in anticipation of the midterm elections, and the US taxpayers are the ones footing the bill.

the first sentence is the obvious problem. The second is more of an attack on Biden , but how true is that about taxpayers footing the bill? Will this really cost us 300 billion? 

Goldman Sachs said it could be 400 billion.

bootlegger10 said:

Goldman Sachs said it could be 400 billion.

They also say it will not make inflation worse, which was what I was originally concerned with. 
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonathanponciano/2022/08/25/student-loan-forgiveness-plan-wont-make-inflation-worse-even-if-it-adds-400-billion-to-deficit-goldman-says/?sh=6ced2c022e77

The Juggler said:

mickeyrat said:

https://twitter.com/WhiteHouse/status/1562916200866267138?t=HJqc0li0L3drcu55XQtt8A&s=19

There is literally no subject these people are not hypocritical about. 

Is that not the point though? “Rules for thee, not for me” is a supremacist viewpoint. 

The hypocrisy is a virtue for them. 

mace1229 said:

Loan forgiveness is a terrible idea.
One, it does zero to reduce to cost. So it’s pointless.
But mostly, you agree to take a loan you should be responsible to pay it back. Not pass it off into other taxpayers. It’s not about fairness to those who just paid it off, I don’t care about that. If it was a gift from China then that’d one thing. But you’re “forgiving” it by passing it on to the rest of us.

The reasons of they’re just drowning in debt and school is so expensive don’t do it for me. How many drowning in student loan debt considered other options like going to a 2 year school first? There are ways to drastically cut the cost back if that is your goal. There are plenty of people drowning in credit card debt too, should we forgive that with tax money? You chose to take out tens of thousands to attend a 4 year school, and most likely partied the first 2 years. That’s great. I wish you the best. Don’t pay off your debt with my taxes though.

I also think PPP loan forgiveness was a bad idea.

Are you ok with giveaways to Booz Allen, Lockheed Martin and Boeing via the Dod to the tune of $800bn a year plus the unknown number of dollars spent on the three letter agencies that supposedly protect our nation.  This is a fraction of that. One time and actually helps struggling citizens.  If you are concerned about taxes and debt, join the anti war movement, push to bring our troops home close US military bases on foreign soil, stop contracts to defense oligarchs and reign in obnoxious military spending.

This situation is nothing like credit card debt.  This is loans backed by the government that were supposed to help educate American and lead them to a better life.  Instead it led to ballooning tuition costs fueled by schools business departments seeing a golden ticket that would always come in whether kids finished school or not.  In the process it made a killing for loan servicers.  To circle back to my personal situation, I took out $14,000 to go to a trade program at a local community college...Just for the cost of school.  I still worked three jobs during that time to eat and pay the rent and try to enjoy life for a little while.  I have now paid $16,000 on said $14,000 loan with a balance left of about $10k...This is robbery, not a system designed to get the American citizen ahead. As it is the current system creates massive profits for schools and loan servicers and limited gains for students.

There is no moral high ground to say that people should be required to ruin their lives in the shadow of an unsurmountable debt burden., that society nudged them toward every minute of their formative years.  I feel for the people that have six figure loans..They may have finished their degree with an $80,000 or less balance but that interest keeps growing and growing until it swallows you.   The right thing to do would be to cap the cost of the loan at the amount borrowed plus a servicing fee, ie enough to pay for administrative costs, not use student loans as a way to create capital gain through compounding interest.  Use the new system and evaluate all existing loans and see if people have paid the cost of the loan plus the cost of servicing.  Student loans as a way to pad someone's portfolio is criminal and dare I say evil.