06-30-2023, 01:13 PM
(06-30-2023, 12:53 PM)Sociopathicsteelerfan Wrote: That's your entire rebuttal, we pay for lots of other things so why not this? I see you've really thought this through. You took out a loan, pay it back. No one forced you to take out said loan. No one forced you to get a degree in a useless field. No one is forcing you to only take a job in your degree's field either, there are lots of jobs that require a BA/S regardless of the degree. We have record numbers of homeless, children living in poverty and you think we should be paying for someone's gender studies degree. Your priorities are rather startling.
I am assuming you're not meaning this to be taken literally, but not everyone affected received a useless degree in gender studies or underwater basket weaving. There are plenty of genuine degrees that end up with the recipient not making enough to handle their loans effectively unless they make massive life changes, such as moving back in with their parents or something along those lines. That's always not an option, either. I graduated making roughly ~$52k with a Marketing degree. I didn't take out loans as I went to a community college and then a satellite campus, so I was able to work full time and pay it off with some assistance from work and the Choctaw nation. However, if I had went to a conventional college and accrued $100k in debt + interest, I would have been in trouble. That also would have been a massive financial decision that I honestly wasn't educated to make at 18, and no one really educated me about it. The consensus at the time was "Okay, you're graduating high school, now you go to college."
I am not going to take a hardline stance that this should have happened, but I will say that something should be done about the loan situation. We can absolutely find ways to improve it. Even taking a step to make the loans no interest is a start. If they want to do a forgiveness package that is more palatable, they could propose a matching program where every dollar that is paid towards the principle is a dollar forgiven. I am of the opinion that higher education is only beneficial for the country and we are seeing financing issues with stagnating wages and rising cost of living. It would be beneficial to rectify that issue.
