Student Loans. Medical Debt. Criminal Justice Fees. Cancel It All.

Re:Student Loans. Medical Debt. Criminal Justice Fees. Cance... by gruez on Friday July 02, 2021 @10:51AM (#27712247)

>Not really, given that in the US, the central bank could just take over those public loans, not collect on them, and likely not much would happen.

Isn't that just helicopter money with extra steps?

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Re:Student Loans. Medical Debt. Criminal Justice Fees. Cance... by thatfrenchguy on Friday July 02, 2021 @10:58AM (#27712361)

This is not really helicopter money in that sense, you’re not giving out unallocated free money, you’re just doing cash flow relief.

I think there is a good argument to make that cancelling that debt, and fixing the US college system, would likely result in more innovation: folks who come from (lower) middle class backgrounds could finally take more risk and try new jobs / start startups that they can’t today because of the money they need to put into debt service.

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Re:Student Loans. Medical Debt. Criminal Justice Fees. Cance... by gruez on Friday July 02, 2021 @11:27AM (#27712743)

> This is not really helicopter money in that sense, you’re not giving out unallocated free money, you’re just doing cash flow relief.

That's if you're only looking at the repayment stage of the loan in isolation. The way loans work is that:

1. you get money upfront in exchange for nothing

2. you pay it back

If you take out the second step ("cash flow relief"), then all you have left is "you get money upfront in exchange for nothing" which is the definition of helicopter money.

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