Student debt is a personal responsibility. It is a personal choice. There are people who knowingly decided not to take higher education because they knew it would make them go into debt and instead went to work instead, providing for their family. These are real tangible opportunity cost for these people who decided that they couldn't afford college debt.

If you forgive student loans, then those people who went on debt with abandon in expensive universities, expensive cities, and intentionally took out loans more than they can afford, you are giving these people who made bad decisions advantage over people who didn't.

America is about personal responsibility, at least that's my view as an immigrant, that's why I came here.

If you want to make things fair, then just give everyone $80k. Went to college or not. Of course that would destroy the economy.

I care less about being called names like deplorable or NIMBY. It's not like it would change my mind.

"Hipsters on Food Stamps" or "Why would someone take out $100k student loan to go to U of Chicago to earn a 'useless' degree? And why does it make me so angry?"

https://thelastpsychiatrist.com/2012/11/hipsters_on_food_sta... https://thelastpsychiatrist.com/2012/11/hipsters_on_food_sta... https://thelastpsychiatrist.com/2012/12/product_review_panas...

> Student debt is a personal responsibility. It is a personal choice.

While I agree with you, to an extent, you cannot ignore than many young people were pressured into going to college, and going to a 'good school' by the authority figures in their life at the time (be it parents or school counselors).

they were sold the lie that college would pay for itself, and for many it has not.

I got lucky, personally, and don't have much in the way of college debt due to scholarships and such, but my degree is still just a very expensive piece of paper since I have done absolutely nothing with it.

> many young people were pressured into going to college

When I was young, drunk, and impressionable, a pit boss pressured me to apply for casino credit and get hosted in Vegas.

Of course, I took out my entire line in markers and lost it all.

If being young is a valid excuse to discharge the consequences of stupid choices, this is great news. I'll be awaiting my check.

Any of you who signed up for those $1000 unsecured "student credit card" offers should be lining up for the gravy train, as well.

Looking forward to teaching my kids that financial responsibility is only for old people, to rack up as much unserviceable debt as humanly possible while they're in whatever government standard age bracket is defined as "young", get it all forgiven, and then start acting like a responsible human being. There's no moral hazard in this line of reasoning whatsoever.

false equivalency.

Yeah and now they have a good degree from a good school which is advantageous over someone who was more frugal.

I went to get my CompSci master in a public college somewhere in NYC, total cost $20k.

Now I earn more than $250k/yr.

You can get into college without spending insane amount of money. You can also choose a more marketable major.

then you also have to realize that you are in the minority, even within your field. the vast majority of software engineers dont make nearly that much.

But going to my college with just $20k is not a privilege that only a minority can do. Its public college, anyone can get in.

I show my income only to state that people should major in a more marketable major.

What year was this?

4 years ago. 2018 graduation.

Interesting. I'm glad to see there are still programs that aren't obscenely expensive. I went to Ohio State in Computer Science in 1984 and full time tuition was $600 per quarter or $1800 per year or $7200 for a 4-year degree.

Many of these students lay at the generational divide between college guaranteeing a great job (during the generation when most people went to high school and then trade) and college being a prerequisite for any job (today). And those universities only became so expensive because the federal govt guaranteed loans in the first place. University is radically more expensive than it was a few decades ago.

It's not as simple as you lay it out to be.

His point still stands that giving everyone 80k is more fair. The people who took out huge loans for degrees still have degrees from nice schools which will likely help them in the future. This shouldn’t be a win-win for people who mismanaged their money

Well, there are many many many problems in this world. Nothing is simple in this world. Including forgiving student loans. Forgiving student loans will create another sets of problems, like Pandora's Box that we can't ever put back.

The macroeconomic literacy of your average voter is pretty poor unfortunately.

https://news.gallup.com/opinion/polling-matters/393584/ameri...

https://morningconsult.com/2022/05/18/power-to-control-infla...

If person A paid back his student loan, why would he have to cover other's student loan by his taxes (or price increase or whatever)?

For the same reason my taxes and insurance premiums pay for someone else’s healthcare.

Student loan debt at this scale should’ve never existed. It’s a policy failure (but so is a lot of US policy, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯)

Healthcare is insurance for possible future accidents. A may have higher risk of breaking a leg, B may have higher risk of cardiovascular accident. Eventually it evens out. No matter how healthy lifestyle you lead, you've a risk of ending up in hospital. For active lifestyle it may be even higher :)

Meanwhile student loan is past decision. As well as paying it back or not. Some people may have lived on noodles to pay it back asap while others took the easy route. Maybe all payments shall be returned too?

Of course, US high education costs are stupid. There needs to be more incentive to guide people towards degrees that will pay for themselves too.

You’re implying morality on rows in a database (the debt in question).

> Some people may have lived on noodles to pay it back asap while others took the easy route.

Indeed, life isn’t fair, and why policy shouldn’t inflict suffering “because it was hard for me.” (broad strokes) That’s not just silly, it’s toxic when expressed as policy.

At the end of the day, law is morality. Both inspired by (a part of) society's moral code and enforcing (a part of) society's moral code.

Some people might think that life isn't fair, thus law shall not be fair either. But other people think that law shall make the world more fair. In today's world, frequently former group ends up :surprised pikachu: when later group ain't happy.

Personally, it's toxic if a law promotes irresponsible behaviour. Choose whatever crappy degree, never mind paying back the student loan... Society will bail you out! Same „too big to fail“ BS, just targeting a different audience.

very bad take. inflation hurts the lower class the most, and these are likely to be people who don't even have student loan debt because they never went to college. so you're advocating for giving the middle and upper class a break at the expense of the poorest demo in America.

I shouldn't be responsible for someone taking out a $40k loan for their art degree in poetry and not being able to find a job that can pay it back.

To be fair the NIMBY cruelty of it all must really kind of sneak up on you when all you do is watch CNN or something for news