59% of Americans worry student loan forgiveness will make inflation worse

Re:59% of Americans worry student loan forgiveness will make... by pc86 on Monday August 22, 2022 @10:47AM (#32552223)

Even the length of time won't tell you much. I owe about $15k, but I graduated in 2008. For the longest time I was making basically interest-only payments because I didn't make enough. Then I was making interest-only payments because I was trying to catch up on my retirement contributions. Then I was making interest-only payments because I was making more money in the market. Then COVID. Now if payments are re-instated I'll continue making interest-only payments because my interest rate is less than inflation, and there's a chance that most of my balance could disappear.

I'm not struggling at all, but I have zero incentive to make any payments as long as inflation stays where it is and there are no penalties. But then you look at stories like the person mentioned in the article - six figures of student debt, probably at 2-3x my interest rate, with a master's degree working as a secretary probably making $40k/yr.

I'm so conflicted because on the one hand I'm not going to intentionally make a decision that puts me or my family worse off financially; it'd be silly to expect anyone to do that. But at the same time as someone who had a job in school, did work study, didn't go to grad school, all to keep my loan balance as low as possible at graduation, I struggle not to roll my eyes a bit when I read articles like this about someone getting a master's degree from a private liberal arts college that charges $2k/credit then getting a job as a secretary and complaining they can't make student loan payments. I mean.. that seems obvious.

I don't have a problem with liberal arts education - I went to a small private liberal arts college - and I don't think there's necessarily a problem with getting a degree in something that doesn't have a direct track to industry and a six figure job. But it's hard to square all that with even the slightest bit of "maybe think about what jobs you can get after school with whatever you want to study, and change your plans for what school you go to, whether you do work study, etc. accordingly."

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Re:59% of Americans worry student loan forgiveness will make... by lapcat on Monday August 22, 2022 @10:51AM (#32552276)

> maybe think about what jobs you can get after school with whatever you want to study

What if the answer is "college professor"?

We can't have college at all without college professors, and it's a very long, treacherous road from undergrad to grad school to tenure track to tenure. Many people, perhaps most, get lost along the way. Yet society needs kids to keep trying, or we have nobody at the end.

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Re:59% of Americans worry student loan forgiveness will make... by pc86 on Monday August 22, 2022 @11:01AM (#32552433)

I think this says more about grad school than it does the costs of undergraduate education. You just have to look at the competition for tenure track faculty positions to see that there are plenty of people qualified for the positions who want them today. As far as I know there is no drought of applicants for prestigious grad school programs either.

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Re:59% of Americans worry student loan forgiveness will make... by nradov on Monday August 22, 2022 @10:57AM (#32552370)

There are a surplus of students trying to become college professors. We would still have a surplus even if we cut off half of them at early stages of the pipeline.

And we have too many people going to college anyway. Many of them would be happier and better off in the long run if they attended trade school or joined an apprentice program or enlisted in the military. College is an excellent choice for some people, but it shouldn't be the default option.

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