Here is the Facebook webpage for "Cancel Student Debt to Stimulate the Economy," created by Robert Applebaum.
Here is a blurb from Applebaum:
This proposal will immediately free up money for hardworking, educated Americans, giving them more money in their pockets EVERY MONTH, addressing the very real psychological aspects of the recession as much as the financial ones. Is it the only answer? No, of course not. But could it help millions of hardworking people who struggle every month to get by? Absolutely. Given the current economic climate, as well as the plans to spend trillions of additional dollars that are in the works, one must wonder what is so objectionable about giving a real helping hand to real people with real struggles.
2009 and the new Obama Administration is supposed to be about change. Nothing in the new economic stimulus package represents a significant departure from the way Washington has always operated - it's merely a different set of priorities on a higher scale, but it's certainly not materially different from any other economic stimulus package passed during the past few decades.
Washington cannot simply print and borrow money to get us out of this crisis. We The People, however, can get this economy moving NOW. All we need is relief from debt that was accrued under the now-false promise that higher education equates with higher earnings.
Free us of our obligations to repay our out-of-control student loan debt and WE, the hardworking, middle-class Americans who drive this economy will spend those extra dollars NOW.
If you believe that there's a better way of climbing out of this economic crisis, one that empowers us to directly spend money, start businesses, free up credit and create jobs, then please join this group and encourage others to do so as well.
Interesting. Well, I'm not entirely on-board with the idea that student loan debt should be "disappeared" BECAUSE of a "false promise." I'm possibly more on-board with the idea that reducing the debt burden of a lot of people would enable them to do more things with their money than pay off that debt (i.e., spend it in various ways) and labor under that debt and its increasing interest. I mean, really, isn't debt (on the national level) the heart of many a rant these days? Debt is BAD. (And the whole country is in debt up to its eyeballs.)
More thoughts here on student loan debt forgiveness, such as:
Unfair to those who repaid their loans or didn’t have loans in the first place? Sure — but no more so than dumping oceans of TARP cash on the banks that created the crisis. And if, if the stimulus effect of loan forgiveness is as profound as these guys think, taxpayers would be repaid in the form of a quicker economic rebound. One question, though: Why do they assume forgiven debtors would spend the savings instead of pocketing them or using them to pay off other debt a la tax rebate checks? The answer, maybe, is the sheer amount of money we’re talking about. In my case, forgiving federal loans would save me north of $8,000 a year; toss private loans in there and it’s a cool ten grand. I’d sock some of that away, but with tens of thousands dollars suddenly freed up, I’d also start looking at home prices in the area.
Hmmmm... What do you think?
Personally, I think this is an interesting idea, but it'll never happen.
If you've been reading this blog for any amount of time, you're not surprised that student loan debt is a hot (and sore) topic. I've ranted about the ballooning cost of education for a long time now. (See here and here.) Note newly minted "cost of education" tag.
3 comments:
I hope it will happen.
www.AdvicesOfStudentLoan.blogspot.com
the government should simply revamp the bankruptcy laws to allow those who qualify for bankruptcy, or have already filed bankruptcy, to allow student loans to be included in the bankruptcy.
This would provide relief to those who are truly struggling in life. We all know, or most of us know, as a college education is no guarantee of a better life. For those lucky enough to have had their college degrees pay off, I am not sure they should get to not pay their student loan. Obviously for those people the investment paid off handsomely.
But for those who for whatever reason were unable to make their college degree payoff and are suffering financially and to qualify for bankruptcy... it makes no sense to me that those individuals cannot include student loans. I would be in favor of a law that retroactively allows those individuals who have filed bankruptcy since the law was changed to not all student loans in bankruptcy to amend their bankruptcy and finally get the relief intended by their bankruptcy filing.
We must remember that often schools are nothing more than corporations. They fool students and Duke students into buying a product that is defective. How many schools today are proprietary schools? Schools such as DeVry which have academic counselors who are really sales people cajoled and coerce people who are dominant on their luck in life to come back to school to get a better life.
These people go to schools such as DeVry and find out that they have mounds of student loans to pay back and nothing to show for it. I do not want to pick I'm only proprietary schools. Even traditional schools failed to give proper guidance to students.
Those individuals who are against this idea often say things such as... well, if you just majored in the perfect major you would not be in this situation it is your fault. However, these people fail to recognize that often a student will go to an academic counselor. Often these students will ask what sort of job prospects exist for his major? What can I do with this major upon graduation? And professors and counselors alike will usually give some sort of vague and inaccurate answer that leads the student to believe the world is their oyster.
For example, I went to a very prestigious school. I clearly remember a sign in the sociology department that stated something to the effect... major in sociology and work for the United Nations. Now, I do not doubt that there may be some sociology majors working for the United Nations, however, I'll likely do you believe that someone with a four-year sociology degree will be working for the United Nations.
Yet, an impressionable 18-year-old will look at that sign and dream. That 18-year-old will dream of working for United Nations. That 18-year-old will pursue a sociology degree. That 18-year-old will find him or herself with thousands of dollars in debt flipping hamburgers are selling like insurance. And people will say, well is your fault for major in the wrong major.
That is just bull! These schools are not innocent bystanders. They give a false image of the misleading information in order to attract students to their departments. The professors and administrators simply do not care, or they choose not to think about the poor student taking out student loan debt.
This situation is an unholy alliance between our government, student loan providers, and colleges. The colleges do everything in their power to attract students, they raise their tuition to ridiculous levels, the student loan providers happily provide the loans,in the United States federal government guarantees that the loan companies will be paid at the expense of the individual.
It is a travesty!
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