The comment section is full of a lot of angry people who don't want anyone to have loan forgiveness. I find that surprising since most surveys claims there is over 50% support for student loan forgiveness. The article should be available for anyone to read for at least two weeks, according to WaPo's gifting rules.
Includes a bit of resentment from people who endured crippling student debt and don't like the thought of other people getting out easy.
The problem is people who suffered being responsible dislike seeing others get rewarded for irresponsibility.
So people paying student loans today are "irresponsible" but when you did it, it was a good investment? What a crock.
Wut? Isn’t it about folks who were responsible and paid back their loans resenting that their taxes will be used to write off the loans of others? Is the government going to refund our payments with interest? Or are we just suckers for being responsible?
It’s like people who were children before there were vaccinations available to prevent measles, mumps, rubella, chickenpox, polio and more resenting kids today who can be vaccinated against these diseases.
That analogy doesn’t work at all.
How so?
People took out loans. Some paid them back, as agreed. Others did not. So those who breached the agreement would be rewarded while those who were responsible are out the money they repaid. What suckers.
Having your loan forgiven is not breaching any agreement. The lender forgives the loan. This is not the same thing as the borrower skipping out on the loan.
Kids are born. Some are born when there were no vaccinations against measles, mumps, rubella, polio, chickenpox, etc. They got those diseases and some died or were permanently disabled because of them. Then there were vaccinations and those children whose parents were smart and able to get them vaccinated did not become ill from those preventable diseases. Some kids have stupid parents and unfortunately, they tend to get sick. Even more unfortunately, some kids cannot be vaccinated because they are undergoing treatment for childhood cancers or are otherwise immune suppressed and they get sick and die from things like chickenpox or measles instead of cancer which was in remission.
I grew up (mostly) with indoor plumbing, something my parents did not have as children. That is in no way unfair to them because they suffered from not having indoor plumbing.
My kids grew up with cable tv and cell phones and computers. That is in no way unfair to me because I did not have those things.
Keep in mind that most of those loans were taken out by kids who are too young to legally consume alcoholic beverages or to sign other kinds of contracts. Also, those loans cannot be discharged under most circumstances due to serious misfortune. Some are able to get their loans discharged if they can document permanent disability AND if they remain below the poverty line for a certain number of years.