> I'm one of the people who paid off a large portion of debt and probably don't need this assistance. However, this argument is so offensive.
Please spend my tax dollars on curing disease, fixing homelessness, free addiction treatment, better mental health care, improving our justice system, or even cold fusion. All of these have better outcomes than does paying off student debt.
> These arguments are all the greedy option
You left out the best argument against: there are much better things to spend money on.
I could get behind fixing Bush's biggest mistake - his bankruptcy change that moved the pendulum to lifetime debt. I'd love to see people be able to discharge student loans that are impossible to pay off or where the debtor was put in debt by a fraudulent or failed education institution.
I don't like it, but how would you prevent everyone from getting expensive schooling and then immediately declaring bankruptcy?
Just better redistribution and georgism/UBI type stuff but also keeping the need based stuff (medicaid, social security disability etc.) I think would be more fair and not punish people who paid off their debt or worked a job during school. Expanding free public education to K-16 and maybe ?more heavily taxing elite universities that get most of their value from the prestige of their own high ranking students who then have to pay more for it and other things like prestigious journals and even startup funds like YC, top law firms, etc. that work largely as prestige money redirectors where the value comes from those capturing the prestige but is redirected almost entireoy to just whoever kicked off the prestige flywheel early..
> I don't like it, but how would you prevent everyone from getting expensive schooling and then immediately declaring bankruptcy?
You don't! If the government is backing the loan, as is true in almost all cases, you eagerly take the write-off on the public purse in the knowledge that you've just gained an enthusiastic taxpayer who can open a new business or take a flyer on a new career, instead of a debt slave that is terrified to do anything but brownnose their way up the ladder at their dead-end callcenter job that will disappear the minute someone figures out it can be done in Bangladesh or by AI for cents on the dollar.
Sure, it would be better and more efficient to do this directly by nationalizing the state schools and offering free tuition or something, but we have to work with what we have.
Bankruptcies are not a cure all. They are a way to force creditors to work with debtors to either get the debt to where it can be paid back, or git rid of debts the debtor will ever be able to pay. The idea is to prevent usury or debt servitude. It also has the effect of introducing a risk to a loan where the lender can lose their money, and has to consider if it is a good idea to write the loan. Student loans are risky, so the government guarantees them, but even so the default rate is high. Perhaps our focus should be on figuring out why so many loans default and working on bringing expenses and outcomes to an alignment where people don't default.
In America so many banks are hungry to loan money. You can build up your credit and save. I recovered from bankruptcy before the ink was dry. I was driving a new car and living in a new house in short order. It is now long gone from my credit file. Don't ever talk someone out of bankruptcy if they qualify for it.
If you own a home you can exclude it from the bankruptcy. You can also include it and continue to pay the payments and the contract must be honored!
> how would you prevent everyone from getting expensive schooling and then immediately declaring bankruptcy
If the expensive schooling works, then the person should be able to get a nice, well paying job and pay off the loan over the next 20 years. Many of the differal programs (i.e. "putting the loan on hold") programs and policies would prevent this. It's when the clock runs out, and the student can't get the high-paying job that we have issues...
Please spend my tax dollars on curing disease, fixing homelessness, free addiction treatment, better mental health care, improving our justice system, or even cold fusion. All of these have better outcomes than does paying off student debt.
> These arguments are all the greedy option
You left out the best argument against: there are much better things to spend money on.
I could get behind fixing Bush's biggest mistake - his bankruptcy change that moved the pendulum to lifetime debt. I'd love to see people be able to discharge student loans that are impossible to pay off or where the debtor was put in debt by a fraudulent or failed education institution.