Summary
Student loan borrowers fear worsened conditions under Donald Trump, who has criticized debt relief and oversaw a 99% rejection rate for Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) during his first term.
Many borrowers remain in limbo awaiting forgiveness, while others struggle with ballooning debt despite decades of payments.
Borrowers expect Trump to scale back or eliminate relief programs initiated by Joe Biden, which have forgiven $166.5 billion in loans.
Critics highlight flaws in the existing system, calling it a “nightmare” for those seeking relief.
Americans
struggling with student debtexpect ‘much worse’ under TrumpThere won’t be a single thing that improves for people who aren’t either fascists or rich.
The Trump voters beginning to realize the consequences of what they have done to themselves might be funny if they hadn’t also done the same to me.
College educated voters were predominantly Harris voters though. Loan forgiveness was extremely unpopular with the non college crowd.
That’s to be expected.
IMHO direct interest issues and pure ideology issues should be equally present.
When stats show such a close alignment of position with direct interest issues, but not so much with ideology, it means things suck and can ultimately devolve into something like Lebanese politics (without bombs). Or devolve from imperfect two-party democracy into something like early 00s Russia.
Yep. If only they and the protest voters (because “genocide Joe” 🙄 ) were the only ones that had to sit in the mess they’ve made.
The problem is, they shit the bed and we all have to put up with it.
they shit the bed and we all have to put up with it.
Leftists have been saying that about Democrats for decades.
why should we pay, again?
So it seems if it comes before the supreme court and they think you are willfully not paying, they can imprison you: https://www.npr.org/2014/05/21/313118629/supreme-court-ruling-not-enough-to-prevent-debtors-prisons
That’s about court and government fees and fines, not student loans. Idk if the two would be in any way related but I see nothing in the article that supports this for student loans specifically.
Do you have anything that does reference student loans?
I’m on an IDR plan (no idea which one at this point, no idea what’s going on with any of it because they keep throwing it into forbearance…)
I don’t make enough to pay it, so after the first year when I got set up with IDR, I haven’t paid a penny.
I graduated with like $17k in debt, and less than a decade later it’s like 30k. I have no intention of ever making another payment. No point. I’d never get through the interest anyway.
Its… Income based… As much as I hate loans of all the loan options its the easiest for many people because you only have to pay such a small fraction of your income to repay it 5-10% most common… And if you’re compliant, they forgive it anyways after 20 years.
I didn’t take that option but many of my friends did. Also, anyone taking out loans whether it be house, car, etc I believe should know what terms are and select what works best for their life.
know what the terms are
Most people dont know what the terms mean, let alone the terms on their actual loan. When i bought my new car, i paid less than $300 in total interest across the 4 year loan. Understanding those financial terms is so beneficial. We really need to teach it better to high schoolers
Yeah, I know it’s income based. That’s why I haven’t made enough to pay it.
What I mean is there were several income-based options, and idk which one I’m on or was on, and idk if that’s still the case because I’ve chosen to do absolutely nothing with my student loans beyond what I’m specifically required to do (was hoping for forgiveness to go through but that didn’t happen). So I’ve only had to file one proof of income form, for example, even though it should have been yearly.
I knew the terms at the time, but it’s been a while so meh.
Because POS like Biden helped write provisions in a bankruptcy bill that allows Social Security to cut benefits for unpaid student debt.
You were presumably willing to pay when you took on the debt, and nothing about the debt changed.
Ah yes, children being told by both their families and society in general that you need to go to college in order to not work a fast food job for the rest of your life agreed to take on the debt. I guess they deserve a lifetime of ballooning debt even though the degree didn’t stop wages from staying stagnant and inflation destroying their dream of being as successful as their parents.
Not to mention brain still develops for years after most make that “choice”.
The issue with arguments like these is that the brain doesn’t mature uniformly. I’d you can tell me exactly what parts of the brain are involved in a decision like this and when those parts mature, then you might have a valid argument.
I say “might” because you would still have to show that a brain which hasn’t finished maturing is inherently incapable (ie, will always fail) of making such decisions.
As I said already, there no easy answer. But what about some life experience as an adult first regardless?
How old would you say someone needs to be before being allowed to borrow money?
Our education system is shit, which is part of the problem. So many people don’t understand the concepts of compounding interest and what debt will actually do to them in the long run.
My wife took on so much debt because no one ever explained to her what she was doing. She applied for a loan and got it, went to school. Shes an attorney now, but has amassed so much debt we will never be able to pay it off. We’re on the income based plan, her loan payment is more than our mortgage, and we aren’t even covering interest. Loan forgiveness is our only hope
Wow this post really drew the pro-fascist trolls out of the woodwork
I’m not sure there’s an easy answer to that, but I think some real world experience and a bit more time for brain to develop would be a good idea.
An argument that would have made some sense before a shitload of rich people including many politicians got their PPP loans forgiven.
Yes i totally understood what I was signing at 18 when the loan officers kept telling me i’d easily get a job and pay this back in no time when I graduated.
We were lied too and now our student loans fund our parent’s retirement while we can’t even afford houses.
What’s the percentage of debt forgiven, something like .01%?
Absolutely nothing has changed for a majority of debt holders.
$175 billion in debt relief among 4.8 million borrowers. That is out of 42.2 million borrowers representing $1.6 trillion in debt. That’s a good start in my book.
But Democrat bad!
Biden screwed the pooch on this one. Don’t promise something like this that you can’t - or know you won’t - deliver.
“But he thought he could and met with unanticipated partisan resistance”, you say.
Really? You surround yourself with the smartest, Ivy League educated staff and cabinet picks and none of them anticipated that and/ or alerted you to the eventual legal and political roadblocks.
Not buying it. Almost impossible that this outcome was not predicted.
Add the reversal of bodily autonomy, the expiration of the child tax credit and a host of quality of life downgrades and you’re losing voters.
I believe abortion should be legal. Guess I have to vote Republican from now on.
Yep sounds reasonable
Borrowers expect Trump to scale back or eliminate relief programs
“Why would Biden do this?”
I wonder how many stayed home, voted third party, or outright voted for donvict.
Instead of breadlines we’ll have people forced yo line up to be searched for personal processions to contribute to the economy with.
You wanted to go to college and took out loans to do so. Why should they be forgiven? You made the deal and promised to repay them.
Tbf, the cost of college education increased at a rate faster than increase in wages, or increase in availability of salaried positions. Not only that, but housing became unaffordable for many because of corporations buying out cheap housing as investments. There are societal failures here, which is why loan forgiveness is reasonable and not just an individual responsibility issue.
Those without college educations are helping pay for it too. I’d support it if it was only college graduates footing the collective bill.
A better educated population is better for everyone in that population
No one agrees to a loan without knowing how much it costs. You agreed to that cost and promised to repay that loan. Nothing else beyond that is relevant. If i bought a home and then lost my job should i be able to stop paying for my home and still be allowed to permanently live there?
Should your unpaid mortgage follow you for the rest of your life? Should losing your job and not getting another one fast enough to keep up with your mortgage mean that you are indebted fo the rest of your life?
Not the same situation. Now if you want to forfeit your degree when you stop paying for the loan then that could be a worthy trade. What you want is to keep your degree and not pay your loan and that isnt appropriate.
If you have direct university loans you will be unable to retrieve your diploma until they are paid.
Are you suggesting they somehow give up their knowledge and understanding? Or are you saying a degree has nothing to do with capability and is just an incredibly expensive pass that just allows you to apply for specific jobs?
The degree is a pass. You want your loan forgiven then you do not deserve to use the pass.
The degree is a pass
That’s a pretty fucked up system then. You have to go into a lifetime of debt and spend years of your life just to get a pass which only provides the ability to apply for specific jobs and nothing else. Sounds like a broken system that doesn’t deserve to exist the way it currently does.
I mean, ideally you’re right. Loans are a risky investment in some way, the risk being that you’re assuming some future income which will make it advantageous to take out a loan. However, if wages become historically stagnant, and the housing and job markets are historically unstable, then the social contract of “go to college and get a degree to be a productive member of society” is broken.
Not one single guidance counselor in the 80s or 90s was telling students to not go to college. The fact is that college education become exorbitantly expensive because of the way govt. loans were structured. These are all systemic and economic issues, there’s not just individual responsibility at stake here.
The fact is that college education become exorbitantly expensive because of the way govt. loans were structured.
In particular the way they guaranteed student loans so those would be given for a longer period of time and to, ahem, a lot of people. Which created a positive feedback loop.
People have been paying their loans for years and owe more than when they started paying. If loans are that predatory to leave people in life long debt the government should get involved.
They did it because they were beaten over the head with it by parents, teachers, and role models since day one. They were always told to do it or otherwise they’ll end up a faillure of society. Higher education used to be free or really cheap back in the day but thanks to our ultracapitalist system we’re ending up with a bunch of college graduates with a cruel amount of student debt in a saturated worker pool.
Regardless of what you think, a highly educated populace is good for society and they deserve to not be burdened with debt for most of their adult lives. I’d gladly let my taxes go to student debt relief over giving petroleum corporations and defense contractors free cash.
You made a choice and no one made you choose to go to college. You made a choice so stand by that choice. Student loans are not going to be forgiven nor should they be.
🤮
What a topic to be mad about
