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.
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.
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.
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.