1y ago

Biden administration announces $39 billion in student debt relief following administrative fixes

www.cnn.com Biden administration announces $39 billion in student debt relief following administrative fixes | CNN Politics

The Biden administration announced Friday that 804,000 borrowers will have their student debt wiped away, totaling $39 billion worth of debt, in the coming weeks due to fixes that more accurately count qualified monthly payments under existing income-driven repayment plans.

U.S. News @beehaw.org

www.cnn.com /2023/07/14/politics/student-loan-relief-biden-administration/index.html

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politics @lemmy.world

Biden administration announces $39 billion in student debt relief following administrative fixes

www.cnn.com /2023/07/14/politics/student-loan-relief-biden-administration/index.html

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I privatized my predatory government loan and am getting no handouts because I made the fiscally responsible decision. Only irresponsible people get relief. How fair is that?
- My grandfather died from polio before the vaccine was created, how fair is that?
  
  Not a fair comparison at all. Polio can’t resurrect the dead and fix its past mistakes. The government can. I paid the predatory rate for years before getting smart about it. It kept me from generating wealth and drove me deeper into debt due to the lack of free cash flow. The government made its money back on my loan and was just profiting off of me for years to come. Not a fair system. When they said the loans would turn on again the first time, I pulled the trigger on a lower interest private loan. The damage was already done though. They owe me a check if everyone else gets money wiped away.
  
  Well maybe you weren't as smart as you think you were. Seems like the smart play would have been a defer all those payments until right now. That's what the smart people are doing.
  You made your own mistakes deal with them
  
  That isn’t really a winning move either honestly. At least I dropped my interest rate 5%. The problem is that any scenario trying to provide relief is heavy-handed and doesn’t consider all circumstances. Just because I am in a better place now doesn’t negate the damage that was done by not being able to pay much of my principal for many years due to the predatory 8% interest rate. They do need to make it up to people who realized that turning the loans back on and only helping some people was going to screw over the rest. I found some relief, but it was after being swindled by my government for almost 10 years and still having just about the full amount of my loan left to pay off. They sell you on the idea that higher education will land you a job that can pay the loans off in no time, but that really wasn’t the case. I’ve finally gotten to a good salary, but had to endure unnecessary financial constraints. Definitely not having kids. Can’t afford that for sure. If we are going to provide welfare, better not pick and choose poorly. I’d argue that providing me with more free cash flow is better than someone with a low income job. We shouldn’t subsidize lack of motivation or irresponsible procreation by people that can’t afford it. The idea that someone without a job can have kids and get welfare for it and I can’t get that same benefit due to my salary so can’t have kids is sickening. I’d be more interested in UBI for all than fucking over people by playing favorites with taxpayer money. I am not a charity.
  
  I was about to respond to the points you were making in your prior paragraph, but you saved me a lot of time.
  I’d argue that providing me with more free cash flow is better than someone with a low income job.
  There it is. How surprising in your careful analysis its your specific circumstances that should benefit over those that have less than you, possibly living in poverty or those that have more than you.
  We shouldn’t subsidize lack of motivation or irresponsible procreation by people that can’t afford it.
  Ohhh, you need to be careful with this line of thinking. You're defining that higher income is the one metric for determining whether someone is worthy to receive benefits. By your own measure, as you listed here:
  I’ve finally gotten to a good salary, but had to endure unnecessary financial constraints.
  ....and....
  Definitely not having kids. Can’t afford that for sure.
  ... you took on irresponsible debt that made you poor, and you can't afford kids. By your measure you'd be irresponsible in procreating. By your own measures we should be giving money to people that are less irresponsible more motivated to receive benefits. Your logic argues that benefits would be wasted on you because of your past choices and income. Now, I don't buy into any of that.
  I believe in quite a few areas of spending that benefits both everyone, and specific groups in certain circumstances which we are able to target with laws or regulation to affect positive change. That includes benefits you likely qualify for, but not to the exclusion of everyone else just because you don't benefit.
  
  The government loan was predatory. Was too young to understand the implications of the decision and had no baseline data to judge other than some examples that they provided as to what the salary expectations of someone coming out of the school would be and how long it would take to pay off the loan based upon that. Lo and behold, the government examples were totally unreasonable. The whole thing was a scam by the government in cahoots with higher institutions. Universities are extremely expensive because they know the government will fund the loans. I would have rather the government said no to me than offering a loan that was the equivalent of taking on 100k in credit card debt. People that say that the government protects you by taking their loans are full of it. The government makes sure their loans supersede bankruptcy. You are right that everyone’s circumstances are different. I do feel that certain people are less deserving in the same way you feel that I am. The only thing that would be fair is to treat everyone equally. Fiscal liberals want equity over equality and that’s kind of annoying because it creates classes of people. If we go that route, expect there to be criticism that some classes are not as worthy. I don’t agree with that, but if you are not going to treat everyone equally, then let’s have fun deciding who is worthy enough of my tax money. In my opinion people who pop out babies with no remorse shouldn’t get handouts.
  
  The government can resurrect the dead?
  
  In a manner-of-speaking. The government can correct its past mistakes and make people whole again.
- People who got taken advantage of with no resources to help themselves are getting help, that's a good thing. I'm not getting anything out of it, but someone else is, and my upper lip is stiff. Maybe you should consider that.
  
  Yeah but if it doesn't help me then it's bullshit and is a waste of time. Why is the main focus of government and society not to make my singular life better? It's bullshit.
  /s obviously lol
- "Waah waah, nobody was nice to meeeee, so fuck everyone ELSE, because I'M an adult!"
- predatory government loan
  privatized ... fiscally responsible
  Man, I know things are über fucked in the US, but WTF is this nonsense?
  
  the us is just fucked.
  
  It’s the truth. I went from a nearly 8% interest government loan that was presented to me as a normal thing to do and something that I would be able to afford with a good job to a 3% private loan. I should have done it years earlier, but didn’t really know any better until the government took much more money than the loan was worth. The system is fucked.
  
  People agree to take out loans in order to boost their education level and income later. However, these aren't like a normal loan, where there is a physical asset securing the loan, so to make them work they cannot be discharged via bankruptcy. Some people find this idea predatory. However, it's a core part of what makes them work at all. Otherwise, one could load up on the student loans, get their degree, declare bankruptcy, then go out into the job market with the boosted income and not pay back what they borrowed.
  During periods of very low interest, it can also be fiscally responsible to replace the loans with fixed-rate lower interest ones. During covid, this was pretty popular since interest rates were rock bottom.
  
  Yes. The 8% interest rate on them was brutal as well.
- Ah, yes, everyone remember the golden rule: "Got mine, so fuck literally every other human being in a worse situation."
- Did you read the article? This was only for income driven plans on a path to forgiveness. If you had that and refinanced anyway, that’s on you.
- Trust me bro, it's not like we're all over here getting handouts and eating ice cream. 99% of us haven't gotten shit.
  The government bails out companies and banks all the time for their poor fiscal choices and no one even blinks. But if they bail out something not a corporation and roughly middle class looking, then it causes an uproar.
- You made a stupid decision and you're paying for it. What do you want, some free socialism? Would you be here removed if your gambit paid off? If you've got a hard on for the private sector you could have stolen some free tax dollars with a PPP loan like the other Republicans.
- I think privatizing your loans was the irresponsible decision lol. Why in the world would you give up gov loan protections even if the average interest rate is a bit lower
- Being a good little cog in a bad system isn't something you should be congratulating yourself about.
  Debt systems are extractive and produce little net benefit to society, propping them up to expand the suffering because you didnt get sick or hit by a car or whatever is some peanut brained anti-human shit.
- So you're saying you've already gotten your relief, then?
- That's not what the plan was though. Last time I checked it would even help those who paid everything off. I'm wondering which news sources you follow to not have noticed that bit.
  Also, having policies that make millions of people suffer, what effect might it have on living conditions of everyone? If a few make a bad decision it is on them, if millions made a bad decision it'll be a problem for society. It could be ignored, but it'll still effect society.
- It’s like rain on your wedding day.
- I took a very different track with mine. I recognized that federal loans had more options for hard times than private loans and made the fiscally responsible decision to not refinance mine with a private company. So only people who were responsible enough to consider that the government is more likely to protect you than a for-profit money grabbing predatory private loan servicer are getting relief.
- If we halt progress whenever it comes too late to help everyone, we'll never have progress.
- Ask all the people who privatized their ppp “loans.”
  Life isn’t always fair, but relief for other people is still good. I’ve never taken a loan. None of kids did. We all paid out of pocket. I still support this.
- WHAT ABOUT MY LEG!?
- Life isn’t fair.
- People with no risk tolerance crying when risk pays off, the finest of wines to my risk tolerant palate 🤌

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