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I'm completely against forgiving student loans. I want to solve the problem, which means no more Government backed student loans. (I'm all for the Government building more low-cost public Universities, though.)

But if they are going to forgive them, certainly the students who prided themselves on being the best and the brightest should have known better! Therefore, anyone in the top 10% of SAT scores or at the top 100 schools should not be eligible for discharge. If you're smart enough to get into Chicago or Harvard, you're smart enough to know how loans work.



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Certainly, anyone who scored in the top 10% on the SAT shouldn't get loan forgiveness....

I'm against loan forgiveness. I went to an inexpensive local college, took the public bus to class, lived with my parents (I realize I was "privileged" enough to be able to do this), worked 25 hours/week while going to school, and took as many classes as possible at a low-cost community college that could be applied for credit to my 4-year degree.

I graduated with no debt.

I don't think others should also suffer. That's why, I want the government to stop backing student loans, and make new non-government loans like any other loan, including bk discharge.

Tuitions would drop rapidly, and nobody "in perpetuity" will have to suffer.

Most people who are against forgiveness are also against continuing to write new loans!


Student loan forgiveness and universal education are distinct issues. I oppose the former (even though I would benefit from it to the tune of $30K) but not the latter.

I oppose student loan forgiveness because it punishes people who were responsible and rewards people who were irresponsible. Moreover, it disproportionately rewards the upper classes who are more likely to have more debt--it's regressive. If we decide we want to help people who are burdened, let's mail checks based on need (whether their need is a result of student loan debt or not) and those of us who are doing fine can pay those checks with our taxes. Student loan forgiveness is just welfare for the upper classes (me included!).


I reluctantly agree--unless the forgiveness is coupled with new laws and regulations that substantially reform the system (perhaps by eliminating the federally subsidized student loan system altogether, and restoring the more generous grant system of yore).

If we do nothing to change the system, what are new college applicants going to think? Either they'll have to pay back their loans and, compared to those who wend before, get totally screwed. Or borrow with the belief that the debt will eventually be forgiven. Neither are good.

And, FWIW, I have a boat load of student-loan debt that I would absolutely love to have forgiven. But it's a bad idea unless the White House and congress are able to address the root of the problem.


I don't know how anyone can support student loan forgiveness. it's simply a fact that college graduates and people who even partially completed college make more money than those who never attended. there's really no argument that would justify forgiving peoples' loans vs giving the same amount of money to the poorest people in reverse order (poorest getting richer). if for some odd reason the poorest people also happened to be college participants (though to be clear, this is not true) then fine; still no broad student loan forgiveness required. I've asked people who support student loan forgiveness for their response and I get blank stares.

and yes, we shouldn't give the rich tax breaks either.


The biggest problem I have with the idea of student loan forgiveness is that it punishes people who worked hard and paid their loans back and rewards people who didn't. If we're going to do a massive wealth distribution and cancel student loans, we should first pay back the people who actually paid off their loans. If that sounds ridiculous to people, then so should forgiving the outstanding loans.

I don’t like student loan forgiveness as a policy because it is unequally distributed and benefits those most who were least responsible.

I think one could come up with a more fair proposal than that.


Am I the only one that thinks it's backwards that student loans can't be discharged? It should be one of the only kinds of loans you can discharge. Why would you as a nation want to saddle your youngest most ambitious and most valuable people?

I have an unpopular opinion that forgiving loans hurts those that did not go to college because of ability or cost. This font read to me like a blanket forgiveness is object to though.

I understand the support from those who’ve already paid off their loans but this does not apply to those who did not go. Also I suspect it depresses wages as people will not need to demand higher wages and this seems to be used to funnel them into government jobs.


If you think that student loans should be forgiven, put your money where your mouth is and pay off people's loans for them. Unless you're willing to do that, please don't force me to.

Like I said in my original comment, the government shouldn't be in the business of student loans in the first place. If it weren't, a lot of these for-profit schools wouldn't exist (because private lenders would realize that they're bad credit risks).


So why not both? Reset loans and don't let the current system continue? Your argument is a weird one. It literally hurts no one to forgive the loans but a lot of people don't want to see and i think that's because those people who don't have student loans feel like they're losing an advantage.

I'm pretty sure that a very high number of the people who would get general college loan forgiveness are privileged people who made poor choices.

Exactly! The problem here is the predatory nature of student loans. A bit of forgiveness to them is a band aid that will do nothing to prevent the problem from just happening again.

Personally, I think the cost of college should be capped, and in addition all forms of student loans should be outright banned, which should force the education industry to cut itself back to a reasonable amount of spending.


While I generally agree with you, this forgiveness seems to target victims of fraud rather than student loans in general. It could be argued that the government should have never allowed a loan to be taken out for a fraudulent school (if they had done due diligence)

Debt forgiveness for student loans is a horrible idea.

It perpetuates choosing degrees that will in 90% of cases never have enough of a return to pay for the loan itself.

Look, I’m not against choosing whatever degree you want. But fiduciary responsibility is doing even a tiny bit of research to see the LTV of that degree.

Unless there is out and out fraud, very little of student loans should be forgiven.


I absolutely think the government should forgive these students' loans. Arguably, it was the government's decision that rendered those loans useless. ITT Tech may have been a shoddy school, but it was still school.

Forgiving student loans only helps people with student loans.

Might be an unpopular opinion... but this is exactly why we shouldn't do student loan debt forgiveness. The root core of the issue wouldn't at all be addressed and it would actually be a signal to universities and students alike, that Universities can charge more, and students can continue to take out larger loans because... they might be forgiven at some future point in time.

Why would you forgive student loans? That way you reward incompetence. Instead, you should give each young person $300k - some would repay their student loans, others (who were more prudent with their choice of education) would have down-payment for a house or something... Forgiving just the student loans would create massive perverse incentives.
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