Free College and Discharge of Existing Student Loans

[BladesNBarrels]

Bernie Sanders announces a plan to cancel all $1.6 trillion of U.S. student loan debt.
Saw this posted soon after the announcement:

[whitewalrus]

Why not instead just give everyone $30K to rid yourself of any debt? Debt of any kind causes the same effect that they all keep complaining about, so why not free all people? Then they always say how it would stimulate the economy, so why not stimulate it more?

Those that chose not to go to college, or worked hard to pay their way thru college shouldn't have to pay for those who went and chose take out loans instead of exploring other options.

[BushMasterBoy]

I'd go along with an artificial intelligence medical program you could ask questions and get reliable answers about your health. Maybe sponsored by the CDC. Writing off a trillion bucks in college loans, I'm really skeptical about that. Mr Sanders is just proposing this idea for votes...

[whitewalrus]

I'd go along with an artificial intelligence medical program you could ask questions and get reliable answers about your health. Maybe sponsored by the CDC. Writing off a trillion bucks in college loans, I'm really skeptical about that. Mr Sanders is just proposing this idea for votes...

Thought the whole democratic race is about trying to promise more free stuff than the others in hopes that you will get more votes?

[MrPrena]

Moral Hazard.

Let me quickly enroll in school for xyz degrees on a loan.

[Irving]

Why are people who didn't go to college paying for those who did?

[CS1983]

Why are people who went to college paying for those who didn’t?

[Irving]

Now I'm confused. I assume the meme must be referring to some statistic that more people don't go to college than those that do. I'm curious as to how the income levels and tax rates really shake out on who's paying for what though.

As to the topic at hand, college is clearly broken (in no small part thanks to the government, as usual), but erasing debt does nothing to fix the problem. People who've taken out loans they don't feel like they can pay back must take responsibility for their decisions. It IS bullshit how much college costs, but no one forced you to take those loans. Check cashing and payday loan places have interest rates up to over 1,000%. 1,000%. But no one is talking about rescuing those people.

College can be fixed, but forgiving the debt while not changing anything else is much more a complete failure than it is even a band aid approach.

[Scanker19]

^^^^ this, not having a discussion about why Tuition is so high or that it keeps increasing while “erasing the debt” is pointless. Or not allowing any more student loans. What happens with people that take new loans.

If he gets elected I might take some out just for fun.

[whitewalrus]

... Check cashing and payday loan places have interest rates up to over 1,000%. 1,000%. But no one is talking about rescuing those people.....

Well, in CO they capped it at 36% with no other fees to be charged, if I can remember correctly. But that's my point, any type of debt can crush someone, so why just student debt.