President Biden: The NEW one and only politics thread

Given the inflation of college costs over the years, I don’t have a problem with debt forgiveness. College costs had gone up 169% from 1980 to 2019. Salaries had risen by 19% in the same period.

At that rate, one year of college for my 13-year-old might cost as much as my entire six years* of undergrad.

* - I changed majors, twice!

 

My wife’s parents said they paid for their entire year in 1972 at Indiana University with a summer job. I left with $13,000 in debt at a state school in 2006, working two summer jobs and a newspaper job during school and graduating in three years. I bet that number would be more like $35,000 now.

 

I was lucky and came out with about $30,000 in 2005. People of that vintage came out of school a lot worse, and got a lot less for it.

I've paid off all but $8,000. It'd be nice if they decided what they're gonna do. They've been on the pot for 18 months now. I'd instantly put a couple hundred bucks back into the economy vs. sending it to my lender. Instead my lender has gotten $3,600 — which I don't mind paying, but if I could've gotten behind, defaulted and it got paid off anyway...

 

I caught the last great wave on the ride before prices started going up.

I was a freshman at a Big-10 school in 1975. There wasn't much loan money available, and Pell grants - begun in 1972 - were still new and relatively unknown. But you could patch together lots of little scholarships if you were clever.

I was able to pay tuition, books, room and board, beer and incidentals working - as above - part time during the school year and full-time summers.

Summer between freshman and sophomore years I worked in Iowa, eighty feet off the ground in a bosun's chair, spraying Gunite on cracked grain elevators.

It was a kind of frightening heaven.

 

Mine was somewhere north of $15K once all was said and done. I did the forbearance thing forever because I made nothing at a newspaper and could barely pay anything down. Not the best plan. Moving to the new job and catching a small inheritance windfall helped me pay off the debt. Now I'm in the third year of of a four-year plan to get rid of a shit ton of CC debt. Will feel awesome in March 2024 to be 100 percent debt free, save for the small amount left to pay off on my SUV.

 

The bully pulpit

A Crusade to Challenge the 2020 Election, Blessed by Church Leaders

 

Twittery Twitterer advocating for student loan forgiveness: "This is totally not about me. Forgiving my debt will mean so much to all of you."

 

Now do tax cuts.

“It’ll just trickle down to you!”

 

That's not the same thing. At all.

 

Our daughter graduated from college debt free through a combination of an education savings plan, scholarships and her part-time jobs during school.

Our son is currently in his second year of college. We began saving for his education shortly after he was born and, through a bit of sacrifice, his 529 might be sufficient to meet expenses after scholarships and his part-time job earnings.

My wife is a bit cranky that other students might have debt erased while our family has done without or made college choices in an attempt to allow our kids to carry as little debt as possible when they leave the university. She’s very aware that the cost of a college education, especially the amount of money students and their families need to provide, has skyrocketed.

Having worked for newspapers most of my career, I no longer get bent too out-of-shape when I end up on the short end of financial schemes.

My wife and I have fairly academic backgrounds and wouldn’t be thrilled to see other folks’ college debt just evaporate. I would imagine that people working in trades or other jobs in which a college degree isn’t an advantage might be much angrier.

I think that the best solutions would be affordable colleges, but I haven’t seen much that works toward creating that. Debt forgiveness might even be a step in the wrong direction because it would take some of the pressure off the system that funds and provides college education.

 

Always thought free college should be a thing - you are able to deduct college debt up to $X per year on your taxes. Many schools would still charge premium, but I think it would be a good way for many colleges to attract students by holding their tuition below the magic number.

 

McCarthy always struck me as very much like Hoover in Animal House. Totally clueless how NOT in charge he is.