Sunday, August 28, 2022

Loan Forgiveness Unfair?

 According to Sen Blunt.  And I am undecided if that is the main problem with the policy.

I mean most of what the government spends money on is "unfair" to some group.  I mean is it fair:

  • to city folk that farmers get subsidized crop insurance?
  • to farmers that city folk build and subsidize light rail?
  • to wealthier tax payers that poor people are given welfare payments?
  • to renters that home owners get a tax write off?
  • to workers that owners get to write off depreciation early?
  • to pacifists that tax dollars are spent killing people?
  • etc, etc, etc...

Though I am against loan forgiveness...  It has more to do with personal responsibility and my fiscal conservative beliefs than fairness...  I mean:

Of course, Conservatives are the biggest hypocrite in the area. They are moaning about helping lower income folks with their school debt...  While supporting unpaid for tax cuts, wasteful PPP and other bailouts during the Trump years.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Is it okay for something to be unfair if it's good policy?

--Hiram

John said...

I assume so?

Do you think this is "good policy"?

If so, why?

Anonymous said...

Why do we forgive?

Because it allows people to put their mistakes behind them and move on with their lives.

--Hiram

John said...

Going to college is a mistake?

Drewbie said...

I really need to looking into the mechanics of how the President is able to do something like this without the "power of the purse strings" having any involvement through congress. I don't like the precedent or anyone having that much power, regardless of reason.

That said, I have no issue with forgiving student loan debt held by the government. Higher Ed costs are out of control and I wish they had the courage to combat that head on rather than doing this to kick the can down the road. In my root cause analysis world, this is not anywhere close to the root cause and is instead treating a symptom. For every liberal arts major the right wants to point to as making poor choices with taking out loans, there's a single mother who tried to go back to school and couldn't make it work, racked up a ton of debt without being able to get a degree to improve their income level to pay it back or even provide a better life for their family. There's a first time college student who had to drop out because of some family crisis that kept them from returning or again being able to earn a higher income to allow for paying back the debt. I know people like both of these cases and this will help them immensely. Now lets figure out how to stop these situations from happening in the first place.

John said...

I do agree that the legality does seem questionable. And yet it seems a President can spend on war with little Congressional Oversight? Or at least start one...

It seems to me that many of the community colleges and trade schools are half way reasonable.

By my simple math...
1984 SDSU Room, Board and Classes: $10,000
1984 SDSU Room, Board and Classes: $21,000

Has only increased by about 2% per year...
Not sure why people call that expensive?

Drewbie said...

Now do the same math for minimum wage that an financially unsupported 18 year old would likely earn while going to school.

John said...

Oh don't start that again... Who do you know that is earning the federal minimum wage?

Especially in communities where colleges are.

Drewbie said...

Ok, how about typical wages in 1984 versus now. I doubt they've doubled.

John said...

No time to study this right now