Forgive Student Loans? (93% of Wall Street Protesters Surveyed Want Student Load Forgiveness)

National Review ^ | 10/11/2011 | Richard Vedder

[WOBBLY BOB]

sounds like a LOAD of crap.

[Genoa]

WAHHHH! Sorry, kids, you borrowed it, you pay it back. That’s life in a free society.

[Grunthor]

I want my car notes and mortgage forgiven.

Isn’t it my right to have a home and a car?

(these people are spoiled rotten whiny little brats.)

[Oceander]

Not forgiven outright, but certainly the current bankruptcy rules that make them well nigh nondischargeable should be relaxed - it shouldn’t be harder to discharge a student loan than it is to discharge unpaid federal income taxes.

[Puppage]

Yeah, and lets throw in those pesky Master Card & Visa bills, too while we're at it.

Jaysus! Is ANYONE responsible for themselves anymore?

[rightwingintelligentsia]

I think they should take up their grievances with the Universities and Colleges that gave them overpriced, worthless degrees.

[Bainbridge]

So let me understand: If I saved for 3 decades and paid cash for my kids to go to school, giving up vacations, new cars, and all of the other things Americans find normal too bad for me: their peers who just borrowed the money from the evil banks can just not pay for it ?

[PGR88]

The great irony, of course, is that if the USA had free, state-run education as they demanded - these “occupiers” would never be able to attend university.

Places like France and China, who have “free” state run universities are hyper-competitive for very limited spots. Moreover, In France, university facilities basically look like typical run-down state housing projects. In China, “free” university now is quite expensive, as one finds one needs to pay a lot of “donations” to get the school, teachers or program one really wants.

Of course, these clowns protesting would never recognize this reality.

[GatorGirl]

I do agree with part of the article that schools drastically raise their prices to reflect the free availability of money.

They suck these people in with utopian dreams of getting a degree and a great job.

Borrowers are responsible for their own choices, granted, but if schools were forced to live within their means you wouldn’t have public university employees pulling in six figures, etc....let them earn their money through patents and publications instead of taxpayer dollars.

[for-q-clinton]

I think their angle is...if the banks got a bailout why not them? After all they are “tax payers”.

And that’s where it all breaks down. They really aren’t paying their “fair Share”. Under the 999 plan everyone would pay in to the system and then I bet people would expect our government to be more frugal with our money. Those that don’t pay in, get an entitlement mentality and do stupid things like these protesters.

[WOBBLY BOB]

I want a flying unicorn with side mounted 20mm cannons and craps skittles .

[MetaThought]

Universities are horribly overpriced, and student loans are largely responsible.

[Jim Scott]

Richard Vedder makes a case that the federal student loan program is deeply flawed but the fact remains that the money was loaned and promised to be paid back. These protestors are just looking for a free ride on the backs of others. I’m sick of it.

[cripplecreek]

Its all about not wanting to pay for what they’ve taken. The fact that one of their top demands is to outlaw credit reporting agencies says it all.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

That's the one thing I am sure will NEVER happen, because it was intended to be a means for the government to turn young people into indentured slaves.

The dirty little secret is that most "financial aid" comes from overcharging non-minorities and using the excess to fund "financial aid" to Eric Holder's people.

An intended consequence of this is that non-Eric Holder's people bury themselves in student loans that are now owned by the federal government.

Get this: student loans are the ONLY debt you cannot escape through personal bankruptcy.

This means that the vast majority of kids graduating from college these days are indentured slaves to the federal government.

If you don't think Washington has plans to exploit this situation, you must be from some other planet.

[cripplecreek]

Universities are horribly overpriced, and student loans are largely responsible.

An not one person is forced to attend college.

[scooby321]

Obama use the rising cost of health care to pass health care.

While College cost made Health Care increases look meager.

Colleges are like Government a huge sink hole of wasting money.

[WOBBLY BOB]

3rd party payors - has the same effect on healthcare.

make the borrower and lender interact without gubmint middlemen and make student loans dischargeable under personal bankruptcy.

[Oceander]

So let me understand: If I saved for 3 decades and paid cash for my kids to go to school, giving up vacations, new cars, and all of the other things Americans find normal too bad for me: their peers who just borrowed the money from the evil banks can just not pay for it ?

Don't mischaracterize what I said. I said nothing about just borrowing the money and then not paying for it. I said that the rules limiting discharge should be no more restrictive than the rules limiting the discharge of federal income taxes, with the addition of a minimum time requirement since the repayment period started, such as 7 to 10 years.

It seems to me that is a reasonable arrangement; after all, to advert to your hypothetical, should honest but unfortunate individuals who are drowning in unpaid income taxes not be given a bankruptcy discharge simply because you were more prudent and managed to pay your income taxes on time?