Marshall Steinbaum is Research Director and a Fellow at the Roosevelt Institute, where he researches market power and inequality. He works on tax policy, antitrust and competition policy, and the labor market.
Posted on 02/13/2018 10:15:29 AM PST by Oldeconomybuyer
The GOP tax bill is providing a $1.5 trillion windfall, which will mostly be enjoyed by the rich and corporations. But what if there were another way to spend that money that could benefit more middle-income Americans while eliminating some of the country's inequalities?
Look no further than getting rid of America's student debt, argue researchers at Bard College's Levy Economics Institute. They examined the potential impact of canceling the $1.4 trillion in student debt that 44 million Americans are carrying. Erasing it would be a "radical" solution to the student debt crisis, but it would pay off in bountiful dividends to the U.S. economy, noted one of the paper's authors, Marshall Steinbaum.
Because 44 million Americans wouldn't need to repay their loans each month, those households would have greater discretionary spending. That would unlock their ability to buy homes or start a family, given that some economists theorize that millennials are more likely to hold off on both because of their student loan burdens.
Higher spending would stimulate demand for jobs and would lower unemployment, also contributing to economic growth.
Criticism overlooks the fact that minorities and the poor are often hurt the most by student debt. The Federal Reserve Bank found that blacks and Hispanics who earned college degrees have ended up worse off than they were before the recession. That's partially because they often come from poorer families and take on more debt, but the job market also comes into play.
"The crucial difference is simply that white graduates are likely to find a job and start paying down their debt, more-or-less as the system is designed, but black graduates are not," Steinbaum wrote.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
Marshall Steinbaum is Research Director and a Fellow at the Roosevelt Institute, where he researches market power and inequality. He works on tax policy, antitrust and competition policy, and the labor market.
Being stupid enough to bury yourself in student loan debt to fund mindless SJW college "perfessers" is not "inequality," it is merely, to be redundant, stupid.
Erasing student debt would deprive those students and former students of an important life lesson - the need to judge cost v. benefits.
Uh, yeah. And when student debt gets back to $1 trillion and up, faster than ever since people will bet on another bailout?
Absolutely NO forgiveness of student debt— EVER!!!
Feed the starving...
No.
Right! These people made the debt. They need, now, to sacrifice and pay it back. As a taxpayer, I didn’t sign up to be responsible for others stupidity.
Will those who paid their own way get a refund then?
I was a poor college student once. I chose a school that was less expensive (and less prestigious) than others. I took out student loans to pay for a lot of it, but I also worked part-time during school. I took a semester off because money was low. I earned enough to start classes again.
I was a commuter student, so there were no frat parties. I never took a spring break vacation. After I graduated, it took 3 years until I found a job in my chosen field. In the meantime, I worked in construction and retail. Eventually I paid back every cent (with interest) on my loans.
Do I get a refund?
If the easy loans had not been there, the unsustainable tuition inflation would never have occurred.
Ok, now forgiven debt is now income that they can’t pay tax on.
Then we will need the govt to solve THAT problem.
Mike student loans dischargeable in bankruptcy. Prepare the popcorn. Watch some heads explode.
Agree. Universities caused the problem with high costs and worthless degrees. Why should they get of without any pain. Let the debt be paid out of the endowments and require all future loans to be endorsed by the school where the student goes.
Nobody signs up for it. We pay with a gun to our head.
Upper class college kids get the debt wiped away, But lower working class blue collar workers get nothing get Zero.
I use to watch the Bernie Sanders campaign rallies in amazement, they never mentioned Blue collar workers, everything was about college kids.
Pure bull Obama.
And boy, does it smelllllllllll.
I really wish that journalism schools had standards.
Any standards.
Except double ones.
Anyone who owes a lot of student debt is a fool to continue making their payments if it is just going to be forgiven anyway.
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