If U paid off your student loans, would U B pissed if gov gave everyone amnesty?

[swampwiz]

If you had paid off your student loans - or arranged your affairs such that you didn't get any loans (e.g., parents helped, you worked while going to school, got scholarships, chose cheap State U, etc.) - would you be pissed if the government ended up giving everyone with student loans amnesty?  The ironic thing is that the part of the political spectrum that is the least sensitive to student debt is also the part that is against any handouts, so instead of having a general handout of cash to everyone, such that anyone that didn't have a student loan would simply get cash, they would rather lose the political battle and have the other side simply give out this amnesty.

[LonerMatt]

No.

[Cranky]

What if the government pays off everyone’s mortgage?

But seriously, it’s no skin off my nose either way.

[11ducks]

I don't think it's worth the anger. There's always a reason to feel 'hard done by' - maybe someone else got a scholarship, had rich parents to pay for their school, hell, someone might be naturally smarter than me and gets a better job than me, but it's all relative. Comparison is the thief of joy.

[Askel]

I'd be pissed, but not at those who are lucky enough to get their student loans paid off. 

The entire US higher education and loan system is a complete disaster that is at best a waste of good resources, at its worst it just wrecks people lives.  A federally funded student loan payoff would just pile more folly on what is already a sad situation. 

[Cranky]

But I do think that the loan system needs to be overhauled - limited undergrad debt with lower income linked payments and forgiveness after 20 years, closer to what the European system is like. No loans for for profit schools. Pressure on states to fully subsidize in state tuition.

[boyerbt]

My instant reactions to reading the question is a mix of yes/no.

Yes: I made the mistake of racking up nearly $90k in student loans and then picked up a second job three years after graduating to pay off all of the loans within 2.5 years. Because of my sacrifices (mostly sleep), I would be slightly upset that I went through all of that turmoil only to see so many other people essentially be rewarded with no effort. There is also a fear if this would happen that people would not learn or recognize a valuable lesson if their debt is simply wiped away.

No: My loans are now gone so it doesn't directly affect me so there is no reason to let something like this have any bearing on my emotions.

[Sugaree]

I managed to make it out without having to take on any student loans.  I don't think I would care.  I would like to see it linked to some kind of overhaul of the student loan industry though.  I live in a college town, and it's very obvious what days financial aid checks hit because there are a ton of kids in Walmart spending money like drunken sailors on shore leave. 

My probably-over-simplified opinion is that when society started dictating that everyone should go to college the government started loaning more money to go.  When the government started loaning more money the schools started charging more because they knew the kids could just borrow more (yes, I know one has to take into account funding cuts, but universities started  becoming more administration-heavy at this point too).  It's become a vicious cycle.  My local university averages double-digit percent increases in tuition every year (and I have a feeling it will be worse in the future due to a natural disaster that took out most of campus a few months ago).  This matters to me because my kid is 5.  I'm on track to have $100k saved for him for college.  At the rate tuition is increasing I don't know if that will be enough.  This isn't a private school.  This is a public, state school.  That's ridiculous.  I can only hope that the tuition bubble bursts and it becomes more affordable by the time he is ready to go to college. 

[cricket]

Yes, I would be pissed.

I'm one of those who managed to graduate with very little debt, which I paid off within 6 months of graduation.  I busted my a$$ to have scholarships and grants cover most of my education costs.  And I had a job (part-time) the entire time that I was in school.

I agree with Askel; our education system is absolutely broken.  Just making people's loans disappear doesn't fix anything.  It's just a temporary stop-gap for one generation.   

[Pigeon]

No.  Things change.  I'm in favor of things changing for the better, even if I don't directly benefit.

[YoungGranny]

No - I paid off my loans 11 months after graduating 6 years ago. No one can take away the skills and frugality that taught me which is going to allow me to retire right around age 30. Whatever anyone else's journey is doesn't impact me. I just try to live by example and have a fulfilling life which, for me, would be worsened by getting concerned about others loan situations.

[dude]

Hell yeah, I would be pissed. I dutifully paid mine for 20 years. I took them out for a useful degree and used that degree to get a well-paying job. I had to forego some $100k+ worth of opportunity cost purchases in doing so. I hate being the fucking sucker. Same thing when people in default were getting their mortgages re-financed at cheap rates via government programs after 2008. Here I was, bought less house than I could afford, paying my mortgage regularly, being responsible, and of course, everyone else gets bailed out but suckers like me who played by the rules and did the right thing got left worse off vis-à-vis others by this largesse. I know it shouldn't bother me, but goddamn it, it does. Same thing for reckless Wall Street bankers. We keep creating moral hazards everywhere and thereby distorting everything from Wall St to Main St. That kind of shit can only lead to bad outcomes down the road.

Mark my words, those of us who lurk in these forums, i.e., responsible savers who spend less than we make and save for our futures, are going to take it in the ass down the road to pay for all the irresponsible, reckless-financial-$50k-truck-buying-YOLO-fucking-wrecks who lack the good sense god gave a common ground squirrel when the "retirement crisis" hits. We will get taxed in some way -- probably by taxing our 401k balances or rescinding tax-free withdrawal for Roths or something to that effect -- to cover the shortfall of those fuckers. And am I gonna be pissed? You bet your fucking ass I will be!

[Cromacster]

Student Loans are the biggest governmental asset and they have to be paid.  The government has no incentive to forgive the loans.

[Dicey]

I'd be proud of my achievement. No one could take that away from me.

[UnleashHell]

I'm pissed at the appalling use of the English language in the title of this thread. Shouldn't need college to have a better sentence structure than that. 

[DebtFreeinPhilly]

Yes. For a two reasons.

One, who pays for the pay off? The government is not going to take on the billions of dollars in student loan debt without some sort of way to pay for it. I think that would mean higher taxes for everyone, something I am not a fan of.

Two, there is no corrective measure to those that racked up the debt. Basically, its giving young adults the permission to spend without care because eventually the government will take care of it all. That is bad fiscal education and policy to me.

[StarBright]

No.  Things change.  I'm in favor of things changing for the better, even if I don't directly benefit.

^^^^ This!

I feel the same way about paid maternity leave. Why would I want things to be harder for future people just because they were hard for me? I hope the world just keeps getting better and better.

[PDXTabs]

No, especially if they paid off the loans of all the people that never graduated.

Furthermore, if they are identified as a long term drag on the US economy, then everyone would benefit from paying them off. Or, maybe everyone would benefit from going back to having them dischargeable in bankruptcy.

[Loren Ver]

No- I racked up about $65,000 in variable interest student loans going to a good public university for a STEM degree, and an additional 20k in low interest federal loans.  My first job paid less than 35K a year and DH couldn't get stable work and only brought in a few thousand.  It took 7 years, but we paid them off (except the low interest federal loans we are milking at below inflation).  It took over two and a half years before I broke the 50k barrier, and will never break the 100k mark before retiring. 

When I took the loans I agreed to pay them back, and I did.  The fact that someone that isn't me gets a different deal doesn't mean I didn't agree to pay mine back. 

LV 

[Rosy]

NO

[ketchup]

I don't have student loans and never did (no degree, and parents paid for three semesters), but I don't think I'd be pissed if I did and this happened.

I would be pissed if they did it just to do it and had no plan to fix it so people don't get into that situation again in the future.  There needs to be structural change there to fix the shitpile, not a giant expensive bandaid.  Or some black magic from Jill Stein pretending that quantitative easing could make student loans go away.

[Schaefer Light]

Yes.  Mainly because of the lesson it teaches those who took out the loans (i.e. "someone else will take care of your problems").

[ixtap]

I don't have student loans and never did (no degree, and parents paid for three semesters), but I don't think I'd be pissed if I did and this happened.

I would be pissed if they did it just to do it and had no plan to fix it so people don't get into that situation again in the future.  There needs to be structural change there to fix the shitpile, not a giant expensive bandaid.  Or some black magic from Jill Stein pretending that quantitative easing could make student loans go away.

I just paid off student loans last year, using up funds that otherwise would have been a large percentage of our taxable savings, slightly exceeding our cash holdings. When I graduated, I thought that I would be eligible for the 10 year loan forgiveness. Turns out, I was misinformed and was not signed up for an income based repayment plan. I am relieved that I made other choices in my life that lead me out of the non profit/ government sector, but with the ability to make such a pay off. I am not angry at those who did get their loans forgiven.

My only issue with loan forgiveness is if it is a one time, stand alone event. The current system that was poorly implemented (future pay off rates are expected to increase because the later graduates were given more complete information) encouraged people to work in government and non profits, enabling teachers, for example to afford a better life. I would expect a massive pay off to come with massive reforms. I would be pissed if such a gesture were not accompanied by drastic changes that meant that future generations did not consider loans to be the default way to get an education.

[DS]

Would be more interested in what results. Are colleges getting less expensive? Are people going to trade schools? Or is the system the same and people will take out additional loans?

[partdopy]

I've never had student loans, but to be perfectly honest I'd be pretty annoyed if the government forgave loans backed by tax dollars unless all other fiscal problems have been solved.

I realize people will argue the counterpoint, that it's a drop in the bucket compared to total debt/spending.  However, if I had to take out loans of $250,000 every year (basically what the government does) just to stay afloat, and my buddy owed me $1,000, I'm not going to be forgiving it as I'm not in the financial shape to do so.

[swampwiz]

I'm pissed at the appalling use of the English language in the title of this thread. Shouldn't need college to have a better sentence structure than that.

Uh, I used improper grammar to fit the post into the limited number of characters.  If you had bothered to notice, I immediately restated the topic title with proper grammar.

[Roadrunner53]

Why should the government pay off anyone's loans? These people went to college and got what they paid for. No one twisted their arms to go to college and rack up bills they cry they can't pay for. If you can't afford it, don't go, go to a cheaper college or get into the trades. If I bought a house that was $450,000 and I was only making $25,000 a year and couldn't afford the payments, should the government pay off my house and I get to keep it? If I bought a $100,000 Mercedes and I couldn't afford to pay for it should the government pay it off and I get to keep it? If I went to the grocery store and bought $1,000 worth of groceries and ate it all but couldn't pay my credit card bill at the end of the month should the government pay for the groceries I have eaten?

They got the education and no one can take it away from them so they need to pay!

There are things like second jobs to pay off these loans, not go on vacations, being frugal. Maybe they should think about paying off the loan first when graduating and not buying cars, homes and starting families.

Yes, I would not like it if the government excused these loans.

[PiobStache]

A long time ago I made peace with the fact government social programs tend to be needed by grasshoppers and tend to be funded by ants.  I'd still much rather be an ant as my future is far more under my control than the level of control a grasshopper has on his/her future.

[Curmudgeon]

If debts were being forgiven by some fairy waving a magic wand and making them disappear, then no.
If debts were being forgiven by some generous donor who was, strangely, willing to reward people who borrowed money while giving nothing to people who worked and save hard so that they wouldn't need to borrow, then... still no.
But if the debts are being forgiven by a government that forcefully extracts money from the hardest working, highest saving individuals (including those people who already paid off their debt without help) in order to hand it out as a freebie to those who borrowed it and don't want to or 'can't' pay it back... then, hell yes I'd be pissed.

So, given the parameters you provided:  yes.

[charis]

This is a bit like being angry that my parents have been subsidizing a (healthy, well-educated who overspends) sibling for years and will probably continue to do so until they run out of money. 

[rubybeth]

Not really. I am stupidly lucky and privileged to have been able to find a job during the recession that paid well and was able to pay off our combined student loans early.

I think there's a fair way of doing it--tie it to income or service, like Public Student Loan Forgiveness. Or just waive part of the cost, but not all of it, dependent on income.

If you actually do the math on something like Public Student Loan Forgiveness, most of what gets forgiven is interest. So it was really like an interest free loan on the tuition.

I also wouldn't be mad if suddenly we had Medicare For All, and I was paying for good insurance all these years. There are lot better things to be angry about. Like the fact that Native Americans in North Dakota will be disenfranchised as voters: https://www.aclu.org/blog/voting-rights/supreme-court-enables-mass-disenfranchisement-north-dakotas-native-americans

[Roadrunner53]

If people want Free college they should check out these: https://www.bestcollegereviews.org/features/8-colleges-where-students-attend-for-free/

They can also join the military and study under the GI Bill. My Dad did that after he served in the Army.

Maybe the government should come up with a payment plan thru employers to take a certain percentage per paycheck to insure the loans are payed back.

So let's say someone has $100,000 in student loans. The government should just wipe the slate clean? If that is the case, I want my $100,000 even though I have no college bills. How is it fair someone can go to college, reap the rewards of a higher education and other people who did alternate things and did not rack up college bills get nothing?

NOPE, NO bailouts. Get a second or third part time job and pay it off.

There are plenty of youtube vids to explain what others have done to get out of debt, this is one of many: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beMqpOSPp9I

[Cranky]

How is it fair that I had nice parents with decent jobs who paid for me to get two degrees even given that tuition was darned cheap at the time? Life’s not fair. I’d rather make things *more* fair than grouse about other people.

[CrustyBadger]

I wouldn't mind at all if the same deal were in place for my kids!

[Roadrunner53]

How is it fair that I had nice parents with decent jobs who paid for me to get two degrees even given that tuition was darned cheap at the time? Life’s not fair. I’d rather make things *more* fair than grouse about other people.

How would you make it more fair?

Are you saying a person can rack up a hundred thousand dollars and the government should just forgive these loans?

[Indexer]

"If U paid off your student loans, would U B pissed if gov gave everyone amnesty?"

Let's make a small correction to this...

If you paid off your student loans, would you be pissed if the taxpayers had to pay off everyone else's student loan debt?

Summary: after paying off my own loans I have to bail out everyone else too? Nope, not a fan of that.

Yes, the system is broken. Giving away trillions of dollars isn't the solution. That's just a band aid and the problem will continue to get worse. Education should be more affordable. Allowing students to borrow more and more, with or without bailouts, isn't going to make college more affordable. That just encourages colleges to charge even higher tuition.

[seattlecyclone]

I would be a bit miffed if this came to pass. I think adults should generally be held to the agreements they make, including agreements to borrow and repay money for school.

Speaking for me personally, I took costs into account when choosing a school. I purposely selected a school ranked below the best school that accepted me, primarily because that school offered me a pretty lucrative scholarship. To find out after the fact that I could have gone ahead and gotten the better-regarded education and also had most of the cost difference wiped away later, to have had my cake and eaten it too, yeah I would be a bit angry about that.

I definitely support policies going forward that would make higher education (at least in public universities) less of a financial burden for students. The military budget, for one example, has more than a little bit of extra bloat to it that could be more productively spent on education. I also support more personal finance education at the high school level so that students have a better idea what they're getting themselves into when they sign up for student loans. I still don't think that wiping out old debt is the answer. Doing so would disproportionately reward people who made poor decisions using the incentive system in place at the time.

[E.T.]

I've been diligently paying my student loans and would not be upset if the gov forgives the debt of future people after I've paid mine off. Good things happening to other people makes me happy too and I hope things keep getting better for everyone.

[Tabaxus]

If you had paid off your student loans - or arranged your affairs such that you didn't get any loans (e.g., parents helped, you worked while going to school, got scholarships, chose cheap State U, etc.) - would you be pissed if the government ended up giving everyone with student loans amnesty?  The ironic thing is that the part of the political spectrum that is the least sensitive to student debt is also the part that is against any handouts, so instead of having a general handout of cash to everyone, such that anyone that didn't have a student loan would simply get cash, they would rather lose the political battle and have the other side simply give out this amnesty.

I find it freaking hilarious that someone could point to parents helping as "arranging your affairs."  You didn't arrange anything if your parents helped you through college, you were born lucky.

That being said, outside of certain situations, I think general loan forgiveness is a poor economic choice from a country-wide perspective in light of the spending cuts or higher taxes that would be necessary to fund it, so I would be annoyed with blanket forgiveness from that perspective.  It's not a personal "I paid mine so you pay yours," though.

[charis]

I think this question ignores the fact that almost all students and current borrowers currently qualify for federal loan forgiveness.   You have to be on the right plan(s), pay an income-based payment for 20 to 25 years and the forgiven balance is taxable.  At that point, most borrowers will have repaid the original loan amount, at least. 

[hadabeardonce]

No.

+1

[CrustyBadger]

You know, this situation actually happened to me.  I graduated college in 1989 with some student loan debt.  It took me about 10 years to pay it off.   I was working as a teacher in low income school districts.

Many years later, I don't know exactly when, the student load forgiveness program for certain professions, like teachers who teach in low income areas, came about.  I remember hearing younger teachers talking about it and going to meetings to learn more, but I just ignored it because my debt was already paid off.  I recall being a little annoyed, because it didn't apply to me and wasn't of use to me, but I wasn't pissed by any means.

[HPstache]

Pissed?  No.
Annoyed?  100% yes.

[Apple_Tango]

No, I wouldn’t be pissed.  But I do think it’s funny that many of my peers want to pay off their student loans (in some cases more than $50k) so they can buy a car and house. Aka go into further debt to the tune of $150k plus...there’s some cognitive dissonance there.

I think it would be nice if the interest rates on these debts were locked in...I didn’t realize that part of the problem people have who are doing income based repayment is that their interest rate rises and then when they start making more money their payment balloons. I paid off $60k of debt in 2 years...not sure what’s stopping other people from buckling down and just paying them off, especially if they have high incomes. If you make 60k, a debt of 60k or under should be smashed within 3 years...that’s only 20k of debt payoff per year, which still gives you about 20-30k to live on. Totally do-able except in the major HCOL places. But in those places your salary should be higher than 60k so 🤷‍♀️

[Indexer]

I think this question ignores the fact that almost all students and current borrowers currently qualify for federal loan forgiveness.   You have to be on the right plan(s), pay an income-based payment for 20 to 25 years and the forgiven balance is taxable.  At that point, most borrowers will have repaid the original loan amount, at least.

I recommend reading up on this more. In theory it works as you describe.

However, the vast majority(I think over 90%) of the people who thought they qualified for the 10 year forgiveness program(public service work) are getting rejected. Plus many college educated people make too much money to qualify for the income based plans, which likely applies to most of the posters here who paid them off early.

[tralfamadorian]

I'm pissed at the appalling use of the English language in the title of this thread. Shouldn't need college to have a better sentence structure than that.

+1,000,000

[charis]

I think this question ignores the fact that almost all students and current borrowers currently qualify for federal loan forgiveness.   You have to be on the right plan(s), pay an income-based payment for 20 to 25 years and the forgiven balance is taxable.  At that point, most borrowers will have repaid the original loan amount, at least.

I recommend reading up on this more. In theory it works as you describe.

However, the vast majority(I think over 90%) of the people who thought they qualified for the 10 year forgiveness program(public service work) are getting rejected. Plus many college educated people make too much money to qualify for the income based plans, which likely applies to most of the posters here who paid them off early.

That's not what I was describing. And if some get paid too much to make an IDR plan worthwhile, I don't see much of an issue.

[Retire-Canada]

I recommend reading up on this more. In theory it works as you describe.

However, the vast majority(I think over 90%) of the people who thought they qualified for the 10 year forgiveness program(public service work) are getting rejected.

Yes. It's worth reading about: https://www.aei.org/publication/everyone-calm-down-about-rejected-loan-forgiveness-applications/

[Retire-Canada]

If you had paid off your student loans - or arranged your affairs such that you didn't get any loans (e.g., parents helped, you worked while going to school, got scholarships, chose cheap State U, etc.) - would you be pissed if the government ended up giving everyone with student loans amnesty? 

No I would not be pissed at all. What would piss me off if those people got advanced degrees and then turned around and used "U" & "B" instead of typing out "You" and "Be". I mean I am fine you getting a lower cost education, but for love of all that is holy don't be so damn lazy.

[Paul der Krake]

I enjoy not having loans while so many do. It's making me feel good and astute. If suddenly nobody has that problem, I won't feel quite as good. Therefore I rationalize it by thinking about the national debt and incentives, but ultimately it's about my precious feelings.