A pair of married science teachers were sure they qualified for student debt forgiveness. They discovered what many borrowers learned in the 2010s: not qualifying for aid is the norm
I have to go to the supermarket to buy a super big box of tissues for their tears. The whining over not getting free stuff is really more than people should have to bear.
Matt makes the point clearly that they aren’t a really sympathetic case and they aren’t.
What’s left is that the system for getting free stuff is broken. Boo hoo. The system shouldn’t even exist. You take on an obligation, you meet that obligation. Period. The terms and conditions aren’t hidden from the borrower. The interest rate is, as the article points out, subsidized. Meaning it’s already a bit of a handout.
Loan balances are designed to amortize in most cases. That means they go down if you pay according to the loan terms. They go up in the student loan context when the borrower is already not meeting the agreed upon terms and takes forbearance or otherwise misses payments. Try getting that deal in any other context - you won’t find it.
So let’s be clear about this....people borrow money with clear disclosure. The loan is at a discounted rate. They still don’t make their payments. And then they whine that they aren’t getting some of what they owe being written off and put on the backs of other people?
the student debt ripoff mirrors, Country Wide predatory home loan ripoff. just another vehicle for wall st scumbags, to pimp, then collateralize 100x. that our gov, both d and r, were complicit, speaks volumes.
The Mont Pelerin Society's (Austria 1940's) favorite "economist" F. v Hayek proposed path of "liberty" and "freedom", 4 "planks": [only for the 1% (Neoliberalism)] (Buchanan, Friedman, the "Chicago School", were later disciples and advocates)
1) Deregulate global financial markets - DONE
2) Deregulate global trade - DONE
3) Create the illusion and urgency of national bankruptcy with fake (fiat) debt (thereby neuter a nation's capability to enforce laws - eliminate the people's ability to defend against being overwhelmed and consumed by the 1%) - DONE
this manufactured illusion of bankruptcy is critical path for the 1%'s agenda. the "debt" is used to justify austerity measures for the people, and to tee up, the privatization plan, which is about transforming the public debt, into private debt, where the 1% can extract usury, ad infinitum.
#AusterityIsCode4Looting - austerity measures are plain evidence, the system has already been looted by generational globalist wealth.
then lastly, the kill shot:
4) Privatize Everything. recreate us ALL as permanent rent payers of even the most basic necessities of life (Air, water, food, shelter, health care). the public debt of a nation has been effectively eliminated, transmuted into private debt (bonds); the service of which (usury) is FOREVER- Almost COMPLETE
#PrivatizationIsTheft - privatization today is STRICTLY about prioritizing national productivity (work) away from the commons and general welfare, extracting and transferring it to the 1% rent-seeking parasites (Extreme Redistribution of wealth from the people TO the Billionaires, NOTHING for the people)
«as of March 2019, 73,554 unique borrowers had submitted 86,006 applications for PSLF, and only 864 applications had been approved for forgiveness. Only 518 borrowers—fewer than 1% of unique borrowers submitting applications—have had their loans forgiven.»
So it is essentially a scam to keep lower the federal and local taxes on affluent people, as such low approval rates can only be the result of carefully designed rules.
The key element of the scam is that the application for the PSLF can only done at the end of the qualifying period, not at the beginning; if it were done at the beginning, most people who don't get approved would not do the required public service that the PSLF is meant to help fund.
I would suspect that the equivalent "GI Bill" for veterans has much, much higher approval rates, and that they are usually approved upfront. Teachers are usually on the left, veterans on the right.
Reminds me of that time the Federal government added $25,000 to my student loan balance just because. I graduated into a huge recession with zero job offers. Backup plan of moving home got ruled out due to two immediate family members suddenly being diagnosed with terminal illnesses. I missed payments during that stretch but worked out a plan and then never missed another payment by a day or a dollar after that for over 10 years. Then Congress voted to apply a $25k payment as punishment to people who had been “bad” a decade before. This wasn’t part of the deal going in, Congress just changed the rules. That’s the first time I understand we have an actively evil government.
I'm shedding crocodile tears for another pair of Taibbi airheads who made life decisions on whims that turned out poorly. Sob! Sob! Sob! But really, the gov't should just give them whatever they want, because they're such nice well-meaning people.
At a minimum, bankruptcy laws should be changed to make such debt fully dischargeable. At least that would provide tangible help to the likes of those profiled in this piece.
This is jaw dropping. The fact that 98% of people were disqualified for loan forgiveness because of fine print... makes the program an utter fraud. I'm not surprised by much anymore but this is outrageous.
For all of those claiming it's their fault and they should have read the fine print, I find it interesting to note that you aren't assumed to have the judgement necessary to drink alcohol until you're 21, or rent a car (that's the free market at work, not a government regulation) until you're 25. Yet, somehow, at 17 years old, you supposedly have the required mental faculty to read an obtuse legal document that ensures you'll most likely be in debt for the rest of your life when every adult in a position of authority is telling you to sign said document or you won't have any opportunity going forward.
Some non ABA law schools in some states will rack up $250-300k debt to students, many of whom should not have been admitted in the first place and will not be able to pass the bar. Debt that can never be wiped away.
Even Bankruptcy can’t clear the debt. Think about that. If everything has gone wrong for someone and they’ve tried to pay and many years have passed without evidence of fraud, it seems like basic fairness that debt of this magnitude should be allowed to be addressed thru bankruptcy just as it is in business.
Ah yes, the Guaranteed Student Loan Improvement Act of 1979, brought to you by the Democrat Congress (both houses) and President Carter and sponsored by Senator Harrison "Pete" Williams of NJ, who was convicted of bribery and conspiracy for taking bribes and serving 3 years in prison and $50,000. Would only the persons responsible for this mess be the ones who would bear sole responsibility to repair any and all damage that THEY caused.
Here's another ELEPHANT in this room that everyone ignores. Why the hell are the young and not so young going to college at all, especially if they can't afford it? And don't give me any crap about it being necessary to get a job. Those days are long gone.
Yet another article that ignores the synergy between guaranteed federal loan programs and increases in college costs that bear no relationship at all to increases in the actual cost of living.
I graduated in '94 from a state university that was charging $1k/semester for in-state students. Add in other fees (but not books) and it was closer to $1400/semester.
If prices double every 20 years due to inflation, that would make today's tuition at that same university roughly $2800/semester plus fees, so figure it should be around $3400/semester. Want to guess what that same university charges for in-state tuition?
$6697.81 per semester.
Can someone explain to me why tuition has doubled what it should be according to inflation? I'd really like to see the math on this.
When I receive fundraising calls from my alma mater, I kindly share this dilemma with the poor student who drew the short straw and had to call me. I also share that while I would love to donate, I have to save so that my kids can go to college.
It appears, at this point, that anyone who trusts our government for anything is making a serious mistake.
I have to go to the supermarket to buy a super big box of tissues for their tears. The whining over not getting free stuff is really more than people should have to bear.
Matt makes the point clearly that they aren’t a really sympathetic case and they aren’t.
What’s left is that the system for getting free stuff is broken. Boo hoo. The system shouldn’t even exist. You take on an obligation, you meet that obligation. Period. The terms and conditions aren’t hidden from the borrower. The interest rate is, as the article points out, subsidized. Meaning it’s already a bit of a handout.
Loan balances are designed to amortize in most cases. That means they go down if you pay according to the loan terms. They go up in the student loan context when the borrower is already not meeting the agreed upon terms and takes forbearance or otherwise misses payments. Try getting that deal in any other context - you won’t find it.
So let’s be clear about this....people borrow money with clear disclosure. The loan is at a discounted rate. They still don’t make their payments. And then they whine that they aren’t getting some of what they owe being written off and put on the backs of other people?
Wah wah wah. Go cry me a river.
the student debt ripoff mirrors, Country Wide predatory home loan ripoff. just another vehicle for wall st scumbags, to pimp, then collateralize 100x. that our gov, both d and r, were complicit, speaks volumes.
The Mont Pelerin Society's (Austria 1940's) favorite "economist" F. v Hayek proposed path of "liberty" and "freedom", 4 "planks": [only for the 1% (Neoliberalism)] (Buchanan, Friedman, the "Chicago School", were later disciples and advocates)
1) Deregulate global financial markets - DONE
2) Deregulate global trade - DONE
3) Create the illusion and urgency of national bankruptcy with fake (fiat) debt (thereby neuter a nation's capability to enforce laws - eliminate the people's ability to defend against being overwhelmed and consumed by the 1%) - DONE
this manufactured illusion of bankruptcy is critical path for the 1%'s agenda. the "debt" is used to justify austerity measures for the people, and to tee up, the privatization plan, which is about transforming the public debt, into private debt, where the 1% can extract usury, ad infinitum.
#AusterityIsCode4Looting - austerity measures are plain evidence, the system has already been looted by generational globalist wealth.
then lastly, the kill shot:
4) Privatize Everything. recreate us ALL as permanent rent payers of even the most basic necessities of life (Air, water, food, shelter, health care). the public debt of a nation has been effectively eliminated, transmuted into private debt (bonds); the service of which (usury) is FOREVER- Almost COMPLETE
#PrivatizationIsTheft - privatization today is STRICTLY about prioritizing national productivity (work) away from the commons and general welfare, extracting and transferring it to the 1% rent-seeking parasites (Extreme Redistribution of wealth from the people TO the Billionaires, NOTHING for the people)
«as of March 2019, 73,554 unique borrowers had submitted 86,006 applications for PSLF, and only 864 applications had been approved for forgiveness. Only 518 borrowers—fewer than 1% of unique borrowers submitting applications—have had their loans forgiven.»
So it is essentially a scam to keep lower the federal and local taxes on affluent people, as such low approval rates can only be the result of carefully designed rules.
The key element of the scam is that the application for the PSLF can only done at the end of the qualifying period, not at the beginning; if it were done at the beginning, most people who don't get approved would not do the required public service that the PSLF is meant to help fund.
I would suspect that the equivalent "GI Bill" for veterans has much, much higher approval rates, and that they are usually approved upfront. Teachers are usually on the left, veterans on the right.
I'm just gonna leave this here:
Matt and the majority here want our govt to fully control healthcare.
Reminds me of that time the Federal government added $25,000 to my student loan balance just because. I graduated into a huge recession with zero job offers. Backup plan of moving home got ruled out due to two immediate family members suddenly being diagnosed with terminal illnesses. I missed payments during that stretch but worked out a plan and then never missed another payment by a day or a dollar after that for over 10 years. Then Congress voted to apply a $25k payment as punishment to people who had been “bad” a decade before. This wasn’t part of the deal going in, Congress just changed the rules. That’s the first time I understand we have an actively evil government.
I'm shedding crocodile tears for another pair of Taibbi airheads who made life decisions on whims that turned out poorly. Sob! Sob! Sob! But really, the gov't should just give them whatever they want, because they're such nice well-meaning people.
At a minimum, bankruptcy laws should be changed to make such debt fully dischargeable. At least that would provide tangible help to the likes of those profiled in this piece.
This is jaw dropping. The fact that 98% of people were disqualified for loan forgiveness because of fine print... makes the program an utter fraud. I'm not surprised by much anymore but this is outrageous.
For all of those claiming it's their fault and they should have read the fine print, I find it interesting to note that you aren't assumed to have the judgement necessary to drink alcohol until you're 21, or rent a car (that's the free market at work, not a government regulation) until you're 25. Yet, somehow, at 17 years old, you supposedly have the required mental faculty to read an obtuse legal document that ensures you'll most likely be in debt for the rest of your life when every adult in a position of authority is telling you to sign said document or you won't have any opportunity going forward.
Excellent piece.
Some non ABA law schools in some states will rack up $250-300k debt to students, many of whom should not have been admitted in the first place and will not be able to pass the bar. Debt that can never be wiped away.
Even Bankruptcy can’t clear the debt. Think about that. If everything has gone wrong for someone and they’ve tried to pay and many years have passed without evidence of fraud, it seems like basic fairness that debt of this magnitude should be allowed to be addressed thru bankruptcy just as it is in business.
Ah yes, the Guaranteed Student Loan Improvement Act of 1979, brought to you by the Democrat Congress (both houses) and President Carter and sponsored by Senator Harrison "Pete" Williams of NJ, who was convicted of bribery and conspiracy for taking bribes and serving 3 years in prison and $50,000. Would only the persons responsible for this mess be the ones who would bear sole responsibility to repair any and all damage that THEY caused.
Here's another ELEPHANT in this room that everyone ignores. Why the hell are the young and not so young going to college at all, especially if they can't afford it? And don't give me any crap about it being necessary to get a job. Those days are long gone.
Yet another article that ignores the synergy between guaranteed federal loan programs and increases in college costs that bear no relationship at all to increases in the actual cost of living.
Tyranny of the bureaucracy story.
Meanwhile Biden is back to bombing Syria. Feels good to be back in the pre-Trump era.
I graduated in '94 from a state university that was charging $1k/semester for in-state students. Add in other fees (but not books) and it was closer to $1400/semester.
If prices double every 20 years due to inflation, that would make today's tuition at that same university roughly $2800/semester plus fees, so figure it should be around $3400/semester. Want to guess what that same university charges for in-state tuition?
$6697.81 per semester.
Can someone explain to me why tuition has doubled what it should be according to inflation? I'd really like to see the math on this.
When I receive fundraising calls from my alma mater, I kindly share this dilemma with the poor student who drew the short straw and had to call me. I also share that while I would love to donate, I have to save so that my kids can go to college.
Helluva system.