16 thoughts on “In Biden’s America”

  1. The ONLY way such a forgiveness should be financed is by raiding the endowments of the corrupt universities that handed out those birdcage-liner diplomas.

    And it must be coupled with a revocation of the diploma. If you didn’t pay for the degree, the degree retroactively didn’t exist, much like an annulment of a marriage or an expungement of a criminal record.

    Make the real thieves pay for the assets stolen.

    Cancel the debt, cancel the degree.

  2. In a similar vein, my wife is a legal immigrant. She went to the effort and expense to come to America legally to attend college. After we were married, she applied for her “green card” (which wasn’t green). We had to sign paperwork stating she would be deported if she applied for public assistance for any reason. This was in 1983. When eligible, she earned her US citizenship. She worked for decades as a nurse, and paid a lot of taxes as a result. In the eyes of Democrats, this makes her a chump. No one likes to think of themselves as a chump.

    People who never went to college but are now expected to pay off the debt of those that did aren’t happy. People who worked and saved to put their kids through college without debt and those who paid off their own student loan debt won’t be happy about Biden’s generosity with their money. They’re being played for chumps. I hope they vote accordingly.

  3. Affluent families reap almost all of the benefits from the federal tax incentives. Currently, any capital gains or dividends produced by 529 savings plan investments are not taxed. This provision almost exclusively benefits the seven in ten families with 529 plans who have six-figure incomes, because lower-income families are not liable for taxes on capital gains and dividends. For example, married parents with two dependents pay capital gains or dividend taxes only if their combined earnings are over $100,000

    We estimate the value of the federal tax breaks for married parents at various points in the income distribution with two dependents investing stock-based 529 college savings accounts with an average annual rate of return of 6 percent. We find that the only families seeing a federal subsidy from the capital gains tax exclusion of 529 savings plans are those earning six figures or more (given the standard deduction is $12,700, these families claim four dependent exemptions of $4,050 each, and 15 percent capital gains tax bracket starts at $75,900, that means that families with income less than $104,800 already may save tax free in stocks). The total tax break they receive ranges from about $7,076 on the low end to as much as $32,148 for those who can afford to save the most.

    What is different ? We already hand out gifts to the well off why not to the ones who can’t afford putting 15k in a fund that grows TAX FREE for 18+ years and already been documented as a great way of transferring generational wealth.

  4. Well, can’t agree that the Fed govt is liable for loan, is the problem. End that, before anything else.
    Same applies to flood insurance. Why is this a Fed thing rather than a State thing?

    And why take away the right bankruptcy.
    It’s so 18th century.
    It seems fed was lobbied, and I agree those who lobbied, are at fault and so should pay for it. And they also should be able to to declare bankruptcy, as they are obviously and fundamentally, bankrupt.

    1. It’s a case of regulatory thrashing. The government created a massive incentive for student loans and guaranteed them. That resulted in a huge ecosystem of terrible borrowers, lenders who couldn’t be bothered to care about the risk, and of course, the educators who had no incentive to cut costs. When the borrowers started defaulting on loans and going bankrupt, Something Must Be Done. Rather than curb the loan programs, the obvious answer was to create a unique class of undischargeable debt in order to protect the program and allow it to keep going.

      1. At the risk of sounding like a cranky libertarian, the government likes to treat debt to it differently than debt to private entities. And, yes I know many student loans were technically made by private entities, but the government guaranteed them.

  5. The GOP could use this issue to their advantage if they didn’t fall for the bait of attacking the students and former students. The Democrats are using this to attract voters, so why are people on the right helping the Democrats attract voters?

  6. “It is a $30,000 debt he is still paying down. Mr. Kunz said he feels his generation was pressured into believing that college was mandatory”

    In other words, “you f*ed up…you trusted us.”

    1. “Pain is the Master of Education.” –Someone said

      “Experience is what you have moments after you needed it.” –Someone said

      “Mr. Kunz said he feels his generation was pressured into believing that college was mandatory”

      Now, Mr. Kunz, you possess both education and experience.

      Pay off your stupid loan yourself.

      We had played no personal part in your decision-making processes, thus to your commensurate financial legal obligations.

      Grow a set and do what you have to do.

      The rest of us have no obligation.

      Hey, you’ve got the degree, after all.You never shared a copy with the rest of us.

      1. My daughter graduated from a public high school about a decade ago. The pressure on them to go to college and the humiliation if they didn’t was disgusting. I can understand knuckling under to it, but he wasn’t forced into a useless degree.

        My daughter has a friend who is a pretty good artist. She went to some sort of art school, but feels that actually making money from her art is selling out to capitalism.

        Anyway, the public schools actually are good at teaching something. More’s the pity.

      2. Why are you directing your anger at Kunz rather than the politicians? You say he is responsible for his decision to go to college, who is responsible for the bailout?

  7. Been feeling like a chump for a while. I had to pay my own way through school. Some semesters it was only six credit hours because that was all I could afford. Worked the entire time, even during my semester in Paris, sometimes two jobs. Took seven years, and I had a grand total debt at graduation of $500 on a credit card left over from the Paris semester and a shiny new degree in International Business and Economics, magna cum laude, with a minor in French. Ended up on the Wall Street Desk at Banque Nationale de Paris, so I’d say it was a good investment. Probably should have stayed there.

    Suck it up, buttercup, because I should not have to pay for your bad decisions. I’ve got my own to pay for.

  8. daver:

    “She went to some sort of art school, but feels that actually making money from her art is selling out to capitalism.”

    My ex-wife is just such a capitalism-hating artist.

    Over the years, my small business paid off more of our bills than her “I’m expressing my victimized -self through my subjectively massively relevant art work that doesn’t sell very well.”

    The only artist I trust is Ted Nugent,

    1. I think if we applied the “making money off art is selling out” standard throughout history, then most of the great Renaissance artists were total sellouts.

      1. I think it’s a pretty recent phenomenon for an artist to be able to make money by selling to the public–throughout history, most artists survived by servicing patrons.

        I don’t see how that is morally superior.

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