The U.S. government underestimated the cost of the student loan program by billions

[turbobrick]

Except a large number of folks with loan payments aren't holding onto savings as they need the money to buy essentials as I said especially those who aren't making a ton of money as it is.

I'm not seeing how it would add much to it since so many are relying on these pauses for essential use.

It's easiest just to subsidize it all. No loans. Just education for everyone who wants it. You can offer other incentives for folks for critical areas.

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I wonder how many people though. Because if they were making their loan payments before, and were affording essentials, surely they could now save a small amount without having to make those payments.

Either way I agree about making education free. Or at least the bare minimum of making community college free. Or even if potential students were guided more towards community college instead of taking out huge loans.

 

[Senator Toadstool]

Except a large number of folks with loan payments aren't holding onto savings as they need the money to buy essentials as I said especially those who aren't making a ton of money as it is.

I'm not seeing how it would add much to it since so many are relying on these pauses for essential use.

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Yea a large number are, but most people aren't living check to check and again credit… Their spending power is inflationary.
You seem to just want to "not see[ ]." nobody knows exactly how much, but just brushing it aside based on feels is meh… it's the second largest source of debt I believe, foolish to think injecting over a trillion into the economy (and directly to consumers) in a instant isn't inflationary after what we saw last year.

Edit: as the poster above said if they were making payments before given multiple stimulus and not payments for two years don't have an increase in savings they must have gone on a massive reckless spending spree to just getting by today… especially with unemployment as it is and the wage growth.

 

[Thordinson]

I wonder how many people though. Because if they were making their loan payments before, and were affording essentials, surely they could now save a small amount without having to make those payments.

Either way I agree about making education free. Or at least the bare minimum of making community college free. Or even if potential students were guided more towards community college instead of taking out huge loans.

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Unless they weren't affording essentials before and were instead using debt to pay for essentials.

Yea a large number are, but most people aren't living check to check and again credit… Their spending power is inflationary.
You seem to just want to "not see[ ]." nobody knows exactly how much, but just brushing it aside based on feels is meh… it's the second largest source of debt I believe, foolish to think injecting over a trillion into the economy (and directly to consumers) in a instant isn't inflationary after what we saw last year.

Edit: as the poster above said if they were making payments before given multiple stimulus and not payments for two years don't have an increase in savings they must have gone on a massive reckless spending spree to just getting by today… especially with unemployment as it is and the wage growth.

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Here's what I mean:

85% of survey respondents reported that the payment pause is financial relief that they currently depend on, with low-income and working-class borrowers more likely to use monthly savings from federal payment pause to pay for food and healthcare or medicine.

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I'm not saying it wouldn't be inflationary. It would. I don't see how it would be much more inflationary than pausing the payments has been as many folks are not simply saving the money.

They didn't have to go on a reckless spending spree. They could just have not really been able to afford essentials before and were using debt to pay for them instead as folks do even when they don't have student loan debt. Acting as if stimulus checks were some massive amount of money when, together, they barely made two months of rent for me and I live in a fairly lower cost of living area. Inflation is eating wage growth as it is.

 

[Deleted member 10780]

Here's a wild fuckin thought

Maybe pay us more, then we would be able to pay these loans

No?

 

[Sunster]

Here's a wild fuckin thought

Maybe pay us more, then we would be able to pay these loans

No?

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The republican response to this would be either, "You chose the wrong degree. You're fucked." or "Learn a trade, loser."

 

[Version 3.0]

How much is the defense budget each year?

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Closing in on $800 billion, every year. It'll be a trillion a year within a decade. And always passes with an overwhelming majority. Meanwhile, there's endless bickering over 5, 10, or 20 year programs that cost a fraction of that that automatic annual expense.

We can't afford...anything. Education, health care, infrastructure, all too expensive. Because that money is spoken for.

 

[Aztechnology]

Going back to school again at 30. I drove for Uber for like 80 hours a week for a few months to get the tuition coverage and still have to for upkeep. Still driving like 40-50 hours a week now (for a multitude of gig companies) until school starts then I'll probably cut to 25 if I can afford it. It's only for ASU online. But hey. I'll be debt free thankfully. (Well outside my original student loans which are only like 20k atm thankfully and refi'd at like 2.5%).

Funny that the takeaway from Conservatives would be like, this is what everyone should do. Bootstraps work harder, etc. My takeaway is I have the privilege of living with family, so low rent, a car was gifted to me by my dad. Not everyone has that luxury, I'd say most don't. So I've got it fairly good, even considering I'm 30 living at home and made basically no career progress (degree is AAS in CS/Software looking to do EE, Data Science or maybe finish a CS but I just don't know still trying to decide). My takeaway is nobody should have to do any of this crap to get a decent education… especially not be fucking lucky. The government should be ok with paying for students education, education should be more accessible and certainly cheaper.

 

[mikehaggar]

I'd like to know when the estimate of $114 billion gain was made. IBR only launched in 2009 and of course there was no way to predict/account for the pandemic and resulting pauses in payments.

 

[djplaeskool]

Having the GAO put this in writing is 100% a setup for wider loan forgiveness action.

 

[LinkStrikesBack]

It's past time for federal regulation of colleges, what they charge, they courses they teach, what we allow loans to be used on, and actually getting people help with finding jobs in those fields after they graduate.

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you understand exactly what will happen the next time America has a republican government if they get to decide what courses universities teach, right?

 

[Surakian]

I wonder how many people though. Because if they were making their loan payments before, and were affording essentials, surely they could now save a small amount without having to make those payments.

Either way I agree about making education free. Or at least the bare minimum of making community college free. Or even if potential students were guided more towards community college instead of taking out huge loans.

Click to shrink...

Yea a large number are, but most people aren't living check to check and again credit… Their spending power is inflationary.
You seem to just want to "not see[ ]." nobody knows exactly how much, but just brushing it aside based on feels is meh… it's the second largest source of debt I believe, foolish to think injecting over a trillion into the economy (and directly to consumers) in a instant isn't inflationary after what we saw last year.

Edit: as the poster above said if they were making payments before given multiple stimulus and not payments for two years don't have an increase in savings they must have gone on a massive reckless spending spree to just getting by today… especially with unemployment as it is and the wage growth.

Click to shrink...

People's spending and needs can change at any given time. Maybe they had children, saw an increase in their rent/moved to a more expensive place, changed jobs/lost their job, experienced an unexpected emergency requiring money, were already cutting back on necessities and either doing without to their personal detriment or taking on debt to get said necessities, and let's not forget inflation. Prices were already starting to rise during the pandemic because of inventory issues, and now EVERYTHING has gone up price like groceries and gas and energy and it's squeezing people's budgets thinner than they used to be.

Implying people are spending unwisely is really not taking into consideration what individuals may have gone through or are going through right now.

I know if student loans kick back in for myself, I'd also be somebody having to figure out where to make that money appear from again. Maybe it means I just don't have a social life ever again and/or eat less food. But the point is that things are different now than they were back in 2020. It's hard to believe or expect that people are in the same place money-wise than they were back then.

 

[Plinko]

Having the GAO put this in writing is 100% a setup for wider loan forgiveness action.

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But doesn't this say they're losing money? How would forgiveness help that? Seems like they're setting it up for no loan forgiveness.

 

[Deleted member 43]

Having the GAO put this in writing is 100% a setup for wider loan forgiveness action.

Click to shrink...

But doesn't this say they're losing money? How would forgiveness help that? Seems like they're setting it up for no loan forgiveness.

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This report was requested by Congressional Republicans.

So…it has absolutely nothing to do with the Biden administration either setting up for, or establishing arguments against, loan forgiveness.

 

[Digital Dinosaur]

Before the pandemic, almost half the country had less than $400 in emergency funds. Many were living paycheck to paycheck, and had ever-increasing debt that they couldn't pay down because it wasn't possible to get ahead of interest.

Signs point to people not in fact "making it" before the student loan pause; many were already on a downward spiral that was soon to end in becoming homeless or defaulting on everything anyway and being too poor for anyone to collect from them.

I have listened to more people than I can recall say that the payment pause is the only thing which allowed them to feel as if they were making a tiny bit of progress in the last two years.

 

[Matterhorn]

It's past time for federal regulation of colleges, what they charge, they courses they teach, what we allow loans to be used on, and actually getting people help with finding jobs in those fields after they graduate.

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Hilarious that you can read a report about the gross financial mismanagement of a government program that was designed to help people with a problem that was largely created by the Federal Government, (guaranteed student loans leading to this student debt crisis we are currently in) and your immediate response is for MORE Federal Government intervention - including mandating which courses are taught???