If you borrow money you should pay it back. That's rediculous that your loans are forgiven. I guess that's what happens when you have a country who doesn't pay it's bills, it sets a bad example for its citizens.
What's ridiculous is the cost of higher education.
While I definitely think if you borrow money you should pay it back, I think if anyone should be eligible for loan forgiveness at any point, it's those individuals who go into public service (ex. healthcare professionals).
I was listening to one of the money-management shows on the radio one day and heard a girl call in who had taken out $300,000 in student loans for a masters degree in puppetry.
😱 Yes, you heard me right,
puppetry. My money says she's probably on one of these "percentage of income" repayment plans meaning that probably only about 1/4 - 1/3 of that will ever get paid off...
There are two, possibly three things that should be done, IMHO...
1) Decrease the cost of education. Seriously though, I don't know how many hundreds of millions of dollars my alma mater (undergrad) is sitting on, but if you look at that in combination with the
ridiculous sums that many of the professors and especially the higher ups get paid, there's no reason an education should cost as much as it does.
2) Get the government out of student loans. Referencing the above puppetry degree, no bank in their right mind would ever issue $300,000 in loans for that kind of degree. But did the government ever stop to ask the question if they would get paid back? No.
3) If you don't get the government out of student loans, at least have them look at and evaluate the amount of the student loan vs. the likelihood of repayment before they issue them (again, referencing the above puppetry degree).
