• buttnugget@lemmy.world
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    8 days ago

    I totally agree with this. If someone is opposed to student loan forgiveness because they had to pay theirs off, that person sucks. But if that person thinks maybe they should get a portion of their payments back too, and not as part of opposition, then I am sympathetic.

    • Zink@programming.dev
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      8 days ago

      if that person thinks maybe they should get a portion of their payments back too

      I think every one of them assumes they will never get a cent of that money back. They do live in America, after all, the land of “fuck you; got mine.”

      Change the legislation to give every living person back every cent they ever paid towards student loans, and many opinions would change.

      The Republican party would still be completely against it though, so we’d still have millions of boot lickers out there arguing to hurt their own financial situation in order to please their superiors.

      • PaintedSnail@lemmy.world
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        7 days ago

        I would argue that people didn’t know what it meant, or were in a position where they could not refuse the loan.

        Kids grow up being taught that they had to have a college education to have a good job, and that a good job is necessary to have a good life. Parents and counselors reinforce this, so they have no reasonable means believe otherwise.

        Employers DO require college education more and more. Not all, true, but the competition for those jobs is higher, so expect lower pay and greater difficulties in getting hired. Often that pay is not even enough to make rent. For the rest, the number of people who have a degree is in increasing, so the competition for those jobs is increasing as well, with the same decrease in pay.

        So out of the gate, children are put in a situation where, from everything they can see and are told, they need a degree. But most can’t afford one. Therefore, they are placed in a position where they must take a loan with no guarantee that the degree will get them a job that pays well enough for them to pay back loan.

        So it’s a bit more than “you took a loan, you pay for it.” It better described as “you were cooreced into taking this loan on false pretences presented to you by all of society.” Society should take responsibility for that.