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submitted 1 year ago by nodsocket@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

This would save young Americans from going into crippling debt, but it would also make a university degree completely unaffordable for most. However, in the age of the Internet, that doesn't mean they couldn't get an education.

Consider the long term impact of this. There are a lot of different ways such a situation could go, for better and for worse.

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[-] robocall@lemmy.world 32 points 1 year ago

I think student loans are a symptom of the problem. But not the problem itself. The problem is that college is so incredibly unaffordable for many American students. If higher education wasn't so absurdly expensive, many students could take out fewer loans.

[-] Jajcus@kbin.social 13 points 1 year ago

The loans are not just a symptom. Is probably the main cause of current college prices. Prices would not be so high if students would not be given money to pay them.

[-] PenguinJuice@kbin.social -3 points 1 year ago

They are the cause for the high tuition. I don't have it on me, but I saw a graph showing that when Biden made Student Loans impossible to forgive via Bankruptcy, the prices for tuition positively skyrocketed.

[-] kirklennon@kbin.social 10 points 1 year ago

when Biden made Student Loans impossible to forgive via Bankruptcy

That's a curious way to describe Republican-led, bipartisan legislation with where Biden was one of 18 Democratic votes in the Senate.

[-] xapr@lemmy.sdf.org 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)
[-] kirklennon@kbin.social 6 points 1 year ago

He was still only a single yes vote on a bill that only 25 Democrats voted against, and it most certainly was not his bill.

The original claim was "Biden made Student Loans impossible to forgive via Bankruptcy." You can argue that Biden could have or should have done more on the topic but attributing this solely to him is just ridiculous, and that's before delving into the reasons why a senator with a reputation for working across the aisle and building consensus might strategically accept provisions he doesn't really like in a bill in order to achieve other, higher priorities.

[-] xapr@lemmy.sdf.org 0 points 1 year ago

I had edited my post to add that he didn't do it himself but was critical in getting in passed. Perhaps you started your reply before my edit.

I would have settled for him having done less in getting it passed. Your version of what happened or may have happened is way too charitable to Biden. He was known for being very friendly to banks and credit card companies, as a Senator from Delaware would be inclined to be, considering that Delaware is home to many of those types of businesses.

[-] kirklennon@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

He was known for being very friendly to banks and credit card companies, as a Senator from Delaware would be inclined to be, considering that Delaware is home to many of those types of businesses.

Is it? Visa is in San Francisco, Discover is in Illinois, and Mastercard and Amex are in New York.

JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley are in New York. Bank of America is in Charlotte. Wells Fargo is in San Francisco. Those are the nation's six largest banks. Delaware doesn't make an appearance until #94 on the biggest bank list.

Delaware is a popular state for essentially paperwork, due primarily to its efficient and well-established Chancery Court, but it's not really a major player in the banking industry. There aren't a many people or businesses in Delaware involved in banking beyond the local branch stuff in every community.

[-] xapr@lemmy.sdf.org 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Yes, it is. Visa and Mastercard are not card issuers. Example: "Visa does not issue cards, extend credit or set rates and fees for consumers; rather, Visa provides financial institutions with Visa-branded payment products that they then use to offer credit, debit, prepaid and cash access programs to their customers."

This article provides details of why Delaware is attractive to banks (various financial and legal incentives), how it became that way (legislation written by major bank lawyers), and some ways it benefits from this (jobs, tax revenue).

Biden didn't earn the nickname "The Senator from MBNA" for no reason. MBNA was a huge credit card company that was later bought[?] by Bank of America. "Over the past 20 years [as of 2008], MBNA has been Biden's single largest contributor."

[-] kirklennon@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Visa and Mastercard are not card issuers.

Yes, I'm quite aware of that but you said "banks and credit card companies" so I also included, well, credit card companies.

This article provides details of why Delaware is attractive to banks

The article points out that all of those paperwork incorporations of companies that are nominally based in Delaware don't equate to that many jobs because the companies are actually based elsewhere. Delaware is a bit player in the banking industry.

Anyway, this is veering way off topic. The point is that Biden did not make student loans bankruptcy-proof. You can't attribute bipartisan legislation to a single non-sponsor, minority-party member who happened to vote for it. I don't care if he changed his middle name to "I love big banks." The original statement was still ridiculous.

[-] xapr@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 1 year ago

I agree that this is veering way off topic, but you seem to like to argue semantics.

My main point was that Biden, at that time a senator of a majority Democratic state, voted with Republicans and a minority of Democratic senators of mostly conservative states to pass a bill that would benefit his largest donor, MBNA, as well as other banks, to the detriment of common people. While the OP may have overstated Biden's involvement with this bill, you seem to be understating it.

[-] PenguinJuice@kbin.social 0 points 1 year ago

It's just especially juicy since now he's president when the cows have come home.

[-] sadreality@kbin.social 0 points 1 year ago

Senator from DE wanted loans not to be dischargeable in BK....

[-] krashmo@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Biden didn't do that. It's been that way for a long time.

[-] itsAsin@sh.itjust.works 0 points 1 year ago

remember back when biden was a senator? yes, he did that.

[-] krashmo@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

That didn't seem to be what the person who said that was trying to convey.

[-] sadreality@kbin.social -4 points 1 year ago

You can't expect kids to understand concept of time priror to mom shitting them out dawg!

[-] Capricorny90210@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

That seems valid. I think at least part of the problem is culture. Millennials were taught that college is a necessary stepping stone to a superior job, which it was in previous generations, but not so much nowadays.

this post was submitted on 11 Oct 2023
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