Comic Strips

Do we all think loan forgiveness is the cure for student loans?

I'm somewhat torn on this:

Yes, I totally agree that federal loans should be forgiven even if someone pays theirs off.

Private loans though? Not so much. That's basically the same as a mortgage from a bank. Or a car loan even. That money ultimately ends up in the borrower's possession after the school balance is paid. That? I am not so willing to share the cost of.

I mean I wouldn't want it to not exist but if I just nearly died of chemo + cancer I'd be a little mad if they found an EASIER way to cure cancer...

I am once again reminded: Humanity is fucking ugly. I'm starting to get nihilists.

I don't feel like the comparison works, because we don't know a clear cure for cancer right now, but loan forgiveness is something we can technically do just fine (it's entirely human made after all)

I don't think you can feel unfairness about something not happening that, to our current knowledge, is not possible. You can feel a bit unfairness if something that might as well have helped you, won't be done for you... For no clear reason.

Yeah I don't think this covers the situation as much as it's a nice feel good story.

Imagine for a second you are relatively poor, you go to a state school or community college in order to afford it. You have loans, but they are small.

Now imagine you're upper middle class, you go to a private or out of state school and take loans out for a much much larger amount than the other person, with the expectation that you're getting more value for your money (let's ignore the labyrinth there for a second -- this is something many people believe and believing it, for some, makes it true).

Now, both loans are forgiven

Youve succeeded in making the rich richer, giving them both the higher valued education and all of their money back.

Or imagine you're that poor student but you're smart: you got a grant or scholarship making your loans nonexistent, but only if you go to the state school.

Once again, forgiving loans makes the already wealthy person significantly more wealthy and does nothing to benefit the poorer person.

Yes, of course, there's a wide range of reasons a person might go down either route, and I'm absolutely certain there are many millions of people who have gotten loans way above their wealth in order to go to a better school and jump out of poverty (or whatever). This comic ignores the nuance.

In the cancer analogy, this would be a poor person dying or otherwise experiencing terrible health problems because they couldn't get the care they needed, then when a cure is developed, only administering it to the people who could afford care to begin with (ie american health care)

Read all the comments🧵. Nobody mentioned that higher education was free in the 🇺🇲 until a racist made it costly for colors to attend.

Changed the link, since folks had difficulty trickling to the sources.🥁

I admit I kinda feel this way about Ozempic after having to fight for years to finally get into better shape.