Let's get real on student loans. Most are held by young adults in the 20 - 30 year old age range. Many of them do not have expensive cars, boats, or can even afford to buy a house. Most of these young adults are just trying to make ends meet. Ten years is the norm for these loans. I had them 40 years ago and my daughter (a civilian employee with the Coast Guard) also has them.
Jim
Sorta.......the problem, from where I sit is equally shared between students who are too uneducated to make the commitment in the first place, and overly greedy lenders that gave out unsecured loans on what amounts to futures trading. Forgive them or not, I don't really care. So many other issues to deal with IMO this doesn't even blip the radar.
The real issue is we keep making excuses for people who haven't paid their loans. I paid off my student loans and bought my first house in my 20s. If people can't pay their loans off in 10 years, it's because of a lifestyle they chose. Whether it's living in an expensive city rhey can't afford, or frequent travel, or any number of other things... it's on them. They're CHOOSING to not pay off their loans, because they have other priorities that they feel are more important than paying back the money they borrowed.
Or they got a degree that is a non-value add because they did what they were told and went to college and pursued their passion.......instead of pursuing a profitable future. Many, including myself were pushed this way. Just so happens my passion is also profitable, that's luck not planning.
OR......
They overpaid for a degree that MIGHT have been profitable at some point, but they didn't do great in school, eeked by on Cs, and find themselves with $50k of debt and the skill set to get a $40k/yr job.
OR......
Life happened and they dropped out 3/4 of the way through to take care of life kind of stuff (sick relative, abuse victim, pregnancy, etc) and are now saddled with tens of thousands in debt and they're crushed to the point they can't get back to good to even begin to start over.
It's pretty arrogant to say they need forgiveness because they choose to be in debt due to lifestyle choices. I choose to be in debt because of my lifestyle choices. I've financed a camper a boat two cars and a house and still have $40k in student debt. I don't need the bailout. If you want to give me shit about taking my $10k of your tax dollars fine, let me have it, but don't act like I'm the only situation that exists. You gotta look around a bit further and see the rest of the picture here.
*Edit* looks I had two replies merged somehow. It doesn't read right up there. No idea what's going on*/edit*
*Edit 2*
Fixed some words, like skillet to skill set. Stupid mobile formatting/autocorrect.*/edit2*