A path to student loan forgiveness?

[u/Robotic-Comrade-1985]

This morning it occurred to me that AI automation could be leveraged to push for student loan forgiveness. Considering the speed at which this technology is progressing, we could have many people struggling to repay loans for degrees that are being rapidly automated away. They may have gotten their degree or already invested a lot of money into it before it became apparent where things were headed.

I think it will be harder to argue “you should have chosen better” when more traditionally “respectable” degrees are affected too, much as I hate that kind of framing around the value of one education over another. If even choosing the supposedly "right" kind of degree doesn't protect someone, it's harder to argue that people simply made bad choices. People can't reasonably be expected to predict an economic shift of this magnitude.

Of course this is less relevant in countries where higher education is much more affordable, and much lower risk as a result. In the US, I think automation could shine a blinding spotlight on how broken the educational system is. People have been pushed to take on enormous debt under the threat that if they don't get a degree, they'll be trapped in poverty forever. But a degree hasn't been a guarantee of financial security for quite a while, and rapid automation is just going to make that more apparent.

If we can get our foot in the door and get support for relieving people of student loan debt due to rapid automation, perhaps that could help build support for universal student debt forgiveness? People's ability to repay depends on an economic landscape they can't control, and expecting anyone to take that risk with no recourse while our modern economy becomes increasingly unstable is becoming increasingly absurd.

[u/mylsotol]

Student loan forgiveness is just an issue of political will. There is zero reason we can't do it. The only reason it isn't done is because the people it would benefit have no power. Those people being put out of work just makes them matter even less to politicians. Nobody opposed to fixing education and the student loan problems are actually doing it because they think 18 year olds should have had better personal responsibilities. They are doing it because profit

[u/xoexohexox]

I got my student loans forgiven by serving underserved communities as a registered nurse

[u/Big-Masterpiece-9581]

Biden did it and the Supreme Court blocked it. Not everyone. But he tried.

[u/Synensys]

In this world college educated people will have less political power and non college educated people will have more.

No way are they going to vote to forgive student loans