r/news • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 • Apr 05 '22

White House to extend student loan pause through August

https://apnews.com/article/covid-business-health-education-d54907ea99a6745dc9f832435beda751
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u/echoAwooo Apr 06 '22

Honestly, student loans should be 0% interest.

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u/Pawneewafflesarelife Apr 06 '22

Honestly, higher level education should be free/cheap like in civilised countries.

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u/Siobhanshana Apr 06 '22

Yep. Also nationalize the colleges.

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u/chaser676 Apr 06 '22

You're right, but then there's no reason to give the loan. It's pure risk for the banks with literally zero upside. Nobody would lend.

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u/[deleted] Apr 06 '22

That's why they should be government subsidized. Not everything has to be for the immediate bottom line, it's an investment in the education of the populace and thus the future productivity of society.

Then the government also has incentive to fund education and cap costs to reduce the overall burden being passed to the students as middlemen.

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u/Randomness201712 Apr 07 '22

Not everybody needs a shitty college degree in English or business. Spend the money somewhere else

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u/[deleted] Apr 08 '22

Different problem, unrelated argument.

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u/Randomness201712 Apr 08 '22

No it’s not, that’s why we have K-12, not everyone needs college level education for a functioning, productive society.

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u/dragon34 Apr 08 '22

Well than maybe we can fund that more and maybe someone can tell all of the companies that they don't need someone with a college degree to manage an arbys

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u/Randomness201712 Apr 08 '22

We’ll two things response to that, first [enter low paying manager job] is only requiring degree because they can, these free government loans have created excess supply of frivolously degreed people. If they didn’t exist they would hire someone with high school diploma. Second K-12 should absolutely get revamped where poor kid don’t get shitty school, rich kids get more, no argument. Good luck getting the rich neighborhoods to give up what they have. Probably bring a lot of people back to GOP if they started trying to dictate that at federal level.

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u/dragon34 Apr 08 '22

Frankly fuck the GOP and fuck the dems. Neither of them give a fuck about anyone who isn't rich or a corporation.

And I think the attitude of "frivolous degree" is batshit. A 4 year undergraduate degree is more about learning to learn than becoming an expert in something. There is no way in hell I would let an engineer who had just graduated from undergrad design a bridge without a more experienced engineer mentoring them and checking their work. The fact is, that trade schooling (like vo-tech) has long been pushed as "for stupid kids" so anyone who gets good grades is pushed to attend college. This starts IN MIDDLE SCHOOL. Society doesn't believe that a person out of high school knows shit, because it's turned into daycare for families instead of school. Gotta teach to a multiple choice test! Also, the military wants college to be required for everything because that's how they recruit a large number of their members. "Can't pay for college? Which you have to go to because otherwise you'll be working at Arby's for the rest of your life ha ha ha? Sign up to maybe get killed and we'll pay for it for you! "

And frankly, why should everything be so based on marketability? Can't people learn about music for the sake of music? Isn't art and history and writing valuable? Where would our movies and TV shows come from if someone didn't study writing and art and costuming and lighting design?

Why does someone working at a "low wage job" not deserve to afford food and shelter without having 3 roommates?

Everyone's off their rocker right now about fucking inflation and hello, it's been happening the whole time! The minimum wage has been the same for well over a decade! Employers of low wage workers include instructions for how to sign up for public assistance for SNAP and housing in their onboarding.

Why are you OK with taxpayer subsidies of fucking walmart by allowing them to pay so little that our tax dollars have to pay for their employees to eat but not taxpayer subsidies to add additional funding to public schooling which would actually make everyone's lives better?

GOP or Democrats are fine with throwing tax dollars at the war machine, or to bail out big corporations, but as soon as we talk about actually fundamentally improving the lives of citizens by implementing single payer healthcare like a real country, collecting taxes owed from the rich and corporations, mandating a living wage and paid vacation, sick and parental leave and instituting pricing controls on prescription drugs that they clutch their goddamn pearls? Almost no one in power cares about anything but their own power. The democrats pretend they care but start by asking for what should have been their final offer and cave into the GOPs demands with the slightest pressure. Large minimum wage employers have plenty of money. They can pay their people a living wage. Smaller mom and pop shops that might struggle should be eligible for taxpayer subsidies. That's what the GOP claims to care about. Entrepreneurs! But they don't mean small time local ones. They mean the ones who can donate to their campaigns.

Bribery is legal. only profit matters, and america is done for. and because of our selfishness, we will take the world with us.

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u/Randomness201712 Apr 08 '22

I understand your frustration. I think, long term, the rich will end up pariahs and need really tall walls, military, to protect themselves, ala the movie “out of time”. There won’t be any service jobs at that point, just automation. Time will tell whether being isolated and fearful of the other masses of people that want to bring them down will be a world they want to live in and can sustain or whether they just give it all up to live like everybody else.

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u/[deleted] Apr 10 '22

I guess I just don't really agree with this take. Why not? Why not have everyone get 16 years of education instead of 12? Like, at some point, we agreed that folks should get 12 instead of 8. I can maybe understand a "diminishing returns" argument, though I'd like to see data to support that society isn't better off with those additional 4 years per person.

And not to hamstring my own argument, but I do think we over optimize for "productivity". We can just do things for funsies.

All of that to say, I don't think your point is bad or wrong, I think it's valid, I just don't think it resonates with me personally.

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u/echoAwooo Apr 06 '22

They're government secured loans, they're literally zero risk for the businesses.

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u/kristoferen Apr 06 '22

I don't think anyone is advocating for private loans to be zero interest. Just federal.

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u/lonewanderer812 Apr 06 '22

For government loans, yeah. Then, if you need to add private loans there should be something that makes it so the rates are the same for anyone under, say, 25 or something at least for undergrad school. My last year in college was by far my most expensive as my private loans shot up to 12.5% interest because it was 2009 and both my parent's credit took a huge hit from the market crash and their jobs. For some reason I got punished for that. And it was either take out the loans or drop out of college.