Posted on 04/28/2012 6:42:37 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
We need to start taking student loan debt seriously, both as a troubling moral issue and as a ticking economic time bomb. By some reports, student loan debt will exceed 1 trillion dollars this year, more than the credit card debt of all Americans.
A whole generation of young Americans is at risk in this excessive borrowing. They fall further and further behind in “servicing their debt” because they have no way to keep up with the payments as many of them are unemployed or underemployed. They will delay starting marriage and families; they dare not take the risk of quitting a paying job (if they have one!) and starting their own business to create jobs, and they certainly cannot save to buy a home. They are trapped.
Jesus teaches his disciples to pray, “And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” (Matthew 6:12) Forgiving debt is a moral issue. Forgiving some of the worst of this student debt is crucial literally to save this American generation.
President Obama has recently taken steps to ease student loan debt burdens. But the problem is too big. Some of this student debt needs actual legislation to deal with the whole system of the debt as Robert Applebaum calls for on his Web site, ForgiveStudentLoanDebt.com.
Applebaum contends that executive orders can only do so much. It will take legislation that covers predatory practices as well as other changes to the way student loans are structured such as how interest is compounded. Applebaum also argues persuasively that forgiving student loan debt will stimulate the economy.
The kind of moral equality that Jesus asks us to pray for in the Lord’s Prayer can be seen in Applebaum’s argument. Jesus calls on us to pray, “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.”
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Well, SHOOT, I paid for college. I want HER to pay me back. I should have to pay some lunkhead’s college tuition? So all the universities are supported by the taxpayers?
What kind of idiocy? Oh, I forgot — she’s an academic.
AND...what about the really smart people who either paid as they went to school (by...working!)....or chose not to go to college, and went to work? So, now THEY should all help the college students.....????
Forgiving any debt is immoral!!!
It’s flat out theft from responsible people!
Well, we once ‘forgave’ student loans. It was could bankruptcy, something that happens every day to a business or person. But, that was changed a few years ago.
She misuses a Biblical quote.
The only candidate with a real solution for the exceedingly high cost of college is Newt.
I have realized that the whole student loan movement was merely a massive transfer of wealth to the post secondary education establishment.
They, not the students, were the beneficiaries.
err...could = called.
bullshit! They took the money willingly, they can pay it back. the government is already broke from too goddam many give away programs and you want to add more to the list??
We have bankruptcy (in Australia)- it is based on the Jubilee concept. Here your debts are forgiven after 3 years if you go bankrupt (used to be 7) but don’t expect anyone to jump at giving you another loan in a hurry. Why should they? Trouble is people want there debt forgiven and still live the high flyin lifestyle that their study bought them. The Jubilee concept was a do-over thing and was for people who were flat out poor and unable to pay their debt.
I am unsure how your system is financed but our student loans are paid back through the tax system - once you have completed your study and earn over a certain amount the tax man cometh and taketh a percentage. There is no interest charged as far as I know. It seems to work ok.
Mel
Why on earth would you forgive that??
I thought it was the “honorable and most Christian like” thing to do....
Yeah ok. Christians like to say “its not our place to judge”. Well whatever. I say its not our place to forgive. That’s god’s business not ours.
You short circuited both her brain cells!
Straight out of Alinsky's RULE 4: "Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules."
They may try to make the analogy of you loaning something to a friend and wiping the debt clean, but the analogy is flawed.
Yes, the analogy is flawed. This silly Liberal twit isn't holding the loans is she? God forgives me because Jesus paid my debt. It's not her place to use the governments guns to stiff the banks or taxpayers.
I think I earned the equivalent of a Masters in Theology during the Cal/Arm wars.
I should go print myself a degree.
You too.
Yeah...well I just forgive her stupidity...NOT HER ACTIONS!
When I went to school in the US (a while ago now), we just paid the loan off in installments just like any loan. Most of the loans were from private lenders. Recently, early in the Obama administration, the federal government basically took over the student loan industry.
This was a perfectly workable system for a very long time, but a lot of rot and corruption came into the education system over the years, and recent attempts to fix it just makes it worse. They have been playing the game of raising their tuition at a much higher rate than inflation for at least two decades now, but they always cry poverty, so the states and federal governments step in with even more money.
The students are the genuine victims, but bailing them out also bails out the people that caused this mess. The education industry is trying to keep the bailouts coming, but without admitting they are the cause of the problems or undertaking any real reform.
The Air Force had a program that (if I understood it right) paid off the student loan of new enlistees who had a bachelor’s degree. It made them inelligible for certain education benefits (tuition assistance? GI Bill? I don’t remember exactly) but I guess the rationale was they got their benefit in advance.
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