Needles & Grooves

It's it time to go into doomer mode (nihilist I mean)

I'm a far left, super progressive and am just tired of how the Dems go with playing it safe constantly. They need to be bolder and try harder. But I know that's easier said than done. That all said, in no way is Biden even remotely comparable to the walking disaster bigot Trump. So at least there's that? But that's not a good thing to be happy about.

I still think Biden was probably the only Dem who beat Trump but I don’t think most Dems realize how continually screwing their younger voters is gonna doom them long term..

*whispers* the two party system has and will continue to fail us

@Delta Don The third parties suck too and would fail us as well, but yes it would be nice if we could have more than two relevant parties in America.

Tbf, the campaign promise was to forgive only $10K worth of debt… that’s basically a drop in the bucket for those of us who have post-grad loans.

@bettim84 I think one of the early promises said he would forgive 10K for all and everything for those making less than $125K. But hard agree the 10K would not have made the slightest difference in what I owe either Still had hoped for my students' sakes that there would have been something to help them out.

The short-sightedness is fascinating. Ultimately, egregious student loan debt is a massive loser for the country (lower birth rates, aging workforce, disincentivizing education, etc.) - there are core issues with higher ed to fix but this relief's trickle down would actually be real.

@Hemotep I don’t recall the income-dependent forgiveness proposal… That would be great for people like me, who owe 6 figures and have basically no hope of ever making that much. My financial plan is basically “PSLF or bust.” In any event, student-loan policy is not the reason Biden was elected.

@bettim84 I'm on the same plan and in the same boat. And since my school doesn't give cost of living raises I'm a bit nervous that bust will be sooner than I'd hoped when they turn those back on.

I'm fearful too of student loans being being collected again. My rent goes up at least $100 every year when I renew and everything in the surrounding area does as well. yet my company since 2018 has says cost of living adjustments are no longer a thing and we haven't had promotions. Increases in rent ate away at my whole student loan budget.

I graduated with 55k in student loan debt, then the recession hit and I was working multiple low wage jobs and had to use up my deferment time while I got on my feet. My loans ballooned to 6 figures with no hope of ever being to pay them off. All because according to some, "I made the poor life choice of deferring my student loans". Something you should never do.

dammit i am SO Lucky my grandma gave me a fund to help pay for all the tuition so no debt for me

@RenegadeMonster did anyone ever explain to you the pros/cons of deferring?

@Melt Face Molly Drop just that the cons would be that interest adds up fast. Pro's being you can't afford to make payments towards student loans right now with 3 part time just above minimum wage jobs.

I was reading a twitter thread and seems a lot of people are in your shoes w/r/t deferring and now owing double, sometimes triple the amount they borrowed. I believe those examples should be forgiven, as that is robbery hiding in plain sight.

Yeah, it's a big issue. There was a mega twitter thread on just this back in 2020 that I was following. To add insult to injury, student loans are exempt from bankruptcy. When they did bankruptcy reform in the 2000's they saw that this was going to be a major issue and lobbiest pushed for this.

@RenegadeMonster loans suck. I finished undergrad with no debt but then took out close to $100K for law school. Once it became apparent I was not going to earn much I enrolled in an income-based plan. Over 8 years I’ve never missed a payment but unfortunately my payments don’t even cover the interest accruing, so I now owe close to $130K. And I’m still 6.5 years away from PSLF.

Funny you mention PSLF. I was having a debate over this with some, well, old white dudes on another forum. One just dropped that something like the PSLF is what the Democrats should be pushing and it took all of my self control to not go off about the program with the 98.86% reject rate...

What are the interest rates like on these student loans? I got mine in the 80s, and it took me 10 years to pay them back after I left school... without a degree. And low-paying shit jobs for the first few years.