Sign the petition to end student debt and save the economy!

Gag me

This bill is great, but it doesn't do enough. Currently, the IRS deems the amount of $ of a forgiven student loan as taxable income, which can amount to thousands of dollars and has forced people into bankruptcy.

2/10. The grammatical mistake was a nice touch.

F-OFF freeloader.

I <3 Tacos wrote:

F-OFF freeloader.

The petition wouldn't make someone else pay for the debt. It would absolve it. There's a difference. You aren't going to be left with the bill.

The OP is asking us to support Occupier-like freeloaders. No thanks. If you take out a loan, you should be expected to pay it.

you didn't learn much at school did you.

Recent Grad wrote:

I hope you know that a lot of people agree with me and that your in the minority.

If a lot of people agree that we should steal your car does that make it right?

Pay off your own damn loan.

you know what i'm on board now, let me just go back to an ivy league school for my masters then we can write off the debt, cool? oh and my living expenses while i'm at school, my two houses aren't going to pay their own mortgages.

Tough luck for them. NO DICE!

Awesome! I hate when I enter into a contract of my own volition with full knowledge and understanding of the terms of said contract, and then someone comes up to me and is all like, "Hey, please honor your agreement." When that happens, I'm all like "no way man. This is just the man trying to stick it to me. Trying to make a buck off of the working man."

Keep fighting the good fight, Brother!

Do you mean to stop taxing my income and taking money from me and my family to give to some kid for college? Yes, let's stop that!

(i'll try to give an opinion while being more respectful than most of the other posters).

I do NOT agree with blind loan forgiveness. I didn't take the time to read the actual bill, just the petition link, but it makes it sound as if loan debt is immediately forgiven unlike some of the current legislation that allows loan repayment to be limited to a certain percentage of net income for a certain number of years, after which it MIGHT be forgiven. this hesitation i have in forgiving debt is especially true for students attending private or out of state universities (FWIW i attended an expensive private 4 year uni) when the student could have attended a much more affordable school with in state tuition. this seems comparable to mansion owners asking for mortgage forgiveness when no one forced them to buy a $2,000,000 house.

that said, i think affordable higher education is becoming increasingly important in an effort to avoid the situation we are in now when student loans exceed credit card debt in the US. IMO, public universities shouldnt be competing in the same market place with private unis. it sounds depressing, but i think public unis should "aim lower" in order to keep their costs low. this means cutting down on things like music and the arts, massive science expenditures on equipment that is never used, student group programs, and other non-essential programs like that. sure, you will probably not get the same level of education, but if your family is broke and you dont want to graduate with huge debt, there isnt much of a choice. you cant get a whole butt load of something for nothing. yes, education is something that should be available to almost everyone, but education doesnt mean building theaters, sculptures, art galleries, or a multi-million dollar library atrium.

I graduated from a 44k a year university in 2008. I have a crap ton of debt, but also have a decent job.

To the OP: Yes, you are absolved of the debt, but someone has to pay it. Some lender payed your school for your education. You're supposed to pay them back. If you don't pay them back, someone else will. If this bill passes, the government will have to pay it. When the government pays for something, it comes from tax dollars.

This isn't complicated, I'm glad your education is serving you well.

Recent Grad wrote:

Student debt is crippling our young people and will be the next big financial crisis. We need to put an end to this so that we can save our economy and help our young people become productive members of society. Sign the petition linked below if you want to help!

http://signon.org/sign/support-the-student-loan.fb5?source=s.fb&r_by=4313961

Pay your own damn bill; that's the way it works.

I tracked down all the links. Basically, ex-students would have to pay 10% of income over 150% of the poverty level ($16,500 in 2011) for 10 years to be forgiven all outstanding student loans. I would not be in favor of that.

I'd really prefer to see someone turn up the heat on universities to reduce the cost of education.... that's really where the problem lies. There are lots of ways to reduce education costs, but universities have been raising the cost of tuition faster than the inflation rate for at least the past 20 years. Why do universities never get mentioned for RAISING THE COST of tuition in the first place?

Administrative bloat is a problem. Lots of employees that provide no value is another problem. Also, there is an unholy alliance between big politics and big education. I've worked at a large public U for 10 years and these three factors, in my opinion, are a very large part of the problem.

This is dumb. If people stopped blindly going to college immediately after high school without knowing specifically what they were going to college for, then there wouldn't be so much debt.

I say that graduating high school seniors should have to work for at least a year before they are allowed to go to college and take on so much debt.

That year off should give them some perspective and time to plan out their future. No more "l'll figure out what I want to major in later, no big deal".

I've been telling my 14 year old son that for several years now. Except I told him 2 years of working before college.