And really, I don't worry quite as much as Kid A (the investment banker, the lawyer, the doctor) as I do Kid B (the phlebotomist). Someone who made a deliberate choice to forego loans and to accept a lower earning potential, while also giving up their dreams, is really the one who will be bitter.

Not to mention all the parents who sweated to pay for college rather than letting their kids take out loans, and now has to eat cat food in retirement, as they watch other kids' student loans evaporate.

I suspect that those people have nothing to worry about. Nothing is going to come of the various loan forgiveness plans. Their lives will be absolutely the same as they are now, and so will the lives of the people buried under their loans. Instead of some people lives being improved, nobody's lives will be improved.

I've wondered how the people who avoided loans and their parents have felt about the various plans that are already in place that cap student loan payments at a fraction of the debtor's salary. I believe that they also forgive the balance after a period of time. I knew people in graduate school who were counting on these things as they took out their loans. I thought at the time that the fairness of this approach is debatable, but they were breaking no rules. Of course, I understand that Betsy Devos is reneging on those programs that people had factored into their lifetime financial plans, so never mind. It's all good. Perfectly fair, even.

quote:

Originally posted by Steve Miller:

quote:

Originally posted by Horace:
The tax on all stock market transactions is what bothers me. That's essentially a recurring flat tax on everybody's life savings.

Isn’t that tax proposal aimed at high frequency trading? IIRC it’s a tiny percentage.

No, but I'd be curious where you got that idea.

The reporting of Bernie's tax proposal is that it is a "tax on wall street", but that's misleading, deliberately or out of ignorance. Taxing all stock market transactions is a tax on main street nest eggs foremost.

As far as High Frequency Trading goes, any tax on stock market transactions would destroy that industry rather than generate any tax revenue from it. That would be a lone bright spot in the disaster this tax would be.

I appreciate that most people seem to think such taxes are never going to happen, but I believe the votes will be there within the next couple presidential cycles.

quote:

Originally posted by Mary Anna:
I suspect that those people have nothing to worry about. Nothing is going to come of the various loan forgiveness plans. Their lives will be absolutely the same as they are now, and so will the lives of the people buried under their loans. Instead of some people lives being improved, nobody's lives will be improved.

That assumes that, when the government spends money ... or, in this case, more than one trillion dollars ... no one else's life is affected.

Money and resources aren't infinite. You can't do everything, you have to establish a priority order. Were it up to me, I can think of lots and lots and lots of things I'd rather spend one trillion dollars on, rather than saving people from the natural consequences of choices consciously made.

(But, as I said earlier, where people are actually defrauded or taken advantage of, those people deserve help.)

Oh, please don't put the idea into my head that I need to go look at the federal budget and see how I'd rearrange it to make more sense, because that would be a futile exercise.

A few $123,000,000 drones would take only take a nibble out of that trillion dollars in student loan debt, but give me time...

Actually, though, I'd take care of health care first.

Exactly.

Or infrastructure.

Or housing.

Or even basic income.

https://www.washingtonpost.com...1733f92c7_story.html

Would be a hoot if someone asks in a town hall “if you cancel all students debts, do I get a refund for the tuition money and past student loans I already repaid.”

These are reasons why a Democrat elected on a promise to do this will feel immense blowback the minute s(he) tries to act on that promise.

Yep, if not sooner (as in, if not before the election). I'd be shocked if this didn't come up during the debate with Trump, should the Dem candidate be a pro student loan cancellation type.