Warren proposes $640 billion student debt cancellation
https://politi.co/2PvZrxv
"The plan would eliminate as much as $50,000 in student loan debt for each person with less than $100,000 in household income. The $50,000 in relief would gradually diminish for people with household incomes between $100,000 and $250,000 ($1 less relief for every $3 earned). People with household income of more than $250,000 would not receive debt cancellation.

Warren couples the student debt forgiveness with a proposal to eliminate tuition and fees at all two-year and four-year public colleges. She presents the proposals as working in tandem: First, eliminate much of the student loan debt and then restructure the system to ensure that such debt doesn’t accumulate again."

I could get behind some version of debt relief but why have relief for people making 100-250k? Surely that’s a significantly regressive transfer of wealth.

That was my initial response as well, though it's not clear to me where the line should be. If you have 2 college-aged kids, $100K isn't necessarily that much, especially when you consider that it's unlikely that the family earned $100K for years before that.

But that's a detail.

I think it makes sense to offer student debt relief, when you consider that we are making a class of educated people whose options are severely limited for years, if not decades, into the future. Imagine the spending power of those students, if they had a chance of buying a house or car, having enough leftover money to go to restaurants, take vacations, etc.

Maybe they'll then teach their children to handle debt responsibly. Honestly I don't have a great deal of sympathy.

quote:

Originally posted by Nina:
That was my initial response as well, though it's not clear to me where the line should be.

The answer is, you don't draw a line. You phase it out. It's more complicated, but it avoids the step function where somebody making $99,000 gets debt relief, and somebody making $101,000 doesn't.

That’s just two lines.

And the top one probably shouldn’t be at 5x the median household income...

I may have to commit op-ed in the near future ...

My larger issue is this:

Making public college free may be a good idea. Possibly.

However, there are so many more pressing problems. Fixing the funding issues for Social Security and Medicare. Fixing the health care system. Rebuilding infrastructure. Devoting more resources to primary and secondary education. All of those are urgent, pressing problems. And they will all be expensive, and they all have to be paid for.

I have no problem with increased taxes to pay for those things. However, we live in a world of finite resources. Until I see a whole budgetary plan that shows how everything will be paid for, I can't support the idea of endorsing a lower-order priority.

quote:

Originally posted by QuirtEvans:

quote:

Originally posted by Nina:
That was my initial response as well, though it's not clear to me where the line should be.

The answer is, you don't draw a line. You phase it out. It's more complicated, but it avoids the step function where somebody making $99,000 gets debt relief, and somebody making $101,000 doesn't.

Not surprisingly, that's what she proposes.

quote:

There would also be "phase-outs" based on income. The $50,000 cancellation amount would phase out by $1 for every $3 in income above $100,000. According to Warren, for example, "a person with household income of $130,000 gets $40,000 in cancellation, while a person with household income of $160,000 gets $30,000 in cancellation."

https://www.forbes.com/sites/z...sMainFB#475e1d926025

I got that on the initial read, Quirt. My issue is the phase out is way too high.

If you're gonna design that kind of complex system, why not just make the existing complex system more generous and simpler. Raise the Pell maximum to 12K and simplify the application process by reducing the amount of information needed to fill the damn thing out.

Yeah, but that doesn't address existing debt. But it might simplify the second half of her proposal.

quote:

Originally posted by jon-nyc:
My issue is the phase out is way too high.

Under this plan, someone making 200k gets almost 17k from the taxpayer.

Surely there are better uses for that 17k.

Saw this on twitter. I wonder how common this viewpoint would be among those who didn’t get to go to college.

quote:

I’ll pay for your college debt if those of us that were too poor (but not poor enough) to go to college get our houses paid off. I’ve been working since I was 15. I’ve been working full time since I was 18. We make less money than college graduates. Pay off my house.

It should be very common.