Here is the Breaking News: If you make $125,000 or less and have federal student loans, you might be eligible for $10,000 loan forgiveness. It means you will not have to pay back the $10K! This is huge! It can be life-changing for some people.
Some people are happy to have their loans forgiven, but others are mad because they think they have to pay other people’s debts. I’m a little bit of both. I am disappointed that it has come down to this. We shouldn’t be counting on the government to fix our lives. You can pay off your student loan with sacrifice, hard work, and discipline.
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?
Student loan forgiveness doesn’t mean the loan “disappears”. It just transfers ownership from an individual to the government.
Fun fact: Government = you and I.
Instead of the individual is responsible for paying back, the government is taking on that responsibility. As you are all aware, the US government has over $28 trillion in federal debt. If the Fed wants to pay it down, it must do it through surpluses (the last time the US had a surplus was in 2001). Revenue must be greater than the cost in order to have the excess. And guess what is the primary source of revenue for the government? You got that right: TAXES!
I’m not saying the taxes will go up next year to cover this, but someone will need to pay for this. If not us, maybe our kids and grandkids. The last thing I would want to leave for my kids as a parent is a debt. I’m working to ensure that I can cover all my living expenses until I die and hopefully leave some inheritance to my children.
IS THIS FAIR?
Life is not fair; it has never been and will probably never be. We all have some areas of our lives that seem to be struggling despite our best effort to fix them. But I’m also sure most of us have experienced a favor we did not earn/deserve at some point. You can call it luck; I call it grace! For those getting their loan forgiven, I’m happy for you. This was both an economic as well as political move from the Biden administration – I will spear you of details here.
MY ISSUES
This is just my opinion as a person who had a student loan and paid them off early. If I had to do it over again, I wouldn’t change a thing. I’m not mad that I’m not receiving the relief; I’m glad I was able to pay off my debt.
Here are a few points to consider:
- Income cap is too high: if you make $125K a year, you should be able to make at least the minimum payment on your student loan.
- This doesn’t fix the core issue of the high cost of higher education. It is a temporary solution to an ongoing problem.
- Future high earners (who currently qualify) should not be exempt from paying back their student loans.
- What about people who can make a payment but don’t want to and keep delaying repayment?
- What about people who chose not to take a loan & go to trade school because they couldn’t afford four years of a college degree? There are also people making minimum wage who did not go to college but are struggling now.
- How about people like me who took loans to go to college and then worked 2-3 jobs to pay off debt early?
- How about the future generations who are more likely to take even more student loans due to the high cost of college/university? Are we planning to subsidize that as well?
CONCLUSION
I’m all for helping people, and I’m sure I have benefited from similar help in the past, but I also want to address the root issue to ensure we don’t have the same problem 10 years from now. I’m happy for those who will benefit from this debt cancelation. I know some people can’t afford to pay, and the interest is making it impossible to get out of debt.
What I would not like to see happening is to create a society that feels entitled and expect the government to fix its problem. Please do your best to fix your problem, not just for you but for your children & grandchildren. We must do better as individuals and as a nation.
“May your college memories last as long as your college loan payments.”
