I have over $200,000 in student loans. None of them are from undergrad, and I am privileged to make enough that I won’t qualify for any loan forgiveness.
I don’t think forgiving $10,000-$20,000 is enough for those who’d benefit - but it’s a start. This isn’t a handout and it’s not people getting out of paying back what they owe - in most cases they ARE paying that but with interest rates and difficult-to-navigate payments (it’s a serious challenge to pay toward the principle and not just the interest), it barely makes a drop.
Not every program is going to benefit everyone. I will be thrilled for those who get relief from this program, because not everyone needs to suffer the same things - this is how we improve as a society!
Plenty of people will still pay their loans back. If the economy was going to suffer that badly or your taxes were going to go up, it would have happened already as we held payments for the pandemic. Even the folks at Goldman Sachs don’t think this is a big deal (link in comments).
We have the money to offset these predatory loans and the power to make college more affordable going forward, we just choose not to and that sucks.
If your response is, “well, people who can’t afford education loans shouldn’t take them” then that translates to “poor people shouldn’t get an education.” That’s what it means, whether you meant it to or not.
You know who we ought to be angry with? Anyone who is complaining about student loan debt forgiveness but who got Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans that often WEREN’T for paying employees, and then got them forgiven in much larger amounts, including several sitting Republican congresspeople. See if that raises your taxes (although those Republican congresspeople probably voted to do that anyway).
A rising tide lifts all boats. Just because others are getting a benefit doesn’t mean the rest of us should be bitter.