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It’s time to for America and Wall Street to do right by us
Stephanie C. Warriner
Business, credit card, mortgage and even gambling debt can all be discharged. So why not forgive student loans?
My name is Stephanie C. Warriner and I am writing to urge everyone to support H.R. 4170 and to call or write to your respective representatives (Pearce, Heinrich, or Luján) to co-sponsor The Student Loan Forgiveness Act of 2012.
I am a life-long resident of New Mexico. I am a product of New Mexico’s public education system, a graduate of New Mexico State University, and am currently enrolled in the EMBA program at the University of New Mexico.
H.R. 4170 was introduced last month in the House by Rep. Hansen Clarke, D-Mich, and co- sponsored by Reps. Karen Bass, D-Calif., John Conyers, D-Mich., Bob Filner, D-Calif, Chellie Pingree, D-Maine, and Janice Schakowsky, D-Ill. Student loan debt in our country has reached exorbitant levels, and it’s having a devastatingly effect on economic growth. As a voter in New Mexico I respectfully ask you to support this bill.
An education is not a luxury. It’s not a BMW, a heated pool, or a 15-room mansion. To seek an education does not make one a snob. Seeking an education is about opportunity. Education is the great equalizer. Investing in education is an investment into our future. It’s an assurance that everybody has a fair shot.
Student loans are the only type of debt that has been stripped away of any sort of consumer protection. Business, credit card, mortgage and even gambling debt can all be discharged. So why not forgive student loans? How can we ever expect the housing market to recover when those who are most likely to purchase homes (educated professionals) are burdened with thousands and thousands of dollars in student loan debt?
Money doesn’t trickle down, but an education lifts all boats. Everyone benefits from a more educated population. To positively stimulate economic growth, we need to start from the bottom and “trickle-up.” The Federal Reserve has given $16 trillion in loans with virtually zero interest to Wall Street. Meanwhile, I am left to beg and plead for a couple thousand bucks to pay tuition, and I still get strapped with an 8 percent interest rate. How is that fair?
We bailed out Wall Street
For those who may claim that because I support this act I don’t want to take responsibility for my actions, I ask that you consider the following: When the top earners in this country were paying 90 percent of the marginal tax, the economy boomed and they still got rich. Now they pay less, still get rich, and our economy is in the tank. But I’m not the responsible one because I want my student loans forgiven.
We bailed out Wall Street for their recklessness. It’s time to for America and Wall Street to do right by us.
In a time in which the high school dropout rate is skyrocketing, it is rare to even see people with a desire for baccalaureate or post-baccalaureate education. The thought of having years and years of student loan debt makes it much more difficult to encourage people to seek higher education.
This bill helps people. This bill encourages people to seek an education, and an education encourages people to be successful. This bill is an investment.
I am a student with student loan debt and I am a voter. I urge you support this bill. I urge you to contact your representative and ask him to please co-sponsor H.B. 4170. Please support The Student Loan Forgiveness ACT of 2012.
Warriner is a Democrat and life-long resident of New Mexico, and presently resides in Albuquerque with her fiancé. She is a 2008 graduate of New Mexico State University with a bachelor’s in government and philosophy. Currently, she is an EMBA student in the Anderson School of Management at the University of New Mexico. In a nutshell, she is an Irish-Mexican, so naturally she enjoys loud music, a pint of chilled Guinness and huge family gatherings.
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Moral
Forgiving student debt is not a very good idea. What exactly does “forgive student loans” mean? It isn’t like the debt just disappears. Somebody pays for it somewhere. Who? The government. But the government doesn’t work for a living so where does the government get the money to “forgive student loans”? The taxpayer. How is it justifiable for an individual who decided on not accumulating debt (and instead entered the workforce) to be forced, in a sense, to pay tuition anyways by paying for someone else’s education? Does that seem moral?
Not only is it morally wrong but it would be economically counterproductive. With the advent of federal financial aid, college tuition costs have risen (much like many areas in which the government came to the rescue) as many colleges assess tuition in accordance with what’s available to the student to receive. What do you think would happen if the government all of a sudden “forgave student loans”? There is this thing called moral hazard. Its only going to lead to students, who now would have to worry even less about tuition costs because they figure the government will just cover the cost of their loans, being even less considerate of the costs associated with their respective schools. The schools in turn, now not having to worry about keeping costs affordable so as to keep attracting students, will then have even less restraints on raising their tuition rates considering they know students can afford essentially any cost knowing their loans will be backed by the government (via millions of taxpayers).
Although free stuff sounds awesome, you have to look at not just the immediate group (the student in debt) affected by such policy but every group (the taxpayers, future students) and not just the immediate consequences (current students lose debt) but the future consequences (higher tuition costs for students, more money from taxpayers).
Astute Observer, did you watch the video and see how much taxpayer money went into making Romney rich while actually undermining labor?
Speaking of priorities for taxpayer funding:
In 2011, California, for example, spent $9.6 billion on prisons, versus $5.7 billion on higher education. Since 1980, California has built one college campus; it’s built 21 prisons. The state spends $8,667 per student per year. It spends about $50,000 per inmate per year.
Tuition has gone up—rising 8.3 percent at four-year schools, on average, in 2011. That’s because tuition plugs the gap when state appropriations fall short of covering the costs of educating students, and in 2010, per-student public higher education funding fell to a 25-year low (PDF). Then it fell again in 2011. Since the 1980s, at the same time as a college degree was becoming more essential to making your way into the middle class, the cost of college was falling more on students, with tuition steadily increasing as a share of revenue for public colleges and universities.
Between 2006 and 2011, 43 states decreased per-student funding, and in 17 states the drop was more than 20 percent. During that five-year period, even as tuition increased, total per-student expenditures dropped in 26 states. So, more people are going to college and state funding is decreasing.
The predatory debt load is putting people into the catch-22 of a college degree being a virtual necessity for a middle-class life but one that requires students who don’t start off middle class to accumulate colossal debts keep our highly educated/cultured children trapped and continuously falling further behind into lower and lower standard of living. We are looking at a societal degeneration with priority on incarceration over education.
http://www.salon.com/2012/04/11/wells_fargos_prison_cash_cow/
“ Wells Fargo has been busy expanding its stake in the GEO Group, the second largest private jailer in America. At the end of 2011, Wells Fargo was the company’s second-largest investor, holding 4.3 million shares valued at more than $72 million. By March 2012, its stake had grown to more than4.4 million shares worth $86.7 million.
Unfortunately, it’s a safe investment. While a 50 percent growth in the number of human beings our society cages in rape factories may sound impressive – or perhaps the word is “revolting” – a study released last year by the Justice Policy Institute found that the private prison industry grew by more than 350 percent over the last decade and a half. Companies like GEO profit by the state literally kidnapping and handing them clientèle, particularly as of late about-to-be-deported immigrants and potheads, of which President Barack Obama has ensured there is a steady, record-breaking supply.”
Goff – how did John Kerry get so obscenely rich? He married it (the ‘old fashioned way’?), as did Kerry’s wife when she married Heinz, and the Heinz family made their fortune by providng a service and product that people wanted. So – is every rich person a crook? As i recall, Romney inherited the ‘starter’ fortune and then made a LOT of money in buying, selling, and restructuring businesses – a needed service. While some people fault him for eiminating jobs – he also saved and created jobs. Not every company is run well, and they fail – Romeny saved some (and the jobs with them) and he eliminated some (and the some jobs with them) … and made money doing it. Bad management has consequences – as does good management.
So, pgessing, it is ok to pay for this but not forgive student loans and make higher education affordable to OUR children?
How Did Mitt Romney Get So Obscenely Rich?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=rodifJlis2c#!
Well, I agree that the cost of higher education is dragging down the economy at large. The cost of higher education is grotesquely misaligned with potential earnings taking all essential cost of living in account. Graduates are unable to start their families even after they start working because their debt level is too high. The debt to earnings ratio is so far out of wack as it has become a system of indentured servitude rather than a means to evolve human reason and ability.
An aligned cost of education either has to be free or well within reasonable budget of a one income earner family at mean NM wages. Academic rigor is quite enough of a price to pay to be able to earn a living/learn a skill/increase individual intellectualism/develop culture and arts. Society only stands to benefit from a more intelligent population and it is by far worth the cost. Raising society’s standard of living of is synonymous with raising intellectual and skill development of everyone to the fullest extent of their individual and differentiated ability. This is more of and optimum ideal than say, incarcerating so many.
It is not ok to dump unlimited funds and resources into the military industrial complex while relegating the education/development of the people to lowest priority.
Congratulations on getting a college education. It’s a tough slog to get that far in life and you and millions of other college students deserve credit for staying the course, but I have to disagree with your contention that education (I assume you mean higher education) is a right. It’s not. It’s a luxury and a privilege. No one of us outside your immediate family owes you a dime to pay for it. That may sound harsh, but it’s not meant to. And as far as forgiving your (everyone’s) student loans, I can only say that that bill sounds like the biggest Democrat-inspired vote-buying tactic of the decade and is worthy of the “Chutzpah of the Year Award.” Where would you have us stop: with your masters’ study, your doctorate, your law school, your medical school? See the problem?
I am gm, and come from a long line of Democrats that realize anti-business, anti-personal responsibility, and pro-big government variants of our party do not speak for all of us, but pretend to.
I used a too broad brush when i said a member of the Democrat party….Should’ve said, liberal member…..Dr J is a Dem I think but isn’t part of the far left…..
A member of the Democrat party wanting a free lunch…..true to form. Upon graduation she’ll be active in that party promoting the free lunch for everyone not classified as “rich”.
With all due respect, the idea of forgiving the nearly $1 trillion in student loan debt may be the worst policy idea EVER. I discuss the issue in greater detail here, but I’ll ask this simple question: 25% of the population graduates from college and are among the highest earners in our society. There are even fewer doctors and lawyers and they pile up even more student debt. Why in the world would a self-professed liberal support a policy that taxes taxi drivers and janitors (or puts them and their grandchildren further into debt) for the benefit of what will be the top earners in our society?
I realize you want your student loans paid off, but isn’t that just a little unfair?
Ms. Warner your information indicates you are a business student. So let me explain why this forgivness idea is a bad one. First, many student loans are financed through Student Loan Marketing Association…aka SallieMae…Sounds like Fannie Mae or Fredie Mac…Well we all know what has happened to those two agencies. Who is picking up the tab for those failures Ms Warner? Why the tax payer of course. I guess you are not part of that group. If we follow the forgivness angle you support, yet another government agency would be bankrupt, passing the tab to other tax payers. I thought the Anderson School did a better job of teaching those principles of risk? Perhaps it was a class you missed or haven’t taken yet. So be a responsible student, and member of society and pay your bills Ms Warner. I don’t see you paying for my student loan?
Well, why not just forgive all the debts by any student and then put in free college for as many years as anyone wants? I mean that would make everyone happy, except taxpayers, but who cares about them, they are just greedy rich people anyway.
Its about time the whole student loan/cost of college issue is put under serious scrutiny. There has been an alarming rise in the costs associated with getting a higher education, directly linked to the ready availability of student loans over the last 30 or so years. So much so that financial aid offices just go right to that option. In any case the percentage of nonteaching staff at colleges and universities has soared and its unlikely that means a better education is the result.
Hard to say for certain but a housing market like bubble bursting seems very likely.
It doesn’t help that no one in Washington wants to deal with any of these type issues, politically this is no different than an entitlement.