Last Friday, in a 6-3 vote, the Supreme Court shot down President Biden’s student debt forgiveness plan, which would have reduced or canceled federal student loan debt for millions of borrowers. Payments and interest have been paused since March 2020 as part of Covid-19 emergency relief. According to studentaid.gov, after the hiatus, interest will start accruing again this September, with payments becoming due the following month. Some people are very upset about this ruling. Others were very upset about the possibility of folks having their loans forgiven.
A few years ago, I proudly exited college with a hard-earned journalism degree and a shiny new debt of nearly $26,000. Welcome to adulthood, you’re starting off in the negative, good luck! I worked service and retail jobs until I landed an internship here at the Flyer my senior year, and even then, held two jobs for a while just to be able to pay bills and buy groceries. There wasn’t much left over for savings. When the loan came due, I applied for a brief deferment, and later income-driven repayment. The interest really got me. I was getting nowhere for a long time. I bemoaned how dumb it was to have taken the max loans each semester. But at the time, I was stoked to receive a “refund” check after tuition was covered. Silly me didn’t ask questions, didn’t speak to financial aid counselors to fully understand what I was getting into — which wound up covering college expenses and additional money to help me get by, but with a good $7,000 in interest piled on over time.
No one is to blame but me, but what does society expect of 18-year-olds, fresh out of their parents’ homes, who have no clue what they’re doing? Making a laughable income with mounting new responsibilities at every turn. Taking out loans and cashing the refunds and having a big ol’ time until graduation when reality hits.
Of course I understand that when you’ve agreed to take out a loan, you commit to repaying it. You can’t have your mortgage or car note forgiven. But — hear me out — student loans are a sham. Furthering education should be affordable. Walking out with $25k+ in debt — because you must have a degree to pursue just about any career — is total horse shit. I can’t imagine how much it must sting for those with six-figure loans. Bless you, and I’m sorry, and I hope your income reflects that value.
The goal of the debt relief program was to assist low- to middle-income debtors — $10,000 in federal student loan debt would be canceled for borrowers making below $125,000 or households with less than $250,000 income per year. An additional $10,000 would be forgiven for Pell Grant recipients, who historically have a greater need.
Thankfully, I’ve paid most of my student loan debt. Would I like to have the rest dismissed? Absolutely. Would I be upset that this happened after I’ve doled out over $30,000? I mean, it sucks, but I’d still be supportive of offering relief to those who need it. College tuition and textbook costs increase year over year. The cost of living continues to increase, too. Why not give people attempting to better themselves a little break?
Are we as upset about bank bailouts? Three banks failed earlier this year, and the United States Federal Reserve loaned more than $300 billion to the “cash-short” institutions through its emergency Bank Term Funding Program (BTFP) in March. Forbes reported in March that “many experts note the Treasury Department’s plan to save depositors doesn’t constitute a bailout because it draws from insurance funds paid by banks — and not taxpayer dollars — others worry the implications could ultimately fall to consumers through economic consequences like inflation.” Last week, Cointelegraph reported that the reserve’s “bailouts” reached a new weekly high of $103 billion for the week ending June 28th, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
What about the more than $200 billion in pandemic business loans that appear to have been fraudulent? The U.S. Small Business Administration, in its “COVID-19 Pandemic EIDL and PPP Loan Fraud Landscape” report, said of the $1.2 trillion given in COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) and Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) funds, at least 17 percent went to “potentially fraudulent actors” in the “rush to swiftly disburse” funds. New studies show this could have been a driver in inflation, particularly in the housing market. About $742 billion in PPP loans were forgiven.
So we’ve got corporations, big banks, scammers, and regular people seeking financial relief and assistance. Are we mad at the kids who took out loans to attend college because the world told them they had to? The big banks whose expertise is finance but can’t seem to manage their own accounts? The scammers who got billions in free government money?
There’s mismanagement, fraud, or forgiveness. And a whole lot of moolah tangled up between. It’s pretty clear who could use the help. It’s the average hard-working American. The “consumer” struggling to live amid inflation. Maybe one day, someone will vote and act in our favor.
