Occupy Wall Street draft manifesto released

[Simon W. Moon]

Why should student loan debt be forgiven?

You have analyzed it validly from a personal responsibility perspective. But, that's not the only valid way of evaluating the proposal.

Idk the details and therefore don't have a real opinion about the matter.

However, it's possible that forgiving student loan debt could produce a net benefit for the country. If it did, imho, it could trump the rightness/wrongness on a personal level of the proposal.

 

[Thrilla]

John McCain and Maria Cantwell already tried to pass an amendment to reinstate glass steagal.... Dodd and Reid, and others, killed it... the white house was against it, and so was Geithner
I doubt it will be reinstated under this administration.. even if it were to ever get out of the Senate, which i doubt it would.

forgiving student loans is a non starter.... foreclosure help might be in the cards, though... depending on how it's done.

increasing spending and having the rich pay for it with a 1% tax increase is nothing more than deficit spending.... that tax on the rich won't cover any new spending.

TBTF banks won't be broken up... not a chance.

i'm fine with investigation into illegal activities and holding the actors criminally liable.... but i'm not kosher with witch hunts.
doing stuff that ended badly is different than doing illegal stuff.

 

[Redress]

• Halt foreclosures for the unemployed, sick and elderly
• Increase funding to public services by taxing the richest 1 percent
• Forgive all student loan debt
• Reinstate the Glass-Steagall Act in order to control speculation
• Work with the other G20 nations to implement a 1% “Robin Hood” tax on all financial transactions and
currency trades.
• Ban high-frequency ‘flash’ trading and bring sanity to the markets
• Break up the “too big to fail” banks that threaten our future
• Arrest the financial fraudsters responsible for the 2008 meltdown and bring them to justice
• Ordain a Presidential Commission tasked with ending the influence corporate money has on our elected representatives in Washington

Really? That is the best they came up with? Jesus wept...

 

[Thrilla]

student debt forgiveness in trade for 4 years of government service is something i might be able to get behind.... but not just willy-nilly debt forgiveness, no way.

 

[Simon W. Moon]

Take student loan money, put it in separate bank account, write checks from that account to pay my mortgage.
Take money from my paycheck, that I would of spent on my mortgage and spend it on whatever I want.
I've just made a paper trail, that proves I spent the money on what it is supposed to be.
Case closed.

Well if you're going to use "can" in that sense, you can rob A bank and spend the money however you like too.
lol

 

[Harry Guerrilla]

Well if you're going to use "can" in that sense, you can rob A bank and spend the money however you like too.
lol

I wouldn't really do that, but it's not like it's hard to defraud the student loan system.
Besides, the way I've set it up, it's completely legal.

 

[coolwalker]

How do you guys pay off your loans? In the UK it's like a graduate tax. You don't pay until you are earning a certain amount and then it goes up gradually with your earnings and if you haven't paid it back by a certain time it is written off.

We're not socialists (thank Heaven) so we pay it until it is paid off. It's the honorable way.

 

[American]

So how much did the protesters get paid?

 

[Josie]

• Forgive all student loan debt

Because................

 

[Caine]

I wouldn't really do that, but it's not like it's hard to defraud the student loan system.
Besides, the way I've set it up, it's completely legal.

Conspiracy to Commit Fraud............

 

[Harry Guerrilla]

Conspiracy to Commit Fraud............

Ya, but how many of these kids use their excess student loan money for just the items list?
I'm willing to wager that many go out of the guidelines, besides the point that no one checks up on these things.

 

[Frolicking Dinosaurs]

Because................

Most of them are not getting decent jobs with their shiny new diplomas. It is pretty much impossible to make a loan payment of $500+ a month on the salary from a job that involves asking 'Do you want fries with that?"

 

[Josie]

Most of them are not getting decent jobs with their shiny new diplomas. It is pretty much impossible to make a loan payment of $500+ a month on the salary from a job that involves asking 'Do you want fries with that?"

And some can. What's the purpose of forgiving ALL student loans?

 

[Frolicking Dinosaurs]

And some can. What's the purpose of forgiving ALL student loans?

Not sure what the thinking is on this. I would rather see the US move to a 'graduate tax' on income like European counties use so that payment would be tied to income. This would have those who can afford it paying more while those that were struggling would be paying less. Totally forgiving student loans is not something I favor.

 

[Antiderivative]

Most of them are not getting decent jobs with their shiny new diplomas. It is pretty much impossible to make a loan payment of $500+ a month on the salary from a job that involves asking 'Do you want fries with that?"

I believe that you can defer payments or reduce the monthly payments if you can demonstrate economics hardship.

 

[Josie]

Not sure what the thinking is on this. I would rather see the US move to a 'graduate tax' on income like European counties use so that payment would be tied to income. This would have those who can afford it paying more while those that were struggling would be paying less. Totally forgiving student loans is not something I favor.

I read somewhere that some in this group want all education free. So I guess that would explain it.

 

[neocon1225]

John McCain and Maria Cantwell already tried to pass an amendment to reinstate glass steagal.... Dodd and Reid, and others, killed it... the white house was against it, and so was Geithner
I doubt it will be reinstated under this administration.. even if it were to ever get out of the Senate, which i doubt it would.

forgiving student loans is a non starter.... foreclosure help might be in the cards, though... depending on how it's done.

increasing spending and having the rich pay for it with a 1% tax increase is nothing more than deficit spending.... that tax on the rich won't cover any new spending.

TBTF banks won't be broken up... not a chance.

i'm fine with investigation into illegal activities and holding the actors criminally liable.... but i'm not kosher with witch hunts.
doing stuff that ended badly is different than doing illegal stuff.

I think that's a point that's missed very often. Just because Wall St may have "gambled" doesn't mean they necessarily did anything illegal.

 

[Grim17]

I have 2 points to make...

1. If the government mandates that banks can no longer collect on outstanding student loan debt, this will open a can of worms that will have a permanent and negative impact on consumers in more ways than one. Banks will either no longer issue student loans, only do so for upper income folks, or raise the interest rates through the roof. This will limit the educational opportunities for middle and lower income families. There is also a good chance this would negatively effect the lending practices of all banks, not just in the area of student loans. As soon as the government takes such a step, the banks are going to realize that they could do the same thing with mortgages, auto loans, or any other kind of loan should the political climate dictate it... That means banks will either loan less money, tighten up their standards significantly, and/or raise interest rates to protect against possible future losses due to government mandate... Who in our society will suffer then?

2. These demands have nothing to do with Wall Street, stock brokers, big banks, or large corperations... These demands can only be achieved by the people in the White House and the legislators on capitol hill... So why in the hell are they making life difficult for the working class with their occupation, rather than making life difficult for the politicians in Washington?

 

[Frolicking Dinosaurs]

I read somewhere that some in this group want all education free. So I guess that would explain it.

This is what is done in Europe and then the 'grad tax' starts after the grads get out and start working. Since this is not tied to need, it is a much simpler system than in the US and results in more grads.

Data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development show that the U.S. was ranked seventh among nations in the proportion of adults 18 to 34 enrolled in college. The rate was 34 percent, compared with 53 percent for top-ranked Korea, according to the data, cited by the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, a nonpartisan group in San Jose, California.

Just 39 percent of U.S. adults had an associate’s degree or higher, compared with 55 percent for Canada and 54 percent for Japan.

Obama Urges U.S. to Regain World Lead in College Graduates - Bloomberg

 

[Reg]

Europe has all the new and higher taxes American socialists want, and it's still unable to pay its debt.

 

[Samhain]

Most of them are not getting decent jobs with their shiny new diplomas. It is pretty much impossible to make a loan payment of $500+ a month on the salary from a job that involves asking 'Do you want fries with that?"

Loan deferment. You only owe interest payments, which amounts to about 40 bucks for each 10,000 owed/month.

And your statement about "not getting decent jobs with their shiny new diplomas" is crap. Shiny new diplomas don't guarantee decent jobs. Never have, never will. Sure, 50 years ago, if you went to college, you were the minority. Now you are just like everyone else.

Can't say it enough. The world needs ditch diggers too.

 

[Cephus]

I'm not in support of cancelling out billions in student loans just because a percentage cannot pay them back. The government damn sure doesn't have the money to cover the banks' losses on those loans, and you can bet all the losses sustained by the banks will be passed on to the consumer in decreased interest yields, increased fees, and other penalties.

Let's be honest. If we did forgive the loans, the first thing that would happen is nobody would ever get another loan again. If that's what people want... go for it, just remember future generations will never see another loan again.

 

[Helix]

until we re-examine some trade agreements and level the playing field so that the American worker has even a little bit of power to bargain for better wages and benefits, a lot of the other demands come in a distant second.

people must be employed. the only other choice is wealth redistribution in some form. most of us would rather have a job that gives us some chance of making ends meet.

 

[KevinKohler]

Loan deferment. You only owe interest payments, which amounts to about 40 bucks for each 10,000 owed/month.

And your statement about "not getting decent jobs with their shiny new diplomas" is crap. Shiny new diplomas don't guarantee decent jobs. Never have, never will. Sure, 50 years ago, if you went to college, you were the minority. Now you are just like everyone else.

Can't say it enough. The world needs ditch diggers too.

Some don't offer loan deferments, and for the ones that do, when the deferment period is over, the payment has gone up.


I agree with everything else you said, though. 100%

 

[KevinKohler]

Let's be honest. If we did forgive the loans, the first thing that would happen is nobody would ever get another loan again. If that's what people want... go for it, just remember future generations will never see another loan again.

I agree. Instead of forced loan forgiveness, I would like some form of modified loan deferment. Maybe not a cease payment for a period of time, but a way to negotiate to pay "what I can" for a year or so. With the result being, I pay the loan off for a longer period of time.