TLDR: Totalling roughly $144 billion for about 4 million borrows.

Article is from March 29th, 2024

  • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    9% of total loans, and a lot are people who should have already been discharged through existing programs.

    The thing is, someone thought it was a good idea to put the people making money off student loans in charge of forgiveness programs, so all types of shady shit was happening.

    • qwertyqwertyqwerty@lemmy.one
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      9 months ago

      If he was able to get the original loan forgiveness he wanted, my wife and I would have replaced a car with a newer one, or maybe bought a second car. As it stands now, I guess we will be driving ours for a while. I guess the student loan providers wanted our money more than the stock market.

      • Sanctus@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        It’s never about making it better. It’s always about shoving as much money in their pockets as possible.

      • lennybird@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        We were in a similar position, intending to reinvest in our home, get a utility trailer, while saving up more for land one day.

        Conservatives fucked that up. But I appreciate Biden for trying.

      • Deceptichum@sh.itjust.works
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        9 months ago

        Or you could keep the car you have, and spend the money on something useful?

        If you car still works, damn right you should be driving it for a while. Pointless consumerism for the sake of having something new is fucking idiotic.

        • lennybird@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          You really have no idea what you’re talking about, for this is spoken like someone still of college age. Forget shortsighted. Sure it may be one thing if you’re adept with auto mechanics, but most people frankly are not.

          You do realize there is an inflection-point in both cost and reliability (forgetting newer safety and fuel standards) when owning used vehicles…riiiighhht?

          • cm0002@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            You do realize there is an inflection-point in both cost and reliability (forgetting newer safety and fuel standards) when owning used vehicles

            I don’t think these “Just get a 19XX/200X clunker!” Guys actually do lol im convinced they’re all just old mechanics mad that the thing they know best has now been tainted by “computers”

          • Deceptichum@sh.itjust.works
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            9 months ago

            You literally spoke about getting a second car, if the first car was so far gone that repairing it was too costly, why the fuck would you humour getting a second car?

            I’ve driven many cars until they broke down, you don’t need to get some shiny new thing just because your current car is a bit old and the world would be far better off for it.

            • lennybird@lemmy.world
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              9 months ago

              That wasn’t me but on reflection I apologize for coming off so harshly.

              I don’t know their situation but sharing a single vehicle can really suck especially if both work and you want to divide and conquer on getting shit done.

        • qwertyqwertyqwerty@lemmy.one
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          9 months ago

          The car we have is fine at the moment, but it we expect it will eventually need some costly repairs in the next ~3 years (exhaust? suspension?, etc.) as it gets older. The second car would be because We’re a large family and support another family. We recently hit a deer and it was very inconvenient while we waited for a repair. A second car would go a long way.

          • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            ^ This. Having a second or more car really helps in a lot of things, up to and including having the luxury of trying to fix something yourself. If you only have one car, it can be a scary proposition to mess with it as a noob (which I very much am; but I know how to do things like brakes, for example, and for other things, I’ll look up and read about/watch videos to see if it’s something I could attempt).

        • surewhynotlem@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          Driving a car into the ground is rarely the best financial move or the best approach from a risk perspective.

          As cars age, the likelihood of unexpected failure goes up and the cost of repairs goes up. Unless you like missing work, or having unexpected $5,000 bills on a $3,000 car, it’s good to replace your car before it becomes a high risk.

          This is the same thing as Terry Pratchett’s boots theory. Poor people are forced to spend more to cycle through shitty cars while people with some money can buy decent cars which will cost them less in the long run.

          I personally sell my cars before they hit the 10-year mark. At that point resale prices plummet. And I buy used ones around the 5-year mark, as that’s another price sweet spot. But of course, ymmv.

    • Sanctus@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Ah, yes, the people with the true say in this country, lobbyists with buckets of money.

    • Krauerking@lemy.lol
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      9 months ago

      LOL that keeps being my thought of… Wait why is it a good thing we took this long to help people that were scammed and forgive the people that were well past it being owed to them.

      It is sad that we are at praising bare minimum of by the books. We are too used to people being fucked over.

      • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        That’s like when they say “Biden forgave more student loan debt than anyone”…

        Well, it wasn’t really an issue until 20 maybe 30 years ago, and few people are paying them off

  • BigMikeInAustin@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Good!

    Now do that much again!

    Get people spending their limited paychecks on goods the economy is producing, instead of paying interest to some misers. In the 1%-er’s bank, it will just sit and effectively be taken out of circulation and the economy.

  • danc4498@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Trump cut taxes for billionaires and corporations. Republicans are upset that Biden is canceling student loans. The right is unreal.

  • jordanlund@lemmy.worldM
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    9 months ago

    The problem is those aren’t real numbers.

    For example:

    You can get your debt cancelled if:

    1. You’ve made payments for more than 10 years. AND:

    2. You borrowed less than $12,000.

    https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/02/21/fact-sheet-president-biden-cancels-student-debt-for-more-than-150000-student-loan-borrowers-ahead-of-schedule

    So, first, who the hell takes out less than $12,000 in student loans?

    Second, of those who took out less than $12,000, who is still paying a significant amount after 10 years?

    Oh, you only took out $8,000? Good for you… Oh, but it was 6 years ago? Sorry, come back in 4 years.

    So they can say “Oh, we cancelled xx$ in student debt.” But the reality is, they are doing it in a way that nobody can actually USE.

    • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Theyre canceling interest…

      Like you said, if they borrowed that little and paid back so long. There’s no way they haven’t paid the original loan back.

      I feel like being honest about that, wouldn’t make Biden look as good, but will make more people support it.

      Limit the amount of interest, say 50% of loan amount, after that the balance never increases and principle just goes down.

      If you borrowed 12k and have paid over 18k, you’re done.

      The interest is what’s killing people, not the principals.

      • jordanlund@lemmy.worldM
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        9 months ago

        When my kid was getting ready to go to college, we went to all the FAFSA seminars and filled out all the forms and what not.

        He got accepted by his top three schools, UC Davis, Lewis and Clark, and the University of Oregon Honors College.

        Each one of them came back and told us the same thing…

        “Well, with student assistance, scholarships, and so on, we think you should take out parental plus loans of $56,000 a year.”

        And my reaction was:

        a) That’s oddly specific.

        Followed by:

        b) Wow, what are the chances that one out of state school and two in-state schools all commonly decided on the same oddly specific number?

        Why it’s almost like it’s about “How much can we milk them for?” instead of “Here’s how much college costs.”

        So we said “fuck that noise” and enrolled him as a normal student at the University of Oregon.

        Tuition was $10,000 a year, he had a scholarship that paid $5,000, I ran the other $5,000 through my Amazon card for points, gave him a 2nd card for expenses and rent, and 4 years later he had a degree and 0 debt.

        He’s now a data scientist in the AI field and paid me back in cash. LOL.

        But I could see OTHER parents going “Well, three schools all told us $56,000 a year, I guess that’s just what school costs now…”

        • laurelraven@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          9 months ago

          Or see that and think “they’ll have better opportunities going to a better university” when for the most part people don’t really care where you got the degree, just that you did, it’s vaguely relevant, and accredited

          If you can do that for a fifth the cost and no outstanding debt, seems foolish to pay what the big unis are commanding

          Also, congrats to your kid, that’s a great field to be in right now

    • Krauerking@lemy.lol
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      9 months ago

      They are using a way that should have already been done since those were the rules we agreed to but haven’t followed for the last couple decades.

      These are basically fake loans that should be a sign of a terrifying bubble about to burst except somebody made it impossible to ever get your schooling loans removed no matter how much you got scammed or should have it paid down by now.

      It’s almost like fixing a whoopsie of loophole that let even more people get fucked over against the agreed on societal backstops in the search for more money except it’s still not even fixed.

    • Wrench@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      That’s a gross misrepresentation.

      My wife’s 6 figure loan was forgiven because she had been paying over 20 years, but had fell victim to those predatory student loan refinancing companies that claimed to have put her into the correct program for 20 year forgiveness, but hadn’t. She only found out a few years ago, and the 20 year countdown started then, after 15+ years of payment.

      John Oliver did a great episode on it. Worth a look.

      The Biden administration honored the spirit of the deal, and forgave her loan in January. If it weren’t for that, she’d have another ~15 years of payments.

    • gAlienLifeform@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Also, they’re not even doing this yet, they’ve only just now proposed the rule and still need to put it through like 6 to 12 months of public comments and defending it against any changes. So it’s overdue, undersized, and could all fall apart before it goes into practice, but they’re going to try to campaign on it anyway because they know in the amount of time it takes for a reporter to explain all of that Trump will have said/done like five more outrageous and stupid things that will drown out any criticism.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldB
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    9 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    As the November election gets closer, Biden’s team is eager to tout what he’s done to address student loan debt – with the administration recently sending congratulatory emails to 153,000 debt-relief recipients – even if his actions fall short of some Democrats’ expectations.

    The amount Biden has canceled is equal to 9% of the $1.6 trillion of federal student loan debt currently held by borrowers.

    The Supreme Court ruled that the executive branch does not have the authority to implement Biden’s broad forgiveness program, which would have canceled up to $20,000 for borrowers who make less than $125,000 a year.

    The one-time cancellation program would have benefited millions of people, but it drew some criticism because it would not have helped future borrowers or addressed the larger issue of the rising cost of college.

    In a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted in January, 46% of US adults said Biden has the “best approach” to lowering student debt burdens, compared with 22% who said Donald Trump does.

    Still, the Biden administration is working on implementing another path toward a broad student loan forgiveness program, this time relying on a different legal authority in hopes that this attempt holds up in court.


    The original article contains 689 words, the summary contains 196 words. Saved 72%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

  • Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social
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    9 months ago

    I wouldn’t judge a trauma surgeon for not removing the guard rail from the patient if they managed to stop the bleeding. With two kids about to start college I’d like to see him make some moves to reduce the price we’re going to have to figure out how to pay, but this is a solid win.

    On this issue Biden’s fought hard and I appreciate it.

    Shame about the genocide.

  • juicy
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    9 months ago

    The genocide pill gets easier and easier to swallow every day

      • juicy
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        9 months ago

        Guess it’s good I have three options in the general who don’t support genocide

        • Wrench@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          The housing market is really tough right now. Guess it’s good I have the option to be a billionaire by playing the lottery. About the same odds as one of your candidates winning.

          • juicy
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            9 months ago

            The housing market is really tough right now. Guess I’ll buy a tent from the dark web made from the skin of Middle Eastern children since I can’t afford a proper home.