This Is Why Student Loans Should Be Forgiven Here In New Jersey
It's probably a safe bet to say that there will be some huge arguments breaking out over the holidays once people in the family start voicing their opinions about the whole "should they" or "shouldn't they" debate regarding student loan debt forgiveness.
This is one of those political issues that have people landing on one side of the fence or the other. There's really no in-between. There's no middle ground. No gray area.
As someone who has already paid back WAY more than what my original student loan debt was worth, I can see the arguments both for and against forgiving federal student loan debt. People either claim that students should have been wiser before taking out all those loans for college, so now they have to pay the piper, or people understand that the economy won't get stronger if people are strapped with that kind of debt. They can't buy houses, can't go on vacations, can't even make ends meet, sometimes. Believe me when I say it is a STRUGGLE out here.
As someone who has paid back more than I initially borrowed, I can admit that, at this point, I'd LOVE to see the remainder of my student loan debt forgiven.
After all, I don't have children. I'm not sure I'll ever have them. My taxes go to the school systems to send OTHER PEOPLE'S kids to school year in and year out. How is that fair? People who say that they don't want to be responsible for students' choices for going to college, well I don't want to be responsible for educating your child. I don't have any children. Why should I have to pay taxes to educate yours?
Also, our tax money went to bail out various small business owners during the pandemic, didn't it? If you're a small business owner or operate an LLC, you were eligible for that $10k grant that you didn't have to pay back. Now that they government wants to offer that to people strapped with student loans, you have a problem with that? I didn't see Tom with the Body Shop turning away his $10k, but he wants deny us the same courtesy? Interesting...
While I do think it'd be beneficial to forgive student loans, I think there should be parameters surrounding that forgiveness. For example, maybe more people would get behind SLF if it were only administered to people who have been paying back their loans on-time for the past 10 years and have already paid back about half of their debt. That's fair, isn't it? They've been doing what they're supposed to do and could maybe put more money back into the economy if they had a little bit of a break from their student loan payments.
Here's why it would benefit New Jersey if some of the debt was forgiven for its residents: people wouldn't be in such a hurry to move! People would spend more here in the Garden State than they have in recent years. All that would do is HELP the state, not hinder it.
Remember also that they're not proposing to forgive ALL of someone's student loan debt. Only $10-$20k of it. So, if someone has $60k in debt and they've already paid back $30k of it, they'll still have to pay whatever's left after the help ($10-$20k) has been disbursed.
The likelihood this forgiveness will ever come to fruition is slim to none, but I will be watching who comments on the matter via social media and make sure not to buy anything from your kid that's trying to fundraise throughout the school year. If you're not trying to help people, then don't look for help yourself.
See how that works? 😉
