My first thought on student loans is this: Why can't I as a retail investor get a taste of that federally guaranteed 7% return?
Oh right, because it's a racket meant to favor insiders who are already fabulously wealthy. It must be nice to be so rich that you can make it effectively illegal for anything to make you less rich or even to make you get more rich more slowly.
The debt isn't forgiven, the private companies that made the loans are paid by the feds. These programs are windfalls for banks that make what would otherwise be highly-speculative loans. There is a large economic incentive for students to take out loans they'll never repay and shift the burden onto the tax payer.
If universities were 'loaning' the tuition money to students directly, that perhaps could be 'forgiven' as no money has actually changed hands.
The whole system needs an overhaul, same with secondary education. Make the education free to all by eliminating the 'nice to haves' and focus on the 'need to haves.'
And then they could directly change their acceptance criteria and drop degree programs that don't match students with decent jobs. I don't say good jobs, just decent ones where they could get by not having to kill themselves and still afford the loans.
I mean this will force salaries to increase to attract workers b/c they won't have loan forgiveness as an implicit benefit. This will also reduce workers in those occupations driving wages even higher. That or the non-profit/gov't agencies will have to go without (and maybe that's the reason for this effort). It may also cause schools to drop tuition or make it easier for rich people to get into schools since there will be less competition.
Oh right, because it's a racket meant to favor insiders who are already fabulously wealthy. It must be nice to be so rich that you can make it effectively illegal for anything to make you less rich or even to make you get more rich more slowly.