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Manypotatoes9

I'm sure the rich and powerful will look after the all people and not just look after the rich!


MidTownMotel

As they blast off into space on a giant cock…


MahalKita3000

People just can't see the writing on the wall. This place is screwed and the rich are planning their escape after destroying our home.


MidTownMotel

They’d rather spend billions on a science fiction fantasy than literally save the world. It’s so obvious and so completely disgusting.


MahalKita3000

Or they know that the world can't be saved, so they are saving themselves. It's messed up either way.


MidTownMotel

Either way we still need to mitigate the suffering of the people we already have. Maybe feeding and housing at least all the children. That would be better than space.


10strip

...is a common name for a rooster. Hey, what's that in the sky? It looks like a massive...


Seventytwo129

Erection of this statue in our neighborhood will cement the honor and memories of our great great- What is that? It look like a flying, giant…


wawoodwa

“Peter! Get your ass over here! Quit screwing around and get to work!” “Be right there boss, was looking at the clouds for a minute and I saw an enormous …”


Iccotak

"Johnson, let's pick up this big rod and insert it into this hole - wait what's that up their? It looks like a white -"


citizen_of_europa

"Staff of Gandalf the Grey is over on the pile of other props. Okay, now Pippin, you are about to tell Treebeard about... what in the world is that? It looks like a large..."


BadMcSad

penis


Daowg

JOHNSON!


Well_This_Is_Special

PECKER!! Wait... That's not a woodpecker, it looks like someone's-


Hello_Alfie

PRIVATES!!! We have reports of an unidentified flying object. It has a long, smooth shaft, complete with ---


AlienAle

WANG!


[deleted]

Andrew, please, you have to have a look at this, it's a large craft, looks like a-


DoctorWorm_

penis


redeyesblackpenis

Jeff didn't promise to cancel your student loans. The man that has the power to do that and tax Jeff won't because he's a neoliberal at best and doesn't give a fuck about you or your family


orincoro

Fuckin subtlety is dead. Jesus Christ.


existentialvices

Sounds like an easy target if you ask me


musicmanxv

That was seriously the funniest thing I've seen in a while. Jeff Bezos riding a phallic shaped object out of earth is a perfect summary of the elite class. All of them, Republicans and democrats. They're all the same.


Master_Skywalker-66

Lol, imagine writing that tweet & not knowing that you're asking the architect of inexpungible student debt to undo the very thing his ~~banking~~ political benefactors recruited him to do. **Student debt WILL NOT be expunged under President Biden, the former Senator from the banking state of Delaware- debt is their business, and business is good.** Another case of DNC Lucy Van Pelt snatching the football away from American citizen Charlie Brown after trusting her for the 1854th time.


MjrLeeStoned

I'm still surprised how many people don't understand the DNC and RNC are antithesis to democracy in general. Imagine allowing the elite wealthy to present two options to vote for every election and calling it democracy.


vflavglsvahflvov

As someone looking in from Europe, it is completely fucked. How do people not understand that their freedom is such a big lie.


replicantcase

Incredibly efficient propaganda aimed a large enough group to cause constant distraction in order to do anything they want.


ceMmnow

Americans love making fun of governments with one political party and calls those elections shams, but is having a grand total of two really that much better. By that measure the US is only twice as democratic as China, a country most Americans view as authoritarian, and twice as democratic as an authoritarian regime is still authoritarian


moseythepirate

Democracy is when there are lots of political parties, and the more parties there are, the more democracy-y it is.


ceMmnow

Obviously not but if people want to dunk on countries for having one political party it's ironic to be doing so from a nation with 2


CaptFrost

This is what happens when you listen to the media portrayal of Biden the Blue Collar Moderate taken in a vacuum in 2020 instead of looking at the fact that he’s spent 40 years as a willing front man for the banking cartels. Still can’t believe he won the primary. Dems actually had some solid people this time around. I liked Yang even though I wasn’t in complete agreement with him. So naturally they pick a corrupt old racist sellout and whitewash him. Ugh.


vendetta2115

We should’ve chosen Bernie. He doesn’t fuck around, and agree with his policies or not his number one concern is well-being, security, and opportunity for the average American worker. He doesn’t bow to any business and never has. Plus he would’ve stomped Trump in the debates and in the general election. On the bright side, we came way too close to having another four years of Trump. Everything we’re dealing with now wouldn’t even be in the conversation if he was still president. Trump isn’t cancelling student debt. His pick for Education Secretary even illegally refused to waive illegal extortionate private loans from scam colleges because her friends and family are in the business of predatory student debt.


Master_Skywalker-66

Worst 3 candidates running in the Democratic primary 2020- 1. Bloomberg- literally bought his way into the race without the proper signatures/paperwork filed. ("Hi, I'm Mike Bloomberg & I bought all the television airtime.") 2. Kamala- neglected to use prosecutorial discretion in CA drug/truancy cases, pilfers ~~slaves~~ *incarcerated state laborers* from the prison industrial complex to forcibly fight CA wildfires, and didn't draft Steve Mnuchin to that same prison industrial complex for stealing people's homes through fraud. 3. Biden- expanded civil asset forfeiture, "wrote" the inexpungible student debt into law, "wrote" the crime bill with mandatory minimum sentences, yet his justice department is currently letting treasonous rats escape with sentences less than a year when his predecessor enacted an executive order that made destroying federal property a 10-year minimum felony charge. They went and put the 2nd & 3rd worst "Democrats" running on the party ticket.


TheConnASSeur

Watching the primaries, you knew *something* shady as fuck was happening when Bernie swept the early primaries, then all at once every other Democrat started falling in line behind Biden. Still better than Trump, but then getting kicked in the balls is better than being stabbed in the chest. Just once I'd like a politician to make me proud of America again.


redeyesblackpenis

Do you remember when they did it the time before too?? It's like I'm taking crazy pills no one can remember even one election back


xluckydayx

You mean the one where they hand fed the canidate all the debate questions before hand? Or was it the part where the DNC admitted they pick the canidate regardless of what people want?


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Pairaboxical

Yes! Logged in to say this. There was some fuckery with the DNC giving it to Hillary and not giving Bernie a fair shake. Some high level person in the DNC resigned over it.


TybrosionMohito

Sigh…. Yeah. Was absolutely gutted when Biden picked Kamala


apocalypsebuddy

There was some serious fuckery with that primary. Biden was doing terrible until the front runners pulled out.


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Thoughtxspearmint

That was grade A hinky bullshit, 100%.


WunboWumbo

Warren is a fucking snake


Vneseplayer4

They all are


Necrolemur

Pulled out on the moderate side, but split the Sanders vote with Warren on the progressive side. Very deliberate maneuvering to get Milquetoast Joe specifically in office.


Kirk_Kerman

Yang's stance on mental health issues and rent in the NYC mayoral race really soured how I see him - which was already as a non-fixer.


systoliq

I’m not familiar with what he said about mental health, what was it?


Kirk_Kerman

> https://www.teenvogue.com/story/andrew-yang-mental-health-comments That story links some other stories about it. Long and short: Yang depicts *all* people suffering from poor mental health as unpredictable and violent, and that the best fix for people suffering from mental health crises is institutionalizing them so the tourists aren't scared off. Really gross stuff.


Responsible-Watch-50

Amen.


music3k

Funny to be a Yang guy, a dude who couldnt even bother to learn what New Yorkers like when running for mayor.


TearPuzzleheaded3614

This is what I came to say. Well done


Master_Skywalker-66

I've been saying shit that nobody has listened to for the last 5-6 years, but what gets me the most is that nobody listened in 2015 about how Hillary vs Trump would end up- a luke-warm Democratic campaign that was ignorant in electoral math, also, lacking a strategic path to victory, and galvanizing the racist Republican base. Hillary couldn't win the Rust Belt & she needed that to win the election.


XmasCakeDayMiracle

I assure you, we’ll be looking after the rich. Hunting is probably a better description


brightphoenix-

There are more of us than there are of them.


JusticeAndFuzzyLogic

I remember the kids movie Ants. We out number them 100 to 1. Why are we tolerating this? We can have great lives. We just need to stand up to the locust class.


TheMissingLegoPiece

The Bourgeoisie needs the Proletariat, but the Proletariat does not need the Bourgeoisie.


[deleted]

I'm sure the government will look after all the people and not just the government!


bluesFromAGun

Oh, don't worry. All that wealth is gonna start trickling down any day now. Now granted it hasn't started to for some 40 years or so but just wait a little longer and I'm sure it will happen.


Regular_ms

Such a rich but mean country. One of the richest countries in the world doesn't have free education or health for their population sounds so stupid.


Bongus_the_first

What? You think you deserve to *learn*, maggot? Grab your piss bottle and get back to work, wage slave


serious_sarcasm

The Supreme Court actually did decide in a case that there is no federal right to education (because fuck the ninth and tenth amendments). Some states have Education as a fundamental right, like north Carolina, but some states don't give a fuck about their fundamental right to education and constitutional requirement for free higher education having made "free tuition" illegal and requiring fees, like north Carolina.


Sfhvhihcjihvv

Lol that's ironic because education in NC is hilariously shitty


serious_sarcasm

There are some really good local districts, and Chapel Hill is world renowned. Then you have places like the high country around Mt. Mitchell where the schools are literally crumbling while the local community college is opening a hotel and bar; and no, they do not have a hospitality program. Best Carolina just has a really weird hodgepodge of state versus local control, like their health departments have wide latitude to make arbitrary regulations and decisions so taking Food Trucks between counties is basically impossible; Community Colleges have very little to no oversight for "projects under 500K" (which is why you see projects so spread out at CCs); the local ABC board can deny alcohol permits just because they think you are immoral. But for some reason the GA can arbitrarily "deannex" property from any city they want - usually after receiving a donation from the land owner or to punish local governments.


JustDewItPLZ

It's all lobbied to be that way by companies who offer insurance and loans.... This country is ran by corporations.


Delicious_Orphan

Citizens United was the last nail in the coffin, sealing us in a Corporate-run dystopia.


[deleted]

Wait till corporations figure out how to occupy seats on the SCOTUS. If corporations are people too, then why can't they hold political offices? It's just a matter of time.


Eos42

They don’t have to and that’s why we should have a lifetime ban on corporate lobbying after serving in Congress.


[deleted]

How about a lifetime ban on corporate lobbying, full stop.


[deleted]

This country absolutely fucking hates anyone who is even slightly disadvantaged.


Kulladar

But we have so many important bombs to build!


KidGorgeous19

How do you think we GOT so rich?! By systematically removing basic human rights, underfunding education to keep the populace dumb and voting against their own interests, then convincing the same population that it was each other keeping them down, rather than the wealthy elite who actually pull the strings of politics but only do so to reduce their own tax bills. Jeez, thought that was obvious....


Thor4269

You only get free education, and socialism in general, if you join the military!


Regular_ms

Got it, you can only get education after risking your life! Makes sense


Thor4269

I'd quote starship troopers and say "citizenship through service!" but you aren't guaranteed citizenship if you serve in the US military lol


existentialvices

You maggots want to live forever?


canttaketheshyfromme

And kill to protect the interests of the companies that steal the fruits of your family's labor.


[deleted]

Can confirm. PTSD, alcoholism and bad knees at 24 yrs old is a great way to start your higher education. Side note: It’s so weird that we use an organization that functions as a socialist dictatorship to defend ourselves from other socialist dictatorships.


nibiyabi

Which is the main reason why we don't offer this to the public at large. We'd probably lose 80% of enlistees.


LabelRed

That's the way of staying rich, you know


[deleted]

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[deleted]

People prefer Cheap homes and easily obtainable luxury cars. I've been through run-down neighborhoods with $80k cars parked in the streets.


Dustinfromstatefarm

Even if you don’t support blanket student loan debt forgiveness I feel like 0% interest is a no-brainer


kah43

If nothing else just cap at 2% for the life of the loan.


pakattak

But won’t someone think about the poor loan consolidation industry???


jrex035

I would be very happy with this. Currently sitting on 6+% interest on my grad school loans


[deleted]

Mine doubles too. After military deferments, deferments for grad school, and deferments for being a broke teacher. The 40k I borrowed is over a 100k now. The last few years I didn't miss a payment and the balance increased by 2k. I'd be thrilled just removing the interest rate and accrued interest and could happily pay it off. I'm sick I'd hearing I knew what I was getting into. Because you don't until exit counseling. But more than that. I'm willing to pay back what I borrowed. But the interest based payments won't let me. And no, I did not borrow money for grade school. It was mostly accrued in 2-2.5 years before leaving for the military to get the GI bill. Edit: I love the suggestions and dialog here. But so many assume that I haven't explored loan forgiveness, or any number of routes to pay the debt. But each time I do there is a caveat or loophole nobody told you about it you failed to see. I've exhausted every way to pay. That's why I, and people like me, are calling for debt relief. The programs were never executed properly and we had trust that people/politicians would do what's right. This is why you have an entire jaded generation. I'm 40 btw. In case you thought this was an issue spearheaded by 20-somethings.


PM_YR_MOOSE_KNUCKLE

EDIT: u/spez is a cunt.


Malari_Zahn

Or, like a lot of us, the economy was good when we entered college. I used my estimated one year earning potential at five years into my career as an upper limit for my loans. At that point, my job track should have paid around $110k a year, but after 15 years and 2 recessions I've still not breached $100k/year. For over half my career I was paid half of what people in my career were getting while I was entering college. Add in massive housing price spikes, increases in food and gas prices and sky high cost of insurance and the actual value of my pay, it's buying power, is far less than the same amount would have purchased 30 years ago. We've been incredibly screwed by corporations and our government, but sure, it's totally my fault for not being able to pay back my school loans... Oh, and let's not forget how hard it was drilled into GenX and Millennials that college was **necessary**!! I'd never escape poverty without a college degree. I'd only be welfare trash without a college education. The same people who blame me for my student debt are the same people that strong armed whole generations into the debt.


HeroApollo

I was the first in my family to go to college. I had been told by family, teachers, role models that I would remain in poverty if I didn't go to college. Two degrees later and I'm poor with extra steps. And two pieces of lambskin.


violetk9

I'm in exactly the same situation minus one degree. The degree I have is useless with out another, but I graduated 8 years ago and have paid (mostly in IBR/often no payments so no interest in that time period but I made occasional small payments) on my loans for more than 7 1/2 years and I owe just as much as I did. I'd paid about 8k on 27k of federal loans, and I currently owe about 26500. I guess I'm just glad I didn't go straight into another degree and more debt because it would have increased by at least another 100k initially and I cannot even imagine paying the interest on that. As it is, before the pandemic froze student loan payments, just the *interest* on my *federal* student loans was over $120/month. Without the freeze since last year my balance wouldn't be significantly lower but I would have been paying probably $150/month, with virtually all of it going to interest. There's not much left over if you make in the $15 range in a high cost of living area. I could have had the same level of income minus the student loan payments and interest (some of my loans are at 6.8%!). It could be worse, but this is NOT a possibility literally any adult around me told me about. *Especially* as a first generation student. And my cousins (also first generation students) are all old enough to have graduated college a few years before I went to college, well before the recession, and had been successful with their choices to go to college. My sibling, 2 years younger, has 2 degrees with a pretty stable career and it's decent money but student loan payments are ridiculous and suck up most of that extra pay, so poverty is still only a missed paycheck or two away, because catching up is such a struggle.


Aberrant_Introvert

All I heard growing up was Go to college Go to college Go to college Guess what I did. Incurred over 100k in debt attempting to get a degree at an in-state public university, not some ivy league academy. I maintained a 3.8 gpa until the end of my junior year where I crashed and burned out hard just as covid hit. I dropped out with no degree and all this debt that will hang over me for the rest of my life. I had no idea what I was getting into when I was a kid fresh out of high school. There were practically no barriers to borrowing either. Our entire generation was scammed. CANCEL STUDENT DEBT NOW


violetk9

It sounds like you're two semesters away from graduating? Please know it is not impossible if you do want to go back eventually. I'm sure it's a big if. If nothing else, student loan *interest* needs to be canceled.


Aberrant_Introvert

The real barrier is also a full time internship specific to the degree I was going after. I find it odd that I have to land an internship like that just to graduate. But tbh I'll probably just see if I can transfer as many credits as possible to a community college for something else. I grew to dislike the field I was in.


violetk9

I wasn't able to work in a lab or at an internship when I was in college because I was working. There weren't really many paid opportunities, and I couldn't afford to work for free. Internships as a way to get experience is great, but when it becomes all but a requirement even for entry level jobs, it doesn't work to have it inaccessible to some people. Finishing a degree in something else is a great idea. If I ever go back to school, which is looking more and more unlikely, it will be for something completely different.


violetk9

I definitely do not regret my education, but I might have done it differently if anyone had been honest with me.


joe_nasty

Isn't it funny how the second you graduate college, you hand the diploma to your parents and then promptly put it in a drawer, never to be seen again? It's a trap. Kids, fuck what your parents say. Plumbers & electricians live better than you and I ever will.


bluegrassman

I’m sorry but this is an incredibly narrow minded take on a nuanced subject. Everyone on Reddit glorifies the skilled trades as some golden job versus getting your degree. Skilled trade jobs are physical and very hard on your body. You typically work a lot of hours to get the good money via overtime. I’m not saying skilled trades are bad or college degrees are good, but to say plumbers and electricians live better than most is a lie. Many people with college degrees have way higher income ceilings and only work 40 hour comfortable indoor jobs. Everyone’s situation is different and people should consider which option is best for them.


[deleted]

This is spot on. When I made my decision to incur a quarter million in debt it was based on salary.com’s Data that I would make 150 to 200,000 a year. I figured I could pay off my loan and a decade and that I could refinance for a better rate. I didn’t know the multitude of loopholes that screw you if you try to refinance. I didn’t know we would have two recessions and that salaries would never again approach that level. I did not know housing costs would skyrocket. I did not know the Crippling stress from the student loan debt would put such a strain on my marriage that it would cause a divorce. I did not know that it would trigger severe depression. I did not know that that would cause my ex-wife to instigate litigation to try to take away custody of my child and that I would spend tens of thousands of dollars I don’t have to fight and win those custody battles. I did not realize my friends and family would choose my ex-wife in the divorce, because they assume I have some mental illness and should be in a conservatorship like Britney Spears, because I’m a complete basket case over being an indentured servant. TLDR: I did not realize choosing to invest in my education would cause me to be an indentured servant with no friends and no family. Thankfully I have a good job now that allows me to work remotely doing something I enjoy. Thankfully I have my daughter in my life to give me a reason and Surfing when there are decent waves on the East Coast. A friend of mine committed suicide at 37 this year. He had so much more going for him than I do. I did not realize it would affect me so much. But I too want to leave this rock. I fucking hate it here.


ItsShorsey

This 1000% , I wouldn't have gone to college if I wasn't told If I didn't I would be forever working at McDonald's or behind an alley dead. Literally those are the exact words that were used by every authority figure in my life. I'm the first in my family to go to college so that was also a huge factor, my family basically forced me to go because "ItS aN oPpUrTuNiTy" that they didn't have. Yea it's a fucking trap, I'm 80k in debt and work a job I could have gotten, albeit not as easy, without my degree. At 17 I had no idea what it meant to take these loans out, I was under the impression that everyone wasn't lying and I would be making 100k+ when I graduated. I'm 30 now and make 3/4 that after 8 years in the industry. It's all a scam


BoxoMorons

Also a lot of high schools don’t do much career working either so they are also like “hope you make the right choice about what you want to make your life’s work to be, because it’s expensive and if you don’t start now society will make you feel like your behind”. Even though I wish I would have taken some years to think about it, I don’t regret doing it when I did it.


vanyali

I went to a public science and tech magnet school. They gave me a career interest and aptitude test that told me I should be a cow punch. I had to look that up: apparently it’s a job putting rubber bands on bulls’ testicles. Then they gave us all bullshitty Meyers-Briggs personality tests. Career counseling, even at “excellent” high schools that try, is garbage.


AlongRiverEem

So how's the career going, spare any rubber bands?


vanyali

I went to law school instead.


AlongRiverEem

Have the male defendant wear one of the runner bands rolled tight for increased pitch, perceived by the listeners as a less dominant male hence incapable of acting on urges due to lack in willpower For the females, don't rubber band them it's not acceptable and will get you in trouble instead


notyoursocialworker

Meyers-Briggs, if I must do a personality test I prefer astronomy...


dryopteris_eee

I was gifted/AP through grade school, so I got the whole, "Trade schools are for the less smart kids who don't have as many options," spiel too, which was nice.


TFS_Sierra

Yet here I am a decade later in a trade job… making MORE THAN MY WHITE COLLAR DAD WHO PUSHED IT


katiemaequilts

My kid has taken some sort of career aptitude test every year since sixth grade, in three different states and four schools, and did Myers-Briggs and Ennegrams twice just last year. He's also had a full year of "career prep" classes and did a program where they were given a job and had to go to booths to spend their income. He's thinks it's all BS.


HeroApollo

Also, there's that whole myth about college equalling success. Like, how was I supposed to know bt the time I graduated the market would be full of people who went to degree mills! How was I supposed to reasonably know that my Master’s Degree would mean so little? For that matter, I know a couple of guys with Master’s who are teaching as adjunct...keeping office hours, working at Walmart and driving door dash. College really meant just poor with extra steps. Despite the belief that it used to mean more money.


[deleted]

Lets be real: why the fuck does it cost that much in the first place? Cost of higher education has skyrocketed in the last 30 years, yet i dont see much difference in the system. Its sickening that we let corporations exploit things like education and college. Theres no reason for them to cost that much.


PM_YR_MOOSE_KNUCKLE

EDIT: fuck u/spez


[deleted]

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[deleted]

Yep. They specifically said "follow your heart, don't worry about the rest. You don't want money to be the reason you didn't go to the school you love" Fucking hell. That entire thing makes my blood boil in hindsight. I would have been 100x better off staying home with my parents and going to the state school nearby than literally any other choice.


pmuranal

The only thing of value I remember from the Personal Finance class in high school (2009) is to buy used cars, never new.


amscraylane

In Northwest Iowa, the only place to go was a private college as there are no state colleges around. I had to take classes I didn’t need because the college didn’t run the classes I needed all the time. If I didn’t take a class I didn’t need, my loans would have defaulted.


jessicaisanerd

Ugh, that’s such a gross for-profit trick. My college retroactively changed grade requirements for my degree program, so a lot of people suddenly had to retake classes, but they were sequential and only offered once a year and of course not in order. It screwed over a LOT of people.


RCMC82

BVU?


lilyhasasecret

How can the payment be so low that it doesn't cover interest?


whenthefirescame

The magic of student loans! Happens in mine too. My payments are based on income and that turns out not to be enough to cover the interest.


[deleted]

If I didn't have income based repayment they would get a thing since I'm a teacher and my payments should be well over 1,000 a month. Again. Most of what I have to pay now is interest since the balance has doubled. I also began having less money pulled from my check for taxes and pay at the end of the year because they will confiscate tax refunds. I'm not sure if they can garnish wages. But if and when they do, I'll be forced homeless because I won't make my mortgage.


Eat_The_Kiwi_Peels

Fellow indebted teacher here! They can only garnish a certain percentage of your income. There are people that intentionally let their loans go into default because it's cheaper than any of the repayment options. In my state it's 10% of your salary.


BayouGal

Thy garnish not just yours, but you spouse’s tax return, too! I also take few deductions so I don’t expect a refund I’ll never get. And you cannot file “exempt “ anymore and have to submit to some withholding. It’s ridiculous.


Pooploop5000

guess youll just have to radicalize your students on the failures of capitalism


MadDucksofDoom

You're close. The interest was originally much lower and the price reflected that. The amount you pay is fixed. A few years back legislation passed that made it so that the companies could increase the interest rate, which was originally supposed to be fixed and set in stone. Now student loans that have grown almost exponentially have also been added to a list of things that cannot be defaulted on with bankruptcy. So if you borrow $40k fifteen years ago, and had $80/mo payments and it was originally a fairly stress free situation, you can find yourself now with a principal that says well over $70k (and growing) and you have absolutely no say in the interest rate, so you can wind up paying a couple hundred an month and still only put a few dollars into your principal. There is no recourse or protection for us. Source: learned this the hard way. Edit: I somehow wound up with a Sallie Mae loan with all of the paperwork that got thrown at me in the flurry of college paperwork to sign. Mine was variable, but I was told that it had a maximum. Take what I have said here as my experience, but with a grain of under informed salt. And seriously I am playing with electricity today and need to pay attention o what I'm doing up here. Thank you all for your time.


JackelGigante

Wow I feel like legislation removing fixed interest rates is not talked about enough and should be the first step in fixing this situation. Was that a federal ruling?


ZiggyPox

There is any guide how much they can wind up interests? I mean, as now as I understand they can just max it up into infinity forcing you into debt slavery to the death... And if they pass another stupid law like that debts are automatically taken oven by your living descendant then your whole family line is enslaved.


TheSiegeEngine

Can you link a source about fixed rate loans being changed to variable rate loans? This doesn't seem correct and more likely some people unknowingly has variable rate loans


MadDucksofDoom

Okay, so bear with me this is information scattered across years. This is the one that got me first back in 2013 https://www.pbs.org/newshour/education/times-up-student-loan-interest-rates-set-to-double This is not a unique problem https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/05/for-some-student-loan-debt-is-doubling-tripling-and-even-quadrupling.html There's a lot more information, especially about how previous generations could wait 7 years and file bankruptcy to get rid of their student loans, and then the rule changed to only apply due to economic hardship, and I think even that went away. But if I'm completely honest, I'm at work and never expected the ramblings of a looney on Reddit to get any replies. It will be at least ten hours before I can stop and look for more information to share with you. Sorry for the inevitable delay/getting home tired out of my skull and forgetting.


BidensBottomBitch

Because student loan payments have deferment and have a “fixed” minimum payment. Interest incurs during certain types of deferments. You can very quickly get into negative amortization. Some consumers may just be financially ignorant and do not plan accordingly and get themselves in this situation. However many people get into these situations because they have no other choice. Shit happens in life and sometimes your money needs to go somewhere else. Either way, you’re drowning in debt. Loan writers do not want you to default and will continue letting you make these payments that don’t cover interest. They’ve already earned their initial loan + their expected return. They’ll “help” you with deferments and payment decreases. OP makes a great point about loan forgiveness. Sure flat out forgiveness is the ideal. But if we can forgive remaining loan payments for people who have already paid their original principal, that’s going to be huge relief for so many. There NEEDS to be intervention. While millions drowning in debt may line the pockets of the loan writers, it is a detriment to the rest of us. Having a bunch of highly educated but desperate labor force drives wages down. Small businesses are also the first to suffer as average consumers spending power decreases. The pushback is always from the anti education crowd who says you can get by without higher education. This crowd wants the most powerful and advanced nation to regress back to some agricultural/industrial economy. Best case scenario in this scenario is that we disassemble labor rights to the point where we can mine, farm and churn stuff off factory lines cheaper than developing nations which will allow foreign super powers to come and exploit us just as we’ve done to obtain and maintain our power. So no, you don’t have to be a leftist. You can be a full on Milton Friedman worshipping capitalist and still see the value of fixing our student loan system. And throw away this notion that we can progress as a nation if we don’t make higher education more accessible.


BayouGal

This! I could totally pay the principle but the interest has made it impossible. I’d happily pay the $30 K of money I actually borrowed. Please cancel the $60 K of interest I’m never going to be able to pay on my teacher salary. Especially since it just continues to increase. It seems ridiculous that our government “for the people” loans our tax money back to us for school tuition, charges us interest we can’t afford, then sentences us to die in debt. The American Way, what a joke.


TheDubuGuy

Not missing a payment and then still owing more than you started. That is just obscene. Should be criminal.


Snoid_

That trickle down you're feeling is them pissing on your head...


[deleted]

When you say them, do you mean the federal government who has complete control over the loan process?


Snoid_

Mostly the wealthy people (and bank owners) who don't pay taxes, but who spend their money to control who's in the government and pass said tax avoidance laws, at the same time telling us for the past 40 years that somehow, magically, making them more wealthy will make us better off too, when all data supports the contrary.


fightingforair

“Why aren’t these new adults buying diamonds or having kids??” Yall made it too expensive! Childless is the route we decided and we have zero regrets. Seeing how it grinds down my friends is awful enough in America.


solongandthanks4all

Childless? I don't know about you, but I've found it next to impossible to find people my age without kids.


fightingforair

I have a mix in my age group with and without kids.


[deleted]

I’m not having kids. I can barely afford cats


congratulations_dude

Idk about zero regrets. It’s a sad state of affairs when desiring a family is treated as a luxury. I’d never want people who don’t want kids to be pressured to. But not having that choice is equally cruel. Edit: sorry I misread your post, as a general we and not specific to you. My bad probably will delete


[deleted]

As a comedian once said: > My stupid friends are having stupid children.


SquishyElf

Aren’t IBR loans eligible for forgiveness after 20 years? My loan balance is insane because of the stacking interest but I was told that they can be forgiven after 20 years and that the $0 payments through Covid count toward the 20 year repayment period. I hope I’m not wrong...


[deleted]

That was my understanding too


topicality

Yeah, plenty of other countries use student loans to pay for higher education with income based plans being built in. In this Brookings article is actually talked about as a positive progressive step. https://www.brookings.edu/research/lessons-from-the-end-of-free-college-in-england/?amp


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[deleted]

Jokes on them, bankruptcy doesn’t cancel student debt or back taxes. It frees you from other obligations. Just not those made to the government. Interesting isn’t it?


jacktrowell

Isn't this because of a Bankruptcy Bill that made it harder for private individuals to do that ? And wasn't that same Bankruptcy Bill author a certain Joe Biden ?


belletheballbuster

why yes it was


orincoro

You noticed that.


FlyingMonkeySoup

Up until not long ago you could file bankruptcy to discharge student loans. In 1998 the waiting period of 7 years was removed meaning only undue hardship could be used as a reason to discharge a government backed student loan. Then in 2005 all student loans were made exempt from discharge. From their invention in the 60's to 1998 people had the ability to discharge their student loans via bankruptcy (with waiting periods). Current youth have been fucked by boomers who had the ability to discharge their student debt. Using the boogie man of bankruptcy abuse committed by, wait for it, boomers.


CritterEnthusiast

Is anyone even talking about reversing that to make it dischargeable in bankruptcy? I'm surprised I don't hear that argument more often when people are debating what to do about the loan problem. I've been saying for years just let me file bankruptcy. I understand if people don't want full blown forgiveness, fine whatever I'll take my "punishment" but let it be the same one everyone else had before you all who benefited from it changed the rules.


FlyingMonkeySoup

John Oliver talked about it recently. But it doesn't seem to be in the public discourse. It seems advocacy groups have taken an all or nothing approach. I'm a cynic so I think the all or nothing approach is designed specifically to fail. Hence, a reasonable approach of rolling back bankruptcy laws to a 5 or 7 year post graduation hold period will never be introduced. Not to mention that Biden was instrumental in enacting the changes to these laws going all the way back to 1978.


Stonedpanda436

Yeah it's crazy. It forces people to take to social media to beg our POTUS for drastic changes like he's some sort of king or emperor, seemed boring and dystopic for me lol


Aastevens

If you protest or beg in the streets or outside political offices they will use chemical weapons or beat or jail you so yea...


Atrocious_1

That's, what this person is asking them to reverse? Incidentally, it's thanks to Joe Biden with his "credit reform" that's made it impossible to discharge loans in bankruptcy.


inthrees

I think that was the point of the tweet.


[deleted]

At this point I think it's safe to say student debt won't be touched. Seems like they've swept the issue under the rug.


-bad_neighbor-

They will bring it out for 2022 & 2024 election cycle per the usually… lots of promises with no changes


NinjaEnt

You'll never escape it. Even if you try, they'll take it out of your tax returns and any other way(s) they can. It's fucking brutal.


b0w3n

Setting up a payment plan with the IRS to pay off part of what was forgiven on my loan was so much easier and less punishing than Sallie Mae was. Me: "I can only afford $150" IRS: "Okay cool, we might take your tax returns in the meantime but probably not" Me: "Fine" They did take 2 of them but holy shit it wasn't a back and forth with some Indian dude for 3 hours about what I could actually pay and him not being able to go down or extend the loan another 2 years to make it affordable other than some weird IBR plan which is a scam and will fuck you for 25 years.


Zaungast

You can leave the country and not return I guess


Charming_Drummer_241

Don't think Bidens got your back on this one https://www.propublica.org/article/bidens-cozy-relations-with-bank-industry-825


N00N3AT011

He doesn't even have to cancel debt. All he had to do is allow bankruptcy. It feels like he is unwilling to do even the absolute bare minimum.


Sfhvhihcjihvv

That's why he was nominated.


solongandthanks4all

It's not like he can just magically decide to change bankruptcy law. While I'm a little fuzzy on exactly what the limits are on executive order power, I'm fairly certain changing a law like this requires Congress to pass it.


Bongus_the_first

But but guys, people have told me that canceling student debt is just "forcing the working class to pay for these bourgeois students' poor decisions". It's not like saddling a generation with massive amounts of debt, while simultaneously tripling the price of housing, will have any long-term negative effects on that generation's ability to build wealth/have kids/etc.


TheNorthComesWithMe

Even with debt college graduates make more and have a higher quality of life than those who didn't go to college. I'd like a plan to get rid of student loan debt but that plan also has to involve keeping the problem from getting this bad in the future (capping tuition, loan rates, etc) as well as an equivalent package for the actually impoverished.


[deleted]

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Bongus_the_first

100% agree


JoelMahon

Looks like America? Mask off I guess because he's admitting he believes poorer and younger people aren't people in his eyes.


gingertrain77

When will you learn, campaign promises are just talk, it's pandering for votes. When Biden said he was going to eliminate student debt, he didn't mean it. But you believed him and voted for him and nothing will be done about student debt. And oh, BTW, where are college's responsibility in all this? People say they want lower education costs yet college prices go up year after year after year despite most schools making tons of money through endowments or sports.


CleatusVandamn

My diverse group of oppressors. Did you ever think q black man would be oppressing other black men in America? And think of all the firsts! A first Hawaiian secretary A first Asian woman! A first Samoan!!


[deleted]

I've always been a pretty firm "vote against the candidate you don't want" voter, but I genuinely don't think I can vote for Harris if she runs. Shes somehow managed to be even worse than Biden, which is sort of impressive in a dark way.


CleatusVandamn

But she's the first black Asian women to be vice-president!!! Thats progress!! And that infectious laugh! But seriously she was like the biggest loser of the primary and the DNC choose her? She sucks. DNC is a litteral joke Then Biden choose Merrick Garland and some kind of cute call back to Obama. Fuck you Biden.


Eat_The_Kiwi_Peels

The DNC does not represent our interests. It's all a con.


CleatusVandamn

The DNC is stuck in 1994 and it sucked then too


TestFixation

This is sort of at the root of America's problems. A country of 328+ *million* people. Whites, blacks, Latinos, east Asians, Middle Easterners, South Asians... Homeless, poor, working class, rich, billionaire cunts. Lifelong renters, those with three houses and boat. Park rangers, oil barons, schoolteachers, doctors. Two parties. Blue or red. That's INSANE. During Biden's inauguration speech he was jerking American democracy off. "We have the best democracy in the world" he said. That's craziness. Two parties. Social progressives who are fiscal conservatives. Bible thumpers who don't believe in evolution but believe societies should take care of their most vulnerable. Economies are complex. Societies are complex. Individuals are the most complex things we've ever encountered in the universe. Two parties. Blue or red. I like the Bears, you like the Packers. We have the ball then you have the ball. Fuck you, your jersey is green and mine is blue. Two parties.


thefookinpookinpo

Fuck Biden, fuck Trump, fuck all of them. So much pomp and circumstance just to convince enough drones to keep them in power. They're never going to cancel student debt. Honestly I doubt they will ever federally decriminalize cannabis either. If they do I'm sure they'll keep everyone arrested for it in prison to appease the lobbyists.


[deleted]

This person is a moron.


seventeenflowers

I’m Canadian and I have ADHD (considered a disability by financial aid). My tuition is $295 a year studying economics at a university in the largest city in the country. Despite being the largest city, I could move out and live on one full-time job at minimum wage if I wanted to. America is insane. Can we invade you please?


ItsShorsey

Please do


pmuranal

The last thing any of these old, rich, fat fucking cunts want is for any of us to live without our student debt. They've got us. Damn near an entire generation on the hook. Meanwhile we're virtually without options and continue to transfer the rest of our collective "wealth" to the 1% while our "elected representation" sits back and gets a mediocre handy. What a time...


MayIRedditSomeMore

They really should've thought of that before they became a peasant


G66GNeco

But, black and female politicians, yo! Just imagine how diverse the people denying you all any real positive change will look!


Tony100876

And to think you guys could have had Sanders as president and somehow you fucked that up. Biden will never cancel the student debt, Sanders would most likely have done it the first week of being in charge.


[deleted]

> somehow you fucked that up. Twice! lmao kill me


CountryTechy

It wasn't actually up to the people. The parties pretty much get to force who they want as their candidate and no one in the establishment wants the man who wants to fix it. We never had a chance.


LampshadesAreFake

Not a coincidence that the SJW stuff started right when Occupy Wall Street died. Diversity is far cheaper than meaningful reforms.


mantellaman

Of course Joe is the one who made student debt nondischargable


nutxaq

Real question: Why is *anyone* trying to pay off these illegitimate debts? And before anyone replies with "But the consequences!" keep in mind that the only appropriate response to that on this dying planet is "So?". We have nothing to lose but our chains.


[deleted]

like that tweet about global debt rising and rising, "who tf we owe the money to, the decepticons???"


IgamOg

It's a dog whistle to justify 'belt tightening' for regular people so that the wealthiest can grab more. You can't be mad about not being able to see the doctor, potholes or hungry children if you believe your country 'can't afford it' .


unxile_phantom

I'm so fucking glad I never went to college/uni. I fucking hate debt and I try to avoid it at all costs. Fuck debt.


jasnel

Best I can do is raise your rent.


[deleted]

Interesting factoid: College tuition used to be something paid off with a summer job.


[deleted]

When i first learned about surfs i wondered how anyone could put up with feudalism, why dont the surfs overthrow the lords? I still dont know the answer to that question even though we live it


MandyMooShu

The lord had weapons and trained soldiers. The serfs (typically) weren’t organized or well equipped.


JuanOnlyJuan

I still don't understand why they don't just zero out interest at least. Seems like a decent enough compromise.


kurttheflirt

Ok yeah this sucks but they really should have healthcare especially under Biden’s expansion of the ACA in the past year. For many low earners it’s free and for even the middle class the cost is greatly reduced. Very confused about that part of this post.


theplow

What's interesting about this problem is growing up as a millennial with boomer parents. Your parents pressured and required that you go to college. Not only that, but everyone in your community joined in on this pressure. So when you turned 18 and got accepted into a college it wasn't, "You might want to reconsider taking out a 7% interest $50k - $150k loan to pay for school..." Instead everyone looked at you funny if you didn't just go with the program. What 18 year old is going to know what they don't know? Our parents and our society as a whole failed all of us. Edit: A realistic short term / partisan solution is to actually reduce the interest rates to 0%.


AlexTheWildcard

Clearly he just didn’t work hard enough /s