Any debt forgiveness in the first world is essentially a transfer of wealth, and it forgives everyone who very well could have paid, but hung out to get it forgiven. I took out a loan and it took me years to pay it off, why can’t others do the same.
My question for you is do you want a stronger country?
Or, just a stronger you?
As a country are we just a bunch of people out for themselves, or are we a community?
I am a firm believer that the more Americans who are doing well in life, the better off we all are. The more Americans who are secure financially the better off we all are. The more Americans who can afford additional services and products the better off we all are. The more Americans who have a little bit of financial freedom to start a company and create jobs for other Americans the better off we all are. Repeat, repeat, repeat.
A little selfishness is good, but too much and everyone starts to view everyone as competition and "success" as a zero sum game. I want the kid down the street from me to be doing as well as my kid.
What do you think?
If Biden wants to solve the problem (and he should), then he needs to address why college tuition has been going up at much faster than inflation for years. Professors are not making any more (perhaps less, if non tenure track professors are more of them?). Government is spending less, but not that much less. So where is the money going that causes tuition to go so high. I don't have answers, that is a hard problem, but it needs to ben confronted. There is no reason why a class of 20 working fast food wages cannot with careful living pay a professor their wages as a part time student. The math works out, so why is tuition so high?
Teaching personal responsibility is like parenting, it is about the thousands of actions and needing to get it right ~70% of the time. And, that mostly relies on parents, role models, and culture.
The government forgiving debt one time isn't going to cause to hurt personal responsibility. It is a small gift to try to fix a system that is super broken. And, it might be the only thing politically possible at this time (which sucks).
When I graduated I had ~$40k in debt, if $10k of that would have been forgiven I would have cried because it would have helped me so much. It also wouldn't have changed the incredible lengths I went to paying that off as fast as possible. It also wouldn't have caused me to make more financial mistakes during school that got me to that point. I did as well as I could have with my 17 to 23 year old lizard brain.
IMO I think it is a stupid move, because like you said it is unlikely to fix a broken system. I'd rather we spend the money to boost unemployment or give everyone making under $25k a year a lump sum. Both those would have a better effect on the short term economy to coast us through the current situation...
I'd love for my tax dollars to go to help people be better off financially because that is good for society/country/economy. I'd love for my tax dollars to go toward the IRS as they are super understaffed. I'd love for my tax dollars to go toward subsidizing college and getting costs lower. I'd love for my tax dollars to go toward helping people who are unemployed.
Do you get mad that you pay into car insurance and never crash?
Gov = insurance, just because you don't use every program isn't a bad thing. If your kid needs it one day it will be for them.
I just don't get this super selfish thing. I want a stronger culture/society/economy/country.
Money going directly to people is good.