This is, in essence, transferring the debt from people who graduated college to people who - on average - did not go to college. The most regressive invisible tax hike we have ever had but sure. . . yay.
This is, in essence, transferring the debt from people who own businesses to people who - on average - do not own businesses. The _actual_ most regressive invisible tax hike we have ever had but sure. . . yay.
That's a good thing.
Isn't getting their labour for free (well, paid for by the taxpayer) pretty much the same as company owners just being handed that 87k? It's money the company didn't have to spend on wages. Were your employees not able to work? (Not intended as criticism - more of an observation. I don't know the real situation etc).
However because of covid cash flow issues, I would have had to fire half of my employees without the loan and the payback. That would have sucked for all of us.
Frankly, as I see it, the PPP program was better than the alternatives as my employees didn't wind up on unemploymet.
In one way the PPP is a bad idea as it doesn't let the market correct itself as well as it might - perhaps my company is too fragile. However, we then to not like to see people starving and losing their homes. Clutters up the sidewalks.
Sadly we’ve also heard a lot of stories of complete misuse and outright fraudulent use of PPP loans. I’m paying for those unless the government gets that money back (after spending hundreds of thousands in legal fees). Whereas as far as I know student loans can’t be misused, at least not to the extent that many PPP loans were.
I am just pointing out that there is no forgiveness, the education expenses incurred by college graduates is now being paid by blue collar workers, and its the most regressive tax we have ever had. That doesn't mean I am against it.
I just want folks to know that the person paying your college off is a guy who wishes he could have gone to college.
We collectively invest in a large number of things that may not directly benefit us. My tax dollars fund programs that primarily benefit people that need the money due to choices I personally never would have made.
But that’s the point of a social system.
The moment that collective investment is about education or healthcare, people seem to apply an entirely different ruleset.
I an all for investing in education. This is not that.
Income of mid-career is 111,000 (college) vs 43,000 (HS) [2]
Lifetime increase in earnings is estimated 800,000, paying taxes the whole time.
So I think the commenter calling this a one time tax deduction is closer to reality than a "regressive tax". Probably less regressive than the 401Ks many college grads have vs HS.
[1] https://money.com/wage-gap-college-high-school-grads/ [2] https://www.cbsnews.com/news/how-many-of-us-are-college-grad...
Taxes are paid on income, not on people.
There's an easy solution to fix this - tax the rich or super-rich more.
That would only be true if everyone paid the same amount of taxes. We don't. College graduates pay significantly more taxes than non-college graduates.
This is largely a wealth transfer from the haves-college graduates to the have-nots college graduates. I'm not sure how you've missed the mark so wildly.
[0] https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/shut-up-about-harvard/
One correction: Student loan debt is incurred regardless of whether the debtors graduated and received a degree.
We're willing to spend all this money unnecessarily on businesses but when it comes to supporting students all of a sudden - its too much and we have to draw the line!
I'd much rather see individuals paid directly than go through businesses and hope they are benevolent enough to use it on their employees.
And if this is a tax hike, then where has the 5-15% APR on many of those loans been going this whole time?
This is transferring debt people willingly took on to get a college degree, to people who did not go to college.
Look, I am not trying to be rude and I am trying to be gentle when I ask this: Where do you think the 'assistance' the government is going to provide comes from?
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/18/61percent-of-americans-paid-...
> Look, I am not trying to be rude and I am trying to be gentle when I ask this: Where do you think the 'assistance' the government is going to provide comes from?
The wealthy and high earners? I pay substantial federal income tax, and I’m not too bent out of shape about this. I’m more concerned about waste going forward, not financial relief for my fellow citizen. The need for this debt would’ve never existed if state and federal funding for higher education had not slowly been withdrawn leaving students primarily to shoulder the cost burden (although I’m mindful of unchecked college spending and the need for cost controls due to the inelastic demand).
https://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/paying-for-co...
It's also naive to think that relieving debt from the middle class won't benefit the economy in some way. America's middle class goes to college. It's hard to argue that consumers having more money to spend won't drive economic growth.
Like college debt, it was taken on willingly and its hard to argue that consumers having more money to spend won't drive economic growth.
Student loan debt is taken on by literal children with no credit with the promise of a good job and cannot be escaped under really any circumstances. Saying "well you just shouldn't have gone to college" is blaming kids for decisions their parents ultimately made.