The butthurt responses to this post are indicative of media brainwashing. Forgiving student loans is seen as bad because it helps the little guy while Obama can give free money to the banks that caused the 08 crash and be praised as saving the economy for it.
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Yeah, no. It's not media brainwashing that has shown me the issue isn't who gave how much to solve a financial crisis that wouldn't have to exist if the media weren't telling us we have to go to school, get a high paying job and own a big house. A local band said it best, "Get good grades, get good jobs, get good money... isn't that funny." If people stopped listening to the media and marketing and were contented to do what made THEM happy we wouldn't be in this kind of a mess. People already spend way too much time off-loading responsibility, it's time people took it back. I'm all for helping out the little guy, but instead of asking the government to do it, why not get a group of people together and start a fund at commonchange.com and help educate people that the reason they are in debt is because they were told they needed to go that deep in the hole, and they listened. I can't claim to have all the answers, but individual and national debt keeps getting worse and worse. When big companies get bailed out they don't use the money to help anyone but themselves, but digging the national debt deeper is not going to preserve the future for the next generation or any of those after it.
I don't think you're understanding the angle I'm coming from. I don't disagree that the amount of student debt is disgusting, I just don't believe having the government buy up all the student loan debt and forgiving the debtors will fix anything. The mindset of a debt-driven society won't have changed.
But if the mindset isn't changed then this economic fix would last about 6 months at best. Then instead of it being student debt it would be housing/automotive/credit card debt. The society we live in is so enamored with the idea of going to college because it will help us get the "good life", and that would carry on even if existing debt was wiped out, it would just move somewhere else. Without changing the mindset, what happens to the next group of people that decide to take on the debt of going to college?
I'm now anxious to pay off my debts (student, auto and credit card) because my mindset has changed. Instead of wanting to get rid of my debt to have more money to spend, I want to get rid of my debt so I'm not a slave to the system. I don't like having to leave the house in the morning just as my sons are waking up, driving fourty-five minutes, getting home a half hour before my sons go to bed five days a week just so we have enough money to survive and keep collectors at bay.
If we ask the government to pay existing student loan debt, debtors won't be able to just walk away, there will be some kind of chain attached to their ankles whether they see it or not.
The government shouldn't have to pay for ANYTHING to bailout debts. Of course, it DOES bear responsibility because it encourages going into debt rather than saving, but that's a whole other story...
And since you're into number: healthcare services and social security take up to 49% of the federal budget - defense is at 32%