• MeetInPotatoes@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      Today’s phrase is “garnish your wages.” If their protest doesn’t involve moving to another country it’s not going to happen. I’ve thought about it too, but my contingency,for that definitely involves moving to Scandinavia.

      • bobs_monkey@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        Ah bullshit. Civil rights weren’t achieved by threatening to leave and not be the oppressor’s problem anymore, they were achieved by standing ones ground damned the consequences. No one wants to be a martyr, but that’s how battles are unfortunately won, especially against today’s brand of fascists.

        • ineedaunion @lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          More of this. It’s time for mass protests instead of complaining and then working a 9 to 5 and browsing Instagram.

  • Sterile_Technique@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Wouldn’t our wages just get garnished or shit repo’d or something? I’m 100% for forgiveness cuz fuck that predatory shit, but this route seems like a guarantee to just exacerbate harm to the borrowers.

  • Fraylor@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    I’m just confused as to why it’s all fine and dandy that PPP loans were all forgiven regardless of the corrupt practices used for disbursement, but student loans, which impact the economy as a whole far more than PPP ever will, is a must repay.

    • Cleverdawny@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Because Republicans will fight so that the rich can get richer by getting handed free money, and Republican will fight so that the working class has to pay back every cent.

      • holland@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        Please remember that the Dems are doing this too. Neither party is our friend here.

        • Cleverdawny@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          The opposite is the truth. If Republicans were as supportive of student debt reform as Democrats were, we would have a major reform bill of some form passed and signed. Maybe it wouldn’t be cancellation, but interest free student loans would probably be a thing.

          Democrats may disagree and aren’t universally behind cancellation, but didn’t have enough votes by themselves anyways to make anything happen. Biden tried to enact his personal proposal through executive order, but that got shut down by Republican justices.

          So. No. It’s not a both parties thing. It’s one sided. And if you aren’t willing to tell the truth about that, then I have to wonder about your motivations and what you seek to do.

          • holland@lemmy.ml
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            1 year ago

            Dems aren’t your friends but the GOP is fascist and we don’t vote for fascists ever. So slag off with the slander.

            You can work with people who aren’t your friends towards some goals. You can’t ever work with fascists who want you dead.

    • Chriskmee@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Well one big difference is that PPP loans were a one time thing, they are gone now and not coming back for a very long time.

      If you paid off all student loans today, there would be more tomorrow, and every day after that. If we do it once, we basically have to keep doing it until school is completely paid for and student loans are no longer a thing.

      Forgiving student loans just has a much bigger and longer lasting financial obligation than one time PPP loans.

      • Fraylor@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        It didn’t seem to be an issue when previous generations went to college essentially for free.

        • nednobbins@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          The problem is that we never bothered to create a system where free education would actually work.

          Producers always like to sell their goods for as much as they can get. Normally, a consumer looks at a product, decides if it’s worth the price and then either buys it or doesn’t. If prices are too high, producers are forced to lower them to stay in business.

          The current system essentially created a 3 way business transaction that guarantees runaway education costs.

          The universities provide a service. It’s really hard to determine the value of that service since there isn’t a liquid market for “an education” or “a Harvard degree” that you can easily look up.

          The government then says they’ll cover a percentage of that cost. This is a bit tricky. A normal subsidy is effectively a paying a fraction of the cost. Once you introduce loan forgiveness, either as a frequent or guaranteed event, that fraction effectively goes to 100%.

          The student is getting a degree of unknown value but since they don’t have to pay (at least not the whole thing) they’ll just agree to the purchase, even if they don’t personally think the good is worth as much as the provider is charging. There’s no reason to if someone is picking up the bill.

          The universities see that their price elasticity of demand (how much their sales suffer when they overcharge) is essentially 0. That means they can raise them with impunity. The end result is that Universities can essentially help themselves to large government grants without any requirement to show the public how we benefit from those grants.

          If we consider education to be a public good then we should treat it as such. That would mean that we cancel the student loan program, get rid of tax subsidies for educational institutions and just have the federal government create a competing educational system. Take the money we’re spending on outsourcing education to the private sector and add to it. For the system to work it would need to attract top tier professors and that means good research facilities and salaries. It’s not a complicated idea but it would be a massive undertaking.

          As a bonus we’d get some great initialisms. The federal universities would obviously be the FU system. State campuses might have names like FUNY and FUCA.

          And yes, the point of such a system is that it would be paid entirely by taxes and would be free to students.

  • Confused_Emus@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I’m considering not paying as long as they’re doing the “ease you back into it” stuff like not reporting to credit agencies or garnishing wages. Seems essentially like a forbearance without the interest freeze. It really just depends on what my new payments end up being. But until that dog gets its teeth back, Nelnet can have what’s left after I pay my actual bills and buy my weed.

  • Worstdriver@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    "And with enough evaders,

    Escaping from the game,

    The rule becomes an empty shell

    That rules in only name…"

    • Leslie Fish, “Zero Game”
  • bauhaus@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    I’m really glad I’m not going through this now, but I would boycott if I were. I fully support these people and hope to goodness they get the relief they need!

  • SeaJ@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    Boycotting only works when there is a noticeable financial hit to the producer. The federal government is not going to notice this. This can be good for campaigning though. Tell people that the reason they are not getting some forgiveness is because Republicans are doing everything they can to block it. Send out some flyers to everyone who has a federal student loan with a list of every Republican official who has had a PPP loan forgiven.

  • unaredon@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Not from America so please someone explain to me, I read Biden wanted to forgive student loans but somehow it didn’t get through. Sure it would be much better if the loan is forgiven, but now it is not, shouldn’t you still pay back what is owned? They really think they can just not pay and expect no consequences?

    • doggle@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Of course everyone involved knows they will face consequences, but they may feel those consequences are better than the payments. Courts can’t garnish paychecks that don’t exist and a ruined credit rating only matters if you were ever going to be able to afford to buy a house or car in the first place. Afaik actual jail time isn’t really a thing for defaulting on a loan. If the only leverage the government has to get people to pay the loan is to threaten their future financial security, then anyone who thinks the initial promises of security is bogus has nothing to lose.

      There’s also some people who are willing to take the hit just to send a political message.

      That said, I suspect nowhere near 62% of borrowers will actually meaningfully boycott in any way.

    • Sl00k@programming.dev
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      1 year ago

      These loans are out right predatory. I was offered a 12% interest rate 7 years ago and have friends who’ve been offered 16%!!!

      Yes you can say just don’t sign it, but we’re 17 years old we can’t comprehend how much affect a 16% interest rate will have on you in 8 years and you’ve been told all your life college is the goto life path and you have to do this to get a “good job” and live a good life.

      I agree we should payback the money we loaned, but taking advantage of genz via predatory loans for wanting a higher education is downright criminal in itself.

      Adding onto this a lot of us will struggle to make these payments. I have 20k in loans and I haven’t paid a dime on EVER. Now I suddenly have a second car payment out of nowhere!

    • Riyria@sopuli.xyz
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      1 year ago

      They will take your house. As someone else said, with student loans there is no collateral. With a mortgage, your home is collateral, so you will forfeit it.

        • Riyria@sopuli.xyz
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          1 year ago

          No, your income isn’t collateral. Garnishment is sought because there is no collateral to claim. Collateral is explicitly put up to guarantee a loan.

    • doggle@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Bad move; the house is collateral. The bank can’t foreclose on an education, they definitely can take the house.