IT’S NOT ABOUT EDUCATION, BUT VOTES

(01/10/23) – The Biden administration just announced that it is looking to rework the federal Student Loan process and payment options. They have been trying to simply “forgive” the loans for huge numbers of people, but have rightly been blocked and challenged in court since they simply do not have the authority to do that.

Their latest plans would see a major overhaul to income-driven repayment plans — one of several payment options offered by the federal government. The resulting plan would have lower monthly payments, an easier path to forgiveness and a promise that unpaid interest will not be added to a borrower’s loan balance.

Currently the federal government offers four types of income-driven plans, but the proposal would mostly phase out three of them while focusing on one simplified option, scaling back the “confusing array of options” borrowers now face. But frankly if determining which of only four options best fits your situation is too difficult, I would present that maybe college isn’t for you anyways. And getting loans for homes, cars, home appliances, and all sorts of other things, have a wide range in options based on what those offering the loans are willing to do and what YOUR situation is. This is how it all works. Trying to dumb it down for education is quite silly in my view. But in reality, these loans are not being used for education, but for VOTES. They have become a political issue, not an educational matter.

As for loan interest.

If a loan has interest, it MUST be added to the loan balance; that’s simply how loans work; UNLESS they are interest free loans. And if the federal government wants to make all their loans “interest free” then that is a conversation we can have. But if no interest is involved than there must be a FEE for these loans, which the borrower pays, since these loans are “serviced” by third parties.

It appears that the Biden Administration and the Departments they control simply don’t understand, or CARE, about how things really work. And we see this across the entire government, not just in this situation.

Education Department officials are calling the new plan a “student loan safety net” that will prevent borrowers from getting overloaded with debt.

“Student debt has become a dream killer,” Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said. “This is a promise to the American people that, at long last, we will fix a broken system and make student loans affordable.”

But my view is much different. First of all, stop issuing all these loans. If the education they are paying for is worth the money, then the private sector will be more than willing to offer the loans, just like with any purchase and loan program.

The second part is the whole “dream” aspect. We need to stop selling the dream, and start promoting goals and plans that make sense. But this problem is seen across almost every social landscape today. The dream. The hopes. The wishes. The feelings. And all of these are placed above reality and in levels that create the very predictable outcomes, and NON-OUTCOMES.

The American Dream was not simply “to be rich”. It was not the end result without all the steps that are needed to GET there. The American Dream was to be able to WORK HARD, and to put in mental and sweat equity to achieve our GOALS. The “dream” was the process, not simply the final result.

But back to the whole federal student loan matter.

The plans also address monthly payments and percentages of income of the borrowers, and on and on. But these too are simple and standard loan agreement issues. And these are normally looked at BEFORE the loan is given, not adjusted and figured out AFTER the person gets the item they are borrowing for. I fully understand the “speculation” aspect involved in student loans, but that should be factored in before signing; and it is NOT. The “dream” is factored in, but not REALITY. Oh yes, that pesky little bug that gets in the way so often now days.

It’s a mess. And as I stated, NONE of it hinges on actual education. If it did, the government would not be involved in the first place; since we all know what degrees are actually worth and the fields they are applied to actually pay. The free market, and financial institutions would offer the loans (as they actually still do) and it would be based on REALITY, not some “dream” that falls flat time and again because it lacks that reality.

But like I said, it really isn’t about education anyways. It is about VOTES; and uses taxpayer money to buy them. It is YOU that takes the risk, and takes the hit when these games are played; both financially and politically. Government needs to be removed from this process, as well as many others.

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