This was big in the news today where apparently in the US there is going to be a plan to help students wipe out their debt. Apparently, people with federal student loans who make under $125,000 a year will get a $10,000 debt and people on Pell Grants will receive up to $25,000. That is great for people who have student debt. That there lies the controversy where people are also expressing how that is unfair to those who did the financially responsible thing such as saving up to pay for their student loans. So the argument there would be do they get money back as well?
In hearing all the argument online, ultimately I don’t see how it is fair for those paid everything off with the circumstances. I personally never had student loan debt as I treated it like a credit card where if I can’t afford to pay it off then I either have to find a way to make more money before committing financially or I will have to look for alternative routes that will cost less money but hopefully achieving the same results.
I just can’t see most people being okay with it if it was in other topics such as getting a mortgage for a home or a loan for a car. Example, imagine someone deciding to get a luxury car where they go into debt and ultimately they get free money to help pay it off. This is versus someone who got the bare minimum that they can afford and will get nothing. I don’t know many people who would be happy about that. Especially if in the end people will be paying for it through say higher taxes.
Would there have been a better way? Imagine it from a business perspective such as if you are a retail. You find out that people are going into debt trying to pay off loans for say a computer that they needed for school and work where the corporate decision is now to give everyone who hasn’t paid off their bills a $1000 credit or something like that towards their amount owing. Can you imagine that sitting well for most people? I’m not really sure what a company could do that the mass would be considered fair. You can’t ever make everyone happy of course.