3 ms·
Student loan forgiveness may be a handout to a certain sector but it's a way to shape the economy. The problem the US has is vastly expanded educational sector
by joe_the_user 5y ago
Student loan forgiveness may be a handout to a certain sector but it's a way to shape the economy. The problem the US has is vastly expanded educational sector that's also, uh, crap. A more rigorous but less inflated system would be appropriate. But how you get that is hard to see.
The thing is, you have huge sectors; education, public transit, health care etc, that would be reasonable to improve but where privatization based capital investment have resulted in huge, costly and, well, shitty systems.
The only way out is removing a huge group of corrupt operators at the heart of each of these sectors. I don't know what hope there is of this tbh.
- eru 5y agoYes, student loan forgiveness would bloat the education sector even more. You could shrink the education sector by removing subsidies and tax discounts for it. (Of course, that's politically hard to do.) > The thing is, you have huge sectors; education, public transit, health care etc, that would be reasonable to improve but where privatization based capital investment have resulted in huge, costly and, well, shitty systems. I'm not so sure. Eg talk to any 'right-thinking' Brit and they will tell you how horrible British Rail privatisation was. Then compare the graphs in https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impact_of_the_privatisation_of_British_Rail https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impact_of_the_privatisation_... See also https://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/SurfaceFreightTransportationDeregulation.html https://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/SurfaceFreightTransporta... and https://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/AirlineDeregulation.html https://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/AirlineDeregulation.html Or look into the recent-ish success of German legalising long distance bus travel.
- mistrial9 5y ago> student loan forgiveness would bloat the education sector even more this is remarkably one-sided
- eru 5y agoHow so? If you replace the slightly loaded term 'bloat', you would get something fairly unobjectionable: 'Forgiving loans people take out for an activity, would lead to more of that activity.' Or what do you mean?
- Nevermark 5y agoI agree with your sentiment. I would fine tune the wording too: 'Forgiving loans people take out for an activity, would lead to more demand and greater price appreciation of that activity.' I think the great harm was disconnecting students from the immediate consequences of their educational spending with easy to get loans. That economic disconnect has made it ever easier for schools to charge more for less actual value. Whether in poorly directed education (exceptional education in areas with poor career potential), or simply over priced (top heavy admins, and other overhead or expenses beyond providing actual education).
- eru 5y agoWhat do you mean by 'appreciation'?
- Nevermark 5y agoPrice increases. Easy student loans remove a lot of pressure from qualified education providers for keeping their prices/expenses down.
- eru 5y agoThanks. I wasn't quite sure whether increase in price was meant, or some kind of moral appreciation.
- acoard 5y agoAppreciation means it would increase (i.e. appreciate). Price appreciation = it will cost more. Essentially saying if you give people a bunch of money for X, the going rate of X will increase as that's how supply and demand work.