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> Make student loans dischargeable in bankruptcy again. I would like to see the author back this up with more considerations. Bankruptcy disappears from all c

> Make student loans dischargeable in bankruptcy again. I would like to see the author back this up with more considerations. Bankruptcy disappears from all credit reports after seven years. The average age of first time home buyers is 35. So if a new grad’s credit is trashed from the age of 23-30, it makes no difference to them - they are not planning on using credit for anything substantial anyways. What is going to stop every single student from declaring bankruptcy immediately after graduation?

hypeatei 2y ago
> What is going to stop every single student from declaring bankruptcy immediately after graduation? The long and arduous process of going through bankruptcy proceedings. Have you or do you know someone who has gone through that? It's not fun nor is it a guaranteed ticket out of your debt.
Cerium 2y ago
I would rather see us switch to an income based repayment schedule with discharge at 30 years, seems fair to the student and society.
- imtringued 2y ago
  Yeah just make it dischargeable after X years. It would be fair even to current holders of student loans.
- freshtake 2y ago
  This exists to an extent today. If you apply your profession to an area that the government deems a societal good (e.g. you work at a public university), it can be discharged after 10 years. This was status quo for decades.
imtringued 2y ago
What's going to stop young people from declaring bankruptcy immediately after doing anything?
mezzie2 2y ago
I feel like allowing bankruptcy in certain situations would make sense. For example, I took out undergraduate and graduate loans to train for a career that, due to a freak health event (I got MS) in my last semester of grad school, I couldn't actually do. Currently, the disability discharge works in a way where if you can do any work at all you're on the hook for the full amount. So someone who went to school to become an actuary/doctor/lawyer/etc, suffered a severe head injury and afterwards can only work a retail or fast food job is still on the hook for all their loans and has to pay them off on poverty wages. Another case is people for whom the economic landscape changed so drastically so quickly that the decisions they made when entering school might not be relevant when they leave school. Think people who started undergrad in 2005/2006/2007 - they might have made perfectly reasonable decisions about what college to go to and how much debt to take out based on expected future return, and then that return tanked while they were in school + there were several years of scraping by during which interest accumulated due to no fault of their own.
- pixodaros 2y ago
  Think of people who started a Computer Science degree in 2019 or 2020 (yes, individuals can maximize their chances of getting a software development job after university, but as a collective many of them will have to do something else for the foreseeable future).
  - mezzie2 2y ago
    Yeah, I'd consider the COVID kids to be in a similar boat to those of us who were in college for the GFC. The only reason interest rates were raised as suddenly and drastically as they were is because of COVID, which is a freak event. (Albeit one we should have been planning for as a country.) There are ways to get student loans discharged in bankruptcy now, and one of the criteria that can be used is essentially that you were sold a bait and switch. (e.g. if the school majorly misrepresented what graduates from certain majors earned) I'd argue that there are cohorts who had that happen on essentially a societal scale, and we should modify the existing legal principle to include deception by the government/industry and not just by educational institutions. I also think there might be societal stability benefits to this - one of the biggest black pills I've ever encountered was that in the GFC, people could lose their houses/go bankrupt and be allowed to start over even if they took out a NINJA mortgage, that the mortgage brokers/sellers individually saw no punishment, and almost all the high up people who caused/exacerbated the issues got off scot free or were eligible for new starts. If an adult in their 30s-50s makes a bad choice, we have to bail them out or help or not hold them accountable? But the kids who made bad decisions at 17 should be held to them for life? It was just a clear case of shitting on people without the power to push back that it made me revile a lot of American 'values'.
downrightmike 2y ago
At this point, all students should on principals alone default and bankrupt. The system is rigged and is actively hurting people.

hypeatei 2y ago

> What is going to stop every single student from declaring bankruptcy immediately after graduation? The long and arduous process of going through bankruptcy proceedings. Have you or do you know someone who has gone through that? It's not fun nor is it a guaranteed ticket out of your debt.

Cerium 2y ago

I would rather see us switch to an income based repayment schedule with discharge at 30 years, seems fair to the student and society.

imtringued 2y ago
Yeah just make it dischargeable after X years. It would be fair even to current holders of student loans.
freshtake 2y ago
This exists to an extent today. If you apply your profession to an area that the government deems a societal good (e.g. you work at a public university), it can be discharged after 10 years. This was status quo for decades.

imtringued 2y ago

What's going to stop young people from declaring bankruptcy immediately after doing anything?

mezzie2 2y ago

I feel like allowing bankruptcy in certain situations would make sense. For example, I took out undergraduate and graduate loans to train for a career that, due to a freak health event (I got MS) in my last semester of grad school, I couldn't actually do. Currently, the disability discharge works in a way where if you can do any work at all you're on the hook for the full amount. So someone who went to school to become an actuary/doctor/lawyer/etc, suffered a severe head injury and afterwards can only work a retail or fast food job is still on the hook for all their loans and has to pay them off on poverty wages. Another case is people for whom the economic landscape changed so drastically so quickly that the decisions they made when entering school might not be relevant when they leave school. Think people who started undergrad in 2005/2006/2007 - they might have made perfectly reasonable decisions about what college to go to and how much debt to take out based on expected future return, and then that return tanked while they were in school + there were several years of scraping by during which interest accumulated due to no fault of their own.

pixodaros 2y ago
Think of people who started a Computer Science degree in 2019 or 2020 (yes, individuals can maximize their chances of getting a software development job after university, but as a collective many of them will have to do something else for the foreseeable future).
- mezzie2 2y ago
  Yeah, I'd consider the COVID kids to be in a similar boat to those of us who were in college for the GFC. The only reason interest rates were raised as suddenly and drastically as they were is because of COVID, which is a freak event. (Albeit one we should have been planning for as a country.) There are ways to get student loans discharged in bankruptcy now, and one of the criteria that can be used is essentially that you were sold a bait and switch. (e.g. if the school majorly misrepresented what graduates from certain majors earned) I'd argue that there are cohorts who had that happen on essentially a societal scale, and we should modify the existing legal principle to include deception by the government/industry and not just by educational institutions. I also think there might be societal stability benefits to this - one of the biggest black pills I've ever encountered was that in the GFC, people could lose their houses/go bankrupt and be allowed to start over even if they took out a NINJA mortgage, that the mortgage brokers/sellers individually saw no punishment, and almost all the high up people who caused/exacerbated the issues got off scot free or were eligible for new starts. If an adult in their 30s-50s makes a bad choice, we have to bail them out or help or not hold them accountable? But the kids who made bad decisions at 17 should be held to them for life? It was just a clear case of shitting on people without the power to push back that it made me revile a lot of American 'values'.

downrightmike 2y ago

At this point, all students should on principals alone default and bankrupt. The system is rigged and is actively hurting people.