I worked full time and worked a second job on Saturdays to pay $150K for two kids. My daughter graduated Rutgers after 4 year’s and I paid 100% of her tuition ($75K). I made her a deal, she could live at school and pay the difference (nearly $50k) or commute and have 100% of her tuition paid, she chose the latter. My son graduated Rutgers and commuted as well, but he changed his major which forced him to attend school an additional year. He has a $30K student loan and doesn’t qualify for Biden’s tuition relief program. Both kids were gainfully employed 4 months (daughter) and 7 month (son) after graduating. Both have salaries in the mid $60’s.
As a single parent it wasn’t easy for me. I really had to lean on both kids. Today my daughter is grateful and completely understands why I was so rigid. Today she’s looking to buy her first home (Townhouse). My son not so much, he’s renting and struggling. He’s bitter and upset and kind of blames me for his financial situation.
Wow! Single parent and pulling that off is nothing short of amazing. Both kids need to be incredibly appreciative of what you did for their future. How do you feel about these billions in loan forgiveness though?
You worked your tail off to provide these opportunities for your kids and now you and your kids are going to be paying for someone else's kids to have their loans all forgiven through higher taxes and government debt. That's my main issue with this. It's like Robinhood in reverse. The ones getting billions stolen from them on average have a lower remaining career income potential (those who did not attend college, those who already paid for their college, those who already paid for their kids' college, those who served in the military to earn college tuition money, retirees, kids who have yet to go to college and have no guarantee theirs will get forgiven, parents of kids who have yet to go to college, etc.) than those to which the government is giving those billions (college grads with significant earning years and higher than average income potential). It really is Robinhood in reverse here stealing from the (on average more) poor and giving it to the (on average more) rich.
The other issue I have with this buy a vote scheme is that it drives up education inflation even further. Why would institutions of higher learning curb costs when the government is paying for it? This is incentive to increase college costs.
I don't disagree that college costs are too high after decades of college tuition inflation nearly doubling actual inflation. I simply believe that the solution is not to further encourage education inflation but rather to hold the institutions accountable for the ROI. If the institutions' ROI in a major is not above a reasonable threshold that gives the average graduate a reasonable opportunity to pay off their loans in a reasonable period with a reasonable percentage of their income, then the institutions need to be on the hook for paying off the loans. Very quickly we will get education inflation under control and an offering of the right degrees in the right proportions (student counts) to meet job market needs. And that doesn't have to be political. It doesn't have to be an obvious attempt to buy votes from a group of people especially when there is a much higher percent of people who are actually harmed by the vote buying scheme.
“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the majority discovers it can vote itself largess out of the public treasury. After that, the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits with the result the democracy collapses because of the loose fiscal policy ensuing, always to be followed by a dictatorship, then a monarchy."
it’s like the don’t even care to get the best kids anymore, just who is willing to pay full price