Results 1 to 15 of 15

Thread: A Modest Proposal: Make Universities Pay for Student Debt Forgiveness

  1. #1

    A Modest Proposal: Make Universities Pay for Student Debt Forgiveness

    At the same time, many of these universities—and in particular the major players in the academic arena—are awash in funds, thanks to federal and state funding for both public and private (for profit) institutions, including the recent upsurge in Pell Grants, amounting to hundreds of billion dollars. Add to this largesse significant alumni donations. Additionally, universities like Harvard, Yale, Stanford, and Georgetown—among others—profit from hundreds of millions in foreign funding in the form of gifts and contracts flowing mainly from China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar. These endowments remain “massively underreported.” The universities are floating on a sea of funds, both disclosed and undisclosed.


    The disproportion between the plight of indebted students and the hefty emoluments enjoyed by the universities is staggering. Why, then, should these institutions earmark such financial surplus to overpay their professors, far too many of whom are incompetent scholars, “social justice” warriors, redundant feminists, and leftist hacks? Why should colleges devote their resources to hiring intrusive, noxious, and superfluous diversity officers who do inestimable harm to parietal relations, and to lining the pockets of raptorial administrators who eventually retire into obscene, pension-rich comfort? Meanwhile their graduate cohort labors under a crushing, hope-destroying load of unsustainable debt.

    American education is a cultural disaster, a socialist racket, a bureaucratic nightmare, and a fiscal shakedown operation with a predatory lien on the future of its graduate population. Perhaps the only way to prevent the continuation of the vicious cycle is to penalize those universities that “sell” expensive and/or expendable degrees, a product that often harms the buyer, a promissory note without the promise. A way must be found to extricate students from the economic and intellectual travesty the university syndicate has inflicted upon them and that compensates students for the damage from which the universities have profited. Debt must be proportionately forgiven, not merely moderated and deferred. It seems reasonable for federal and selective state governments to arrive at a formula whereby a predetermined portion of student debt—30, 40, 50 per cent?—would be waived and the shortfall recouped from university budgets, endowments, and investments. Federal and state authorities would agree to forfeit a percentage of student debt, the deficit to be made up by a levy upon university surplusage.


    This policy would have the added benefit of forcing universities to shed unnecessary fat. Salaries would need to be reduced, tenure rethought, diversity and equity personnel pruned away, and golden handshakes turned into bronze. Tuition fees and costs would also need to become prudential in order to avoid what would amount to a fiscal surcharge on future debt redemption. Moreover, in announcing the intent to undertake a program targeting massive debt relief, the president could tap into the millennial and student vote by docking universities for their wastefulness, avarice, and indifference to the future prospects of their graduates, and so affording students and graduates at least partial deliverance from long-term economic distress.

    Obviously, an initiative of this nature would be procedurally daunting and financially complex. Some would consider it unworkable, and I am not so naïve as to believe such long-needed legislation would be readily passed. A counter-argument would entail scrapping federal funding of the collegiate system altogether, compelling universities to become competitive by lowering fees, cutting overhead, laying off drones, hiring real teachers and true scholars, and generally husbanding their resources. But this strategy strikes me as even more unlikely. Nonetheless, the proposal itself of partial debt reclamation by bleeding university reserves would be a welcome start to redressing an ongoing inequity, prompting a young, politically hostile franchise toward a reconsideration of its voting habits, and Making America Good Again.
    https://pjmedia.com/columns/david-so...hhxKDmKcxAGTE8



  2. Remove this section of ads by registering.
  3. #2
    Why should a country carpenter be forced to pay for gender-weaving degrees earned by "people" with whom he has nothing in common ?

  4. #3
    Quote Originally Posted by tod evans View Post
    Why should a country carpenter be forced to pay for gender-weaving degrees earned by "people" with whom he has nothing in common ?
    Because racism. Or something. I'm sure the elite would be quite eager to fill you in.

  5. #4
    It would also help if people just stopped going to these institutions and went to a trade school instead.
    "Perhaps one of the most important accomplishments of my administration is minding my own business."

    Calvin Coolidge

  6. #5
    Not a bad idea actually. Some "institutions of higher learning" induce students with inflated job placement rates that make it sound like you're guaranteed a good paying job (McDonald's doesn't count) once you graduate. On the flipside there is at least one software development school (can't think of the name) that doesn't charge you up front, helps you find a job, then takes a cut out of what you make until there paid back. In other words, if these schools believe in their product so much, why don't they basically float the up front cost of the education and get the money back on the back end? If someone washes out they can write it off.
    9/11 Thermate experiments

    Winston Churchhill on why the U.S. should have stayed OUT of World War I

    "I am so %^&*^ sick of this cult of Ron Paul. The Paulites. What is with these %^&*^ people? Why are there so many of them?" YouTube rant by "TheAmazingAtheist"

    "We as a country have lost faith and confidence in freedom." -- Ron Paul

    "It can be a challenge to follow the pronouncements of President Trump, as he often seems to change his position on any number of items from week to week, or from day to day, or even from minute to minute." -- Ron Paul
    Quote Originally Posted by Brian4Liberty View Post
    The road to hell is paved with good intentions. No need to make it a superhighway.
    Quote Originally Posted by osan View Post
    The only way I see Trump as likely to affect any real change would be through martial law, and that has zero chances of success without strong buy-in by the JCS at the very minimum.

  7. #6
    How about this for an idea? If you take out a loan, you pay it back. No one put a gun to their heads.

    Hmm, 150k in student debt? Sounds like a good idea to me.

    Dumbasses. Make them pay it back and maybe the next generation won't be so dumb. Forgive the loans and that guarantees the next generations will act just as recklessly.
    Last edited by ResponsibleIdiot; 10-28-2020 at 01:10 PM.

  8. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by jmdrake View Post
    Not a bad idea actually. Some "institutions of higher learning" induce students with inflated job placement rates that make it sound like you're guaranteed a good paying job (McDonald's doesn't count) once you graduate. On the flipside there is at least one software development school (can't think of the name) that doesn't charge you up front, helps you find a job, then takes a cut out of what you make until there paid back. In other words, if these schools believe in their product so much, why don't they basically float the up front cost of the education and get the money back on the back end? If someone washes out they can write it off.
    A great idea. It's not like the universities don't get side money from other sources. And, as you say, if they believed in their product then they shouldn't have a problem with it. It might also lead to them being upfront with a lack-luster student that is failing out.

  9. #8
    Hadn't thought about it before, but that's a very good idea. Forgiving debt and simultaneously eliminating all government loans/grants is the only practical solution at this point, and it might as well be the schools that have been profiting from these unjust subsidies that bear the cost.



  10. Remove this section of ads by registering.
  11. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by phill4paul View Post
    Because racism. Or something. I'm sure the elite would be quite eager to fill you in.
    I think you'll find that people with huge student debt that they took on to get a degree in underwater basket weaving are overwhelmingly white.
    Quote Originally Posted by Swordsmyth View Post
    Pinochet is the model
    Quote Originally Posted by Swordsmyth View Post
    Liberty preserving authoritarianism.
    Quote Originally Posted by Swordsmyth View Post
    Enforced internal open borders was one of the worst elements of the Constitution.

  12. #10


    I remember watching this from Peter Schiff years ago. It's a shame Trump and Republicans haven't really addressed this problem. I think it would help Republicans chip away at the college educated Democrat voter base if they started actually campaigning on lowering the cost of college.

  13. #11
    It is very simple . The govt should not be in the student loan business . The govt should not be issuing loans with tax monies collected . It is unholy.

  14. #12
    Let the Universities eat the cost of their students inability to pay for the worthless degrees they knowingly sold them.
    Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.

    Robert Heinlein

    Give a man an inch and right away he thinks he's a ruler

    Groucho Marx

    I love mankind…it’s people I can’t stand.

    Linus, from the Peanuts comic

    You cannot have liberty without morality and morality without faith

    Alexis de Torqueville

    Those who fail to learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.
    Those who learn from the past are condemned to watch everybody else repeat it

    A Zero Hedge comment

  15. #13
    Quote Originally Posted by jmdrake View Post
    Not a bad idea actually. Some "institutions of higher learning" induce students with inflated job placement rates that make it sound like you're guaranteed a good paying job (McDonald's doesn't count) once you graduate. On the flipside there is at least one software development school (can't think of the name) that doesn't charge you up front, helps you find a job, then takes a cut out of what you make until there paid back. In other words, if these schools believe in their product so much, why don't they basically float the up front cost of the education and get the money back on the back end? If someone washes out they can write it off.
    Back in the box! You make to much sense.

    We're being governed ruled by a geriatric Alzheimer patient/puppet whose strings are being pulled by an elitist oligarchy who believe they can manage the world... imagine the utter maniacal, sociopathic hubris!

  16. #14
    Zero sympathy for people who "dropped 150 grand on a f##kin education you could've got for $1.50 in late charges at your public library."

  17. #15
    Quote Originally Posted by jmdrake View Post
    Not a bad idea actually. Some "institutions of higher learning" induce students with inflated job placement rates that make it sound like you're guaranteed a good paying job (McDonald's doesn't count) once you graduate. On the flipside there is at least one software development school (can't think of the name) that doesn't charge you up front, helps you find a job, then takes a cut out of what you make until there paid back. In other words, if these schools believe in their product so much, why don't they basically float the up front cost of the education and get the money back on the back end? If someone washes out they can write it off.
    There is quite a bit of "front end" training requirements to even start at the entry level of being a merchant mariner.

    BST (Basic Safety Training), Marine Firefighting, Basic Seamanship, Use of Lifesaving Apparatus and Water Survival are all separate qualification training courses of 20 to 80 hours each, depending on course, that must be passed before serving as even an "Ordinary Seaman" aboard an SCTW-95 certified vessel.

    Cost can range from $5000 to $20000 depending on where and when you take the classes.

    This method is used by many people to complete their training, when the labor market is so tight that prospective employers are not willing to foot the bill.

    I have used a professional mariner "headhunting" service in the past, and paid the same way, with a payroll check deduction from the first four paychecks that paid their fee.

    This is basically what a marine union provides, without all the hassle.
    Another mark of a tyrant is that he likes foreigners better than citizens, and lives with them and invites them to his table; for the one are enemies, but the Others enter into no rivalry with him. - Aristotle's Politics Book 5 Part 11



Similar Threads

  1. Student Debt Forgiveness to Cost Taxpayers $108B: Report
    By Suzanimal in forum U.S. Political News
    Replies: 12
    Last Post: 12-02-2016, 07:50 PM
  2. Replies: 0
    Last Post: 07-16-2016, 06:09 PM
  3. Poll: Would you MoveOn.org Student Debt Forgiveness
    By The Midnight Ride in forum U.S. Political News
    Replies: 25
    Last Post: 09-07-2011, 04:59 PM
  4. Replies: 0
    Last Post: 02-21-2011, 08:46 AM
  5. A Modest Proposal
    By rapidtrends in forum Economy & Markets
    Replies: 5
    Last Post: 07-22-2008, 06:01 PM

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •