2954

I’ve already explained it. I’m not going to explain it to you again, as I’m very comfortable you just don’t want to engage with it, rather than really don’t understand it. I understand if your assumption is that I’m not communicating well, or really don’t have a point, or I’m wrong, or whatever. That’s fine.

2955

Be that as it may, you really have to admit that racism has thrived under the road we did, in fact, take.

And living among people who are not on our side on these matters, I can tell you that a very, very high percentage of their negative racial attitudes, which have been turned to such effect by the GOP, stem from it being a lot easier for a subpar black student to get a life-turning scholarship than an equally subpar and equally poor white student.

I am aware of a whole slew of counter arguments supporting the affirmative action programs as they were done, and I spent a great deal of time arguing for them and rooting for them and sneering at those who wanted to tear them down.

But I am also honest enough with myself to realize that the thing I supported has fueled a lot of votes that I do not like. So I have come to be more optimistic about the long term prospects for Dem leaders who want to go at it a different way.

2956

Sorry, but I hear you saying that it is unfair. I agree that it is unfair. I just don’t think unfair is necessarily a good reason not to do it. And I can’t see any direct future financial harm to those who have already repaid loans.

2957

This is not an MMT belief, any spending has an inflation risk, and there’s no denying other effects with a blanket pardon. What MMT says is that the deficit is a meaningless number. But speaking of inflation, getting it a fair bit higher would help a lot with tackling private debt.

Yep, a full blown pardon for one group of people is political suicide, but surely there’s better compromises on already existing partial pardons that can be made while cutting down on the necessities of having debt in the first place. It’s a huge drag on social mobility, productivity and demand no matter what economic theory you believe in, and the next crisis will make the GFC look tame.

2958

I think the resolution needs to be at the tuition cost level, not the loan level. Government forgiveness of loans without accompanying crack backs against the costs of the institutions would be like Medicare just paying whatever the hospitals, doctors, device companies, and drug companies want to charge.

It is absolutely bizarre to me that we see students saddled with crippling costs of college, and our solution is to have the government take on those crippling costs, rather than examine those costs themselves. There is a good argument that the entire reason we have had the massive tuition spike is literally because of government intervention in the loan program in the first place. Now we want to throw even more gasoline on things, without putting out the underlying fire.

If it really is the case that the costs of college are not justifiable in comparison to the benefits, then the government should not pay those costs either.

2959

Warren’s proposal addresses the tuition cost level, too.

Is there some flavor of loan forgiveness program that would meet with your approval?

2960

Not to get in the way of people being assholes, but when critiquing any platform plank of a candidate in isolation it makes me think of sitting down to a meal with someone and hammering them for their choice of beverage, explaining it doesn’t contain all the nutrients a body needs to survive.

2961

Absolutely, but I don’t think anyone here would think otherwise. And having government backed loans was a terrible idea (anywhere near as implemented, at least), though I don’t know if that’s as unanimous.
Regardless, the current debt is a huge drag on the economy and easily manipulated for political purposes (keep our jobs at all costs! any job is a good job! …), so it needs to be addressed.

Sadly, real solutions are complex and don’t fit on soundbytes for the 24-hour news cycle or Twitter. They probably don’t even fit in a comment on a discussion forum

2962

I’m not sure I understand what you’re saying. Government student loans are far preferable to private student loans, for a variety of reasons. The government loans are non-profit, easy to defer, easy to forgive, and can be low-cost and low-interest. Private loans are none of those. Most of the student debt is (I think) some flavor of government loan, but a substantial portion is in private loans and those loans seem to be abusive.

2963

It created an incentive for colleges to keep raising prices on a mostly inelastic good since they would always be paid.

2964

There is an interesting side issue on student debt as to whether the availability of government backed loans facilitated the rise of tuition. In my view, it’s a side issue as I think the underlying cause is fairly clear: there were market imperfections in regard to higher education (lack of scalabity in “elite” college space) that caused colleges to be able to raise prices far faster than the rate of inflation.

My own take on this issue is that that lack of scalability / inherent tendancy for college to become overpriced is baked pretty deep into the cake of our market-based higher education system, but that it can be offset by various generous public subsides for tuition, like many European countries do, and like some states in the US used to do with their state university/“land grant university” systems.

To me, the best solution here is increased public investment in public universities, specifically focused on bringing tuition back down to the levels it was prior to the insanity of price-surging beginning in the 1980s.

I also think a means-tested, capped, relatively low-level form of loan forgiveness might be a solid boost to the economy, without engendering too much insurmountable political pushback (I think a “full” loan forgiveness program is doomed to fail b/c American voters suck and we can’t have nice things.).

Lastly, I view this issue of tuition as part of the “3 Hs” of the American economy where our market based system is not producing the results we want: health care, higher education and home buying. In all 3, the costs of these items have gone up many times faster than inflation and even more times faster than median wage growth, over the last 30 to 50 years. In all 3 cases, there is some form of market imperfection (inelastic demand in health care, lack of scalability in higher education, zoning restrictions and geographic limitations in housing) that interfere with a healthy market process causing the market to be unable to deliver the results we want. In all 3 cases, I feel more government involvement is a partial solution (health care reform, tuition subsidies like I described, and for housing a massive rethink of zoning, transportation, infrastructure, etc.)

And to step out to this big picture, I think the best candidate by far on these 3 weak spots in our economy overall, is Warren. She has a plan, you know.

2965

This is a great post, well stated.

Edit: I would add to this the need to revisit in general laws about debt. It doesn’t make much sense to me that lending money is the one ‘market’ enterprise where the decision-makers are largely insulated from the consequences of their bad decisions by the force of law.

2966

You mean the people who make the decision to borrow money, surely.

2967

Nobody ends up in hell because of what they’ve done; people end up in hell because of what they are: unrepentant sinners. And no one goes to heaven because of the good things they’ve done; people go to heaven because they’ve accepted the good which has been done for them: the redemptive work of salvation which is done by Jesus Christ.

“You need to be forgiven because you were born human” is nuance that can be hard to grasp. Everybody’s done bad things so a person’s bad works is a simpler connection to make. Therefore much evangelism talks about your own personal sins which you have done yourself instead of the nature of being a sinful creature which becomes a new creation by being born from above.

Anyhow, Jesus Christ makes salvation available for anyone but each one has ability to either accept or reject it. God made the mistake of making us in His image with free will and I don’t understand why He did that.

On topic:
Did anyone post that former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz is taking a step away from his Presidential run?

2968

How in hades did a political debate turn into a theological one? We’re not talking the Iranian election, yeh?

2969

All I know is that Christina Hendricks can send me to the special hell any day.

2970

Yet another (ON TOPIC!) poll!

2971

Yay Warren!

2972

Buttigieg keeps going on in numbers, but down in ranking. I don’t know how I feel about that.

Still, Warren is a close second choice right now, and I am open to being convinced that she is a better pick then Buttigieg.

2973

Sure, but keep in mind that this was a California poll. Harris’ home state. And she still only moved up to 4th.