Student Loan Debt
President Biden announced his plan for student debt relief, canceling up to $10,000 in government backed student debt per individual (or up to $20k for Pell grant recipients).
While I don’t think this is any long term answer to our student debt problems, it’s going to help millions of people. Estimated to help up to 43 million borrowers, with 90% of the debt relief dollars going to people earning under $75k.
At the same time, Biden put a definitive end to the freeze on student debt payments.
Moody’s Analytics estimates the combined effects will largely be a wash on GDP growth, unemployment, and inflation.
I don’t think it’s the real solution we need to the soaring costs of higher education. We should address the underlying issues of the cost and not just one time fixes for some. It’s not like we should expect to do this every ten years or so. I understand people feeling it sets a bad precedent for others, so let’s address the bigger issue. But it’s hard to ignore the huge number of people who will have immediate, real, life altering benefits from this.
For those not getting debt canceled, it will likely result in no noticeable change. And projected to have no large negative effect on the macro economy.
Hard to argue against a move that won’t affect most people in any real material way, but will improve the lives of up to 43 million people.
