Student Loan Forgiveness and Unicorn Futures

Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are trying to outdo each other on student loan forgiveness schemes. It is good to see. People took on the debt on the promise of well-paying jobs. Then most of the well-paying jobs went away. So, declare bankruptcy, heh? But conservatives outlawed that. Somehow, after taking away education grants, raising the price of education, making it difficult to get any job without a degree, cutting pay across the board, being in deep debt is still the fault of students. As if that is not enough we have work crying to be done. Our infrastructure is crumbling, we need to build a carbon-free economy, and conservatives do not want to pay.

So what it to be done? Let us look at a simpler scheme: allow student loan debt to be dissolved in bankruptcy, and return bankruptcy law to its pre-2005 state, so that it allows a dignified fresh start to the bankrupt. But the banks will fight this tooth and nail. So why, even, are we talking about something much more radical? It is like debating unicorn futures.

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