I'm not a subscriber to
MoveOn.org but several friends are and they forwarded me a recent email from
Robert Applebaum, a MoveOn member in Staten Island, who created a petition on
SignOn.org.
You've never heard of Applebaum? He's the founder of an organization called
StudentDebtCrisis.org.
The complete email is below, but here are a couple of excerpts:
Student loan debt now exceeds $1 trillion. Millions are buried under student debt, forced to put off major purchases and life decisions.
Put off major purchases?!? Oh, the humanity!
Let's put this in perspective: students
voluntarily took on huge amounts of debt for schooling, choosing to borrow instead of working to pay for their college educations - you know, like of many of used to do.
They then graduate and have to begin paying off that debt. But, because they have financial
obligations, they have to make choices and that means they can't go out and purchase a new car or a new TV, or a new anything because they're expected to cover this obligation before taking on others?
Why is that a bad thing? Isn't that called 'life' and part of being an adult?
The good news is that this week, legislation has been reintroduced in Congress that would provide student loan forgiveness to responsible borrowers drowning in debt.
How in the world can you be called a 'responsible borrower' if you are drowning in debt?
Wouldn't the fact that you are "drowning" in so much debt clearly indicate that you weren't very responsible about your borrowing in the first place?!?
The Student Loan Fairness Act would create a new "10-10" standard for student loan repayment, in which an individual would be required to make ten years of payments at 10% of their discretionary income, after which their remaining student loan debt would be forgiven.
So if I pay 10% of my "discretionary" income toward my loan for 10 years, I won't have to pay anything else on it forever?
What a bargain!
And why in the world would any college student, educated in today's schools that teach self-gratification and dependency on government, ever pay more? Why would they make sacrifices of 'major purchases' if they know they can skate by with paying only 10% of their
discretionary income?
If all they have to pay is 10%,why pay more? That would be foolish!
And only 10% of their
discretionary income?
That means they can spend as much as they want on a house or apartment, food, utilities, etc... They won't be forced to balance their desire for a larger place to live with their ability to pay all their financial obligations. They won't be forced to eat hamburger instead of steak for dinner. They won't be forced to wear sweaters in the winter or go without air conditioning in the summer in order to keep their utility bills lower.
In other words, they won't be forced to make the same decisions adults have always been forced to make, learning to balance their ability to pay with their wants and desires.
Is this really the lesson we want new adults in our (supposedly) productive society to embrace?
"Further, this legislation would...allow those eligible to convert their private loan debt into federal direct loans
Why? Why would we want students who have private loans to convert them to government loans? Would the bank that issued the private loans be paid off with tax dollars? And then the tax payers would never be paid back???
And what about our huge national debt? Won't putting more college students on the government rolls negatively impact the nation's debt?
What about the sequester? According to President Barack Obama, there's not enough money so he had to
end tours of the White House - the people's house. We
don't have enough money for air traffic controllers - clearly a vital service to the nation and our economy - but we have the funds to add more people to the government student loan program only to allow them to never repay the debt?!?
In what world would this ever make sense?
And yes, this definitely qualifies for 'stuck-on-stupid' designation!
Student loan debt causes an undeniable and significant drag on the economy. The Student Loan Fairness Act directly addresses this enormous boot on the neck of the middle class and represents a glimmer of hope for millions of Americans who, with each passing day, find that the American Dream is more and more out of reach.
It may be true that having to pay student loans causes a drag on the economy. The 'logic' is that having to pay back the money borrowed means the student isn't spending elsewhere, and without that elsewhere spending, the economy suffers.
What is never mentioned is the loss to the economy when the taxpayer, the original supplier of the funds, had to pay extra money to the federal government to provide the funds to be borrowed in the first place.
I had to forgo spending and helping the economy in order to pay taxes that are higher than necessary because of the need to fund this government program.
Now 'they' want to complain that repaying that money will hurt the economy? Providing the money in the first place hurt the economy - where was the concern for the economy then?
In a normal world, a student would get a private loan. Under this process, a bank would accept deposits from people in the community, pool those resources, loan the funds for various purposes, charge an interest rate and collect repayment over time.
The bank would then turn around and pay part of that interest back to the original depositors, who would then have additional funds to spend.
The government action distorts and perverts the normal process of money movement - and this act would corrupt the process even further, if that's actually possible.
So far over 200,000 people have signed the petition supporting the bill
Of course they have! They don't want to be responsible for the meeting the obligations they've incurred.
And why would they? We've grown generations who have been trained to believe that nothing is their fault; they are the victim of some evil entity; government will take care of them so they don't have to take care of themselves.
And this doesn't even get into the choice of majors with so many graduating from college with degrees that won't help them get a job or support themselves.
Nor does it delve into the
Orwellian Newspeak (control the language) efforts of naming this horribly unfair and economic perversion the "Student Loan Fairness Act."
Oh, America, what have you wrought?
Here is the complete email:
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Robert Applebaum <moveon-help@list.moveon.org>
Date: Mon, Apr 22, 2013 at 4:20 PM
Subject: Support the new Student Loan Forgiveness Act
Below is an email from Robert Applebaum, a MoveOn member in Staten Island, New York, who created a petition on SignOn.org. Robert is also the founder of the organization StudentDebtCrisis.org.
Dear MoveOn member,
Student loan debt now exceeds $1 trillion. Millions are buried under student debt, forced to put off major purchases and life decisions.
In short, student loan debt has become the latest financial crisis in America. If we do absolutely nothing, the entire economy will eventually come crashing down again, just as it did when the housing bubble popped.
The good news is that this week, legislation has been reintroduced in Congress that would provide student loan forgiveness to responsible borrowers drowning in debt. So far over 200,000 people have signed the petition supporting the bill. Will you sign and share it with your friends?
The Student Loan Fairness Act would create a new "10-10" standard for student loan repayment, in which an individual would be required to make ten years of payments at 10% of their discretionary income, after which their remaining student loan debt would be forgiven. Further, this legislation would:
- ensure low interest rates;
- allow those eligible to convert their private loan debt into federal direct loans;
- reward graduates for entering public service professions;
- provide a lifeline for student borrowers who have fallen on difficult times;
- encourage delinquent and defaulted borrowers to re-enter repayment;
- replace the current, ten-year "Standard Repayment Plan" for the full amount of the loan balance with the "10-10" plan as the default repayment option for borrowers entering repayment.
Student loan debt causes an undeniable and significant drag on the economy. The Student Loan Fairness Act directly addresses this enormous boot on the neck of the middle class and represents a glimmer of hope for millions of Americans who, with each passing day, find that the American Dream is more and more out of reach.
Thanks!
–Robert Applebaum, StudentDebtCrisis.org
This petition was created on SignOn.org, the progressive, nonprofit petition site. SignOn.org is sponsored by MoveOn Civic Action, which is not responsible for the contents of this or other petitions posted on the site. Robert Applebaum, StudentDebtCrisis.org didn't pay us to send this email—we never rent or sell the MoveOn.org list.
