I paid for my loans - why should we forgive the loans
first off… you do know that the economy doesn’t just stay stagnant for decades, right? houses aren’t $17,000 anymore. the fact that you were able to pay your loans before has little to do with how expensive student loans are now.
secondly, the logic of “i did it so they should have to do it to” is quite a toxic & nonproductive way to think about society, & societal change. what you need to realize is that this sentiment comes from a place of envy & bitterness rather than actual logic. you don’t want things to improve for the next generation because you can’t fathom someone having it easier than you. you could apply this logic to anything, & the final conclusion will always just be “why bother changing”, it’s not much different from the conclusions you’d reach through pessimistic nihilism. growing up i was poor, so much so that sometimes we didn’t even have dinner, a house or even a car to sleep in. does that mean i should raise my future children in poverty too? why not? i did it, got through it, so the next generation should have to get through it too, right?
if, throughout human history, our entire reasoning for making changes in society was “well i had to do it so they have to too” then we’d still be in huts & making fire with sticks. our ancestors didn’t work, fight, & die so that the next generation would have to live the exact same life as them, they worked so that their children could have better. & this drive for the next generation to have a better life than the last is the reason why we’ve worked so hard to improve, invent, & innovate over the course of human history. it’s why we even have a safe society in the first place, & probably why your parents worked so hard to give you a great life too.
what is already the most entitled generation ever?
according to who, & what? from my perspective, the generation who had an economy so great that they could afford a house & family without college & yet still choose to complain about everything is the most entitled. but i guess we’re all spoiled brats because we want to have an actual future.
Otherwise where does it stop? Are they going to forgive mortgages and car loans next? Why not? It’s the same principle.
slippery slope is known as a logical fallacy for a reason
Please know there are many of us out here that do not feel like that.
It took me until I was in my late 40s to pay off all my loans from grad school. I am still not where I want to be in terms of having proper retirement savings, a home of my own, and more financial stability because I spent decades just tying to climb out of debt. I did not have support throughout my youth from family, so loans were my only way to get the education I needed. I would not wish my own struggles to get where I am now on anyone.
Politicizing this issue, like so many others, has obviously failed to address it but I hold hope that through other systems within education and social justice programs it may still possible. Changing the way in which higher education gate-keeps access through cost to begin with is just so wrong in the first place, it’s criminal. Unless you go into massive debt or have means already, it is almost totally out of reach for the people that need it the most. I know these are all complex issues and there are no simple fixes, but we can’t give up on trying to find them.
Please know there are many of us out here that do not feel like that.
my bad, i didn’t mean to imply that the entirety of the older generations feels the way the op did, though i see how it comes across that way 😅 i know a lot of older people out there have been through the same situation as we’re in now. i was more just turning the “entitled” accusation back around to show how baseless it is. the op just kinda generalized us all without backing it up whatsoever, so it was more of a “see, i can do it too” than anything else
first off… you do know that the economy doesn’t just stay stagnant for decades, right? houses aren’t $17,000 anymore. the fact that you were able to pay your loans before has little to do with how expensive student loans are now.
secondly, the logic of “i did it so they should have to do it to” is quite a toxic & nonproductive way to think about society, & societal change. what you need to realize is that this sentiment comes from a place of envy & bitterness rather than actual logic. you don’t want things to improve for the next generation because you can’t fathom someone having it easier than you. you could apply this logic to anything, & the final conclusion will always just be “why bother changing”, it’s not much different from the conclusions you’d reach through pessimistic nihilism. growing up i was poor, so much so that sometimes we didn’t even have dinner, a house or even a car to sleep in. does that mean i should raise my future children in poverty too? why not? i did it, got through it, so the next generation should have to get through it too, right?
if, throughout human history, our entire reasoning for making changes in society was “well i had to do it so they have to too” then we’d still be in huts & making fire with sticks. our ancestors didn’t work, fight, & die so that the next generation would have to live the exact same life as them, they worked so that their children could have better. & this drive for the next generation to have a better life than the last is the reason why we’ve worked so hard to improve, invent, & innovate over the course of human history. it’s why we even have a safe society in the first place, & probably why your parents worked so hard to give you a great life too.
according to who, & what? from my perspective, the generation who had an economy so great that they could afford a house & family without college & yet still choose to complain about everything is the most entitled. but i guess we’re all spoiled brats because we want to have an actual future.
slippery slope is known as a logical fallacy for a reason
This is just a beautiful response. Thank you for writing it up so that I didn’t have to attempt it.
If Beehaw had awards or gilding of some kind, I would give you some for this response.
Please know there are many of us out here that do not feel like that.
It took me until I was in my late 40s to pay off all my loans from grad school. I am still not where I want to be in terms of having proper retirement savings, a home of my own, and more financial stability because I spent decades just tying to climb out of debt. I did not have support throughout my youth from family, so loans were my only way to get the education I needed. I would not wish my own struggles to get where I am now on anyone.
Politicizing this issue, like so many others, has obviously failed to address it but I hold hope that through other systems within education and social justice programs it may still possible. Changing the way in which higher education gate-keeps access through cost to begin with is just so wrong in the first place, it’s criminal. Unless you go into massive debt or have means already, it is almost totally out of reach for the people that need it the most. I know these are all complex issues and there are no simple fixes, but we can’t give up on trying to find them.
my bad, i didn’t mean to imply that the entirety of the older generations feels the way the op did, though i see how it comes across that way 😅 i know a lot of older people out there have been through the same situation as we’re in now. i was more just turning the “entitled” accusation back around to show how baseless it is. the op just kinda generalized us all without backing it up whatsoever, so it was more of a “see, i can do it too” than anything else