Again, if you can't see the downsides of the government working at odds with the federal reserve by dumping inflationary spending on top of rate hikes, then maybe you're in a household that makes too much money to feel the real impacts of this inflation and the rate hikes in response.
Rich people spending money comfortably is what keeps prices pegged high during inflation. Essentially, the rich can take the price hikes while the working class suffers and has to slash their budgets. If we are paying off the debt of the richest Americans, do you think that *constricts* or *increases* their ability to spend at a time when we drastically need to cut spending to cool inflation?
The government *needs* to do inflationary spending to keep Ukraine in this fight at the tune of $63B+/year. The government *needed* to spend on emergency CV relief between 2020-2022. Those are all additions to inflation in an over-heated economy where too much money is chasing too few goods. The government did *not* need to spend money on rich kids who went to college so that they have more money in their budget to spend and in turn throw more gasoline on the inflationary economic fire.
I made the huge mistake 15 years ago of agreeing to co-sign a college loan at a state university for my sister's youngest child (she has 4, and begged me to agree) not realizing that showed up on MY credit score. Despite his monthly payments (and they aren't high), he STILL owes more than $10,000 on just that loan. By my count, he's already paid twice as much as the loan was originally for, and he still has at least 8 years to go. God knows how much he actually has in debt. Due to health reasons, he didn't finish college, and he works in a big box store. Maybe, just maybe, that $10,000 loan forgiveness will give him a little breathing space. He's not getting a $10,000 freebie per year. It's not the rich kids getting the break, it's folks like my nephew. And me when/if that debt falls off my credit score.
As for that inflation everyone's screaming about - I'm a 70-yr-old woman on a fixed income, so inflation matters. Most of it is big companies taking advantage of the rest of us. Even before prices for gas rose, the oil companies were having their best profits ever. And the rest of the inflated prices were other companies getting in on the gouge. BTW, inflation has been kept artificially low for years, something that's been forgotten.
I support bailing out kids like that. I DO NOT support bailing out kids who make over $75k annually as individuals, and I definitely DO NOT support bailing out households making over $150k annually. Go ahead and defend that if you want to, but know that you're defending rich kids who are NOT like your nephew if they're making that kind of income after the debt they took on to get a better taste of life.
The problem is, of course, that it is far easier to do stuff like the student loan forgiveness than it is to address the structural and cultural issues that are actually generating the problems--as I am sure that you are well aware.
The inability and unwillingness top address those structural issues are what are going to destroy us. It will evidence itself as a failure of democracy and a fall to authoritarianism, but that is the symptom, not the cause.
The cause is simply those with power and wealth seizing or maintaining their advantages while narrowly serving their own self-interest, often without much actual thought involved.
Both aspects are important to keep in mind. $15B out of a $5.8T budget and a $21B+ economy. $15*30=$450B. Beyond that would be to put it in context with other expenditures.
More importantly to me is that this is a fairly low cost (for gov programs) salve to a symptom of a much larger structural problem. We need to come together as a country and come up with a re-engineered structure for post high school education / training of all sorts.
$15 billion PER YEAR. In a multi-trillion dollar economy, how much does that really come to?
Again, if you can't see the downsides of the government working at odds with the federal reserve by dumping inflationary spending on top of rate hikes, then maybe you're in a household that makes too much money to feel the real impacts of this inflation and the rate hikes in response.
Rich people spending money comfortably is what keeps prices pegged high during inflation. Essentially, the rich can take the price hikes while the working class suffers and has to slash their budgets. If we are paying off the debt of the richest Americans, do you think that *constricts* or *increases* their ability to spend at a time when we drastically need to cut spending to cool inflation?
The government *needs* to do inflationary spending to keep Ukraine in this fight at the tune of $63B+/year. The government *needed* to spend on emergency CV relief between 2020-2022. Those are all additions to inflation in an over-heated economy where too much money is chasing too few goods. The government did *not* need to spend money on rich kids who went to college so that they have more money in their budget to spend and in turn throw more gasoline on the inflationary economic fire.
I made the huge mistake 15 years ago of agreeing to co-sign a college loan at a state university for my sister's youngest child (she has 4, and begged me to agree) not realizing that showed up on MY credit score. Despite his monthly payments (and they aren't high), he STILL owes more than $10,000 on just that loan. By my count, he's already paid twice as much as the loan was originally for, and he still has at least 8 years to go. God knows how much he actually has in debt. Due to health reasons, he didn't finish college, and he works in a big box store. Maybe, just maybe, that $10,000 loan forgiveness will give him a little breathing space. He's not getting a $10,000 freebie per year. It's not the rich kids getting the break, it's folks like my nephew. And me when/if that debt falls off my credit score.
As for that inflation everyone's screaming about - I'm a 70-yr-old woman on a fixed income, so inflation matters. Most of it is big companies taking advantage of the rest of us. Even before prices for gas rose, the oil companies were having their best profits ever. And the rest of the inflated prices were other companies getting in on the gouge. BTW, inflation has been kept artificially low for years, something that's been forgotten.
I support bailing out kids like that. I DO NOT support bailing out kids who make over $75k annually as individuals, and I definitely DO NOT support bailing out households making over $150k annually. Go ahead and defend that if you want to, but know that you're defending rich kids who are NOT like your nephew if they're making that kind of income after the debt they took on to get a better taste of life.
The problem is, of course, that it is far easier to do stuff like the student loan forgiveness than it is to address the structural and cultural issues that are actually generating the problems--as I am sure that you are well aware.
The inability and unwillingness top address those structural issues are what are going to destroy us. It will evidence itself as a failure of democracy and a fall to authoritarianism, but that is the symptom, not the cause.
The cause is simply those with power and wealth seizing or maintaining their advantages while narrowly serving their own self-interest, often without much actual thought involved.
Basically.
Both aspects are important to keep in mind. $15B out of a $5.8T budget and a $21B+ economy. $15*30=$450B. Beyond that would be to put it in context with other expenditures.
More importantly to me is that this is a fairly low cost (for gov programs) salve to a symptom of a much larger structural problem. We need to come together as a country and come up with a re-engineered structure for post high school education / training of all sorts.
Amen.