I agree. Then we should never bail out any industry without public ownership. Also having 2 part times to not pay benefits for one full time shouldn't be rewarded via public benefits for poor earners.
Until we do these things that affect the wealthier, we should get some more equity down here.
Edit: gosh I'm bad at wording this. Tldr: until we make a better plan to level the playing field: we need more and more equity.
It does suck, but people who go to college know how much they're going to pay. If anything, they should consider starting at a community college. Specialized schools (e.g. nursing schools, pilot school, etc.) often come with higher costs, but people need to weigh the potential benefits against the expenses. Community colleges offer more affordable options for foundational coursework before transferring to a specialized school if needed. Also, a significant portion of students already recieve some form of financial aid.
I used to feel this way, until I heard how predatory the loans actually are. One woman on John Oliver's segment about it was paying a little over $700/month towards her student loans. Of that, only about $70 of it was actually going towards the principle of the loan, the rest was interest.
Another woman had paid $90k over ten years on her $80k in loans, and still owed $70k. That is just absolute horseshit, no other loan that I know of operates that way outside of payday loans, which an education loan should absolutely not be.
If he can't get the debts forgiven, they should at least cap the interest at no more than 2% so people can actually pay them off. Or make them dischargeable through bankruptcy, but something has to give. Until John Oliver's segment, I didn't realize how bad things were for a lot of people, and while I have no student loan debt (GI Bill for me, fortunately), I still feel for them.
We pressure teenagers as soon as they are old enough to take on debt to take a huge predatory loan, in a system where teaching personal finance is not a requirement of the education system. We tell kids growing up that their lives will be miserable if they don't go to college, and make them feel that there is no other rational choice but to take on debt.
The government backs this system that prohibits bankruptcy and traps young people in extreme debt before their adult lives have even begun, all so that lenders can make fortunes off of interest payments - lenders that include the government itself.
So, yes, you're right, terrible economic decisions like that should not be rewarded. Borrowers should be forgiven 100% and the lenders who created this mess should be kicked to the curb.