This attitude, as stated, is one of the fundamental evils, I think (the implication being "If I can't have it, nobody can", or, in this case, "If I didn't get it when it was relevant to me, nobody can"). In this case, the core grievance is valid ("I think there's a better way to address the problem"), but this expression of it makes the problem into the super common "us vs them" where "them" is defined by the terrible cultural obsession with the concept of "deserved" punishment and personal responsibility in an unqualified, absolutist manner ("He committed a crime, he deserves anything that happens", "He failed to pay a loan, he deserves anything that happens", "She had sex, she deserves anything that happens", etc).
The way you present the problem is inaccurate to me. It's not "I can't have it so nobody can" or "I couldn't have it back then, so nobody should have it now.".
It is: "At the time, these were the rules, I ran the numbers, was responsible and ended up limiting my opportunities. Others, who were not responsible, now not only have more opportunities thanks to their degree but will also end up not paying for it".
I'm sorry, but to me it feels extremely unfair that people who frivolously took loans will now end up being ahead of people who - at the same time - decided to be more financially responsible. You can't retroactively change the rules and expect people to take it quietly.
The problem is made even worse because in the case of student loans, there is nothing to repossess.
This has nothing to do with changing the rules now.
>The reality is that rewarding bad behavior and punishing good behavior
You are confusing a societal failure with a moral one: we have failed as a society by forcing those that pursue higher education to bear the entire cost of that education and we have failed to guarantee a role for those people in our society that pays well enough to pay off an inflated loan for that cost.
These are not individual moral failures. Everyone that is not able to pay off their student loans is not a bad person. Student loans are a bad system for educating people. They were introduced when higher education was desegregated and opened to women. When the white men at the reigns of the government no longer saw fit to fund public higher education for people that were not white men.
Once again this is not the issue, either my post was unclear or you didn't read it carefully.
I definitely do want the system to be fixed for future generations to not go through this. I do not want past generations to get a free pass. Loan forgiveness does nothing for future generations of students.
>Loan forgiveness does nothing for future generations of students.
Loan forgiveness unlocks the spending potential of an entire generation. People have been holding off on buying their first home or having their first child because of the burden of their loans.
