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but what about my desire to visit suffering upon strangers by demanding they pay off their crushing student debts our society demands they have to succeed?

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Bharat Ramamurti

@BharatRamamurti

Nov 16, 2020

One study has found that canceling all debt would have a big stimulative effect. The impact would be less if less debt were canceled, but debt cancellation one of the relatively few ways to really stimulate the economy without Congress. 5/ levyinstitute.org/publications/t

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Maybe I’m out of the loop but getting student loans seems like something that relatively wealthy people do. I was lucky to rack up such debt; I know many who couldn’t afford to. Isn’t debt cancellation regressive then? Maybe it makes sense as part of broader UBI?

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if I am reading this right, cancelling student debt would materially help 75% of my fellow citizens.

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I don't see how you think it shows that. What it does show is that forgiving all student debt would give far more to people earning high incomes. It's a regressive form of basic income, ignoring most of the people who actually need it most. It wouldn't just be neutral for them.

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cancel student debt and enact UBI. these are not mutually exclusive.

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The money for cancelling student debt could be equally distributed instead of giving it primarily to the people who already got theirs. People with high income careers will do just fine without their loans being forgiven. If they want to spend UBI that way, they can do it.

7:19 AM · Nov 17, 2020Twitter Web App

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or we just give people the money. this sort of fine slicing to avoid any chance someone “undeserving” benefits is how our current welfare system works and it is a punitive disaster. if we can pass $1.8T in tax cuts exclusively for the wealthy, with hardy any debate...

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Yes, just give everyone the same amount of money. If you want them to be able to pay off their loans, give them more money. Specifically forgiving certain loans that you see as more deserving of forgiveness and are distributed most to high income earners is regressive.

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