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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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A flat basic income is a far more progressive way of giving out money than this. Also, as a one time thing, it doesn't fix this for future generations. Making undergraduate education at public universities free would be a progressive policy resolving this for future generations.

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yes, let’s do that, too. I don’t see how you can argue we should make college free but not cancel the debts incurred when it wasn’t. yes, some people who don’t need the money will benefit. there is no way out of this that doesn’t allow that.

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Making it free is a progressive policy. It doesn't give the most to the people who already have the most. Forgiving student debt outright gives far more to people who went to fancy out-of-state universities and who ended up with far higher income careers in general.

7:22 AM · Nov 17, 2020Twitter Web App

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I don't see why you would specifically give out money this way instead of doing it in a way that gives as much money to someone poor. I'm not sure why a lawyer needs 250k of loans forgiven. People without a post-secondary education are those most in need of money.

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Forgiving student loans has an economic impact on people without student loans due to inflationary effects from people having more money available for other things. It isn't neutral for them. It isn't simply some getting money and others not being impacted one way or the other.