Steve Szeghi PhD (ECON), Professor of Economics, Wilmington College, Wilmington, Ohio, USA
A couple of weeks ago my colleagues Kamran Mofid, Jamshid Damooei, and I wrote on this Blog of the necessity of debt forgiveness in a general context: My Guest Bloggers Steve Szeghi, Jamshid Damooei and I- Promised Land Revisited: Forgive our debts as we forgive our debtors
Student Loan forgiveness was one specific that we mentioned. In the United States students have been forced through a combination of economic circumstances and reduced public financing of universities and colleges to fund an increasing percentage of their college costs through student loans. Student loans are not dischargeable, except under rare circumstances, in bankruptcy court. The current generation of college students in the United States is being saddled with increasing debt even as salaries for college graduates have stagnated, or declined, while job opportunities have decreased.
This is a dangerous situation for the economy and the financial system in addition to being an injustice rendered to a generation.
Student loan debt in the United States, which is securitized in the same way as home mortgages, may well be the next bubble to burst. Before that happens, which could imperil the US as well as the global financial system, we should consider substantial and significant student loan forgiveness. Higher Education should be ideally provided to all who are capable and whom aspire to it, at little or no cost to the individual, funded by society through progressive taxation. It is such a small step in the direction of social justice and building a more cohesive society to provide significant relief to student loan borrowers. It is also necessary for the stability of the financial system. Not only in the United States but in all nations of the world, societies should more substantially publicly fund education, including higher education at increasing levels and consider significant forgiveness for student loan borrowers, for social justice and for social cohesion, but also for the sake of financial system stability. Please consider signing the following petition: Support the Student Loan Forgiveness Act of 2012
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