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National Review article complaining about student loans again. I found this part interesting.

As Professor Bryan Caplan points out in this post, however, most student debtors haven’t been paying anything on their balances for quite a while (thanks to the Covid “emergency” moratorium) and are unlikely to start paying again even if the moratorium should be lifted. His argument is that there will be safety in large numbers: So many of the student debtors will not resume paying that the government will choose to let everyone slide.

Caplan is probably right. This is how the Left will get its wish for “free college.”

What should be done? I like his radical thinking: Get the government out of student lending. “First and foremost” he writes, “this is a perfect time to end government-supported student loans forever. To say, ‘We thought we could avoid the slippery slope from subsidized loans to free college for all. We were utterly wrong, so we’re killing the program.’ At minimum, this is a great time to drastically raise the interest rate to compensate taxpayers for much higher repayment risk going forward.”

Richest country in the world must also stop free college?

The Biden administration quietly changed its policy on who is eligible for student-debt “relief” on Thursday, scaling back its promise to millions amid legal challenges.
...
On Tuesday, the Pacific Legal Foundation issued the first lawsuit against the administration’s policy, arguing that student-loan borrowers in states like Indiana, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Arkansas, and North Carolina, would be unfairly taxed for the student-loan “forgiveness” under President Joe Biden’s program. Those enrolled in the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program have their debt relief automatically applied under Biden’s program, and because Biden’s “forgiveness” is taxed and the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program is not in those states, recipients would be hit with an unforeseen tax.

On Thursday, Six Republican attorneys general from Nebraska, Missouri, Arkansas, Kansas, Iowa, and South Carolina issued a lawsuit against the Biden administration, arguing that Biden’s unilateral decision to “cancel” debt is unconstitutional.

God, I am thankful to live in the NYC area. Our state won't turn down free money from the Federal government because of identity politics. The closet case states love to hurt themselves in performative politics. We should send them more 1911s.

The student loan thing went live yesterday.

I have loan debt and will get more in order to get my admin degrees and whatever else I can before I hit year 10 on PSLF.

I will be pretty open about my situation IRT student loan: I don't plan to ever pay off my graduate loans. I paid back $25,000 in private loans for undergrad but as a matter of principle I have zero plans to ever pay back any graduate debt.

I saw someone on Reddit talk about "students signed the paper for the money they need to pay it back." 😂 😜 😆

This country bails out bad businesses and Wall St. once a decade. There is no way in hell anyone will be able to convince me to feel bad for taking government money and not paying it back. I feel the same way about all of the people who ripped off the COVID stimulus and Paycheck Protection Plan stuff. Good for them.

The indian guy in the street was very proud to tell everyone who would listen that his daughter planned to take out loans for her medical degree, travel back to india - get married and come back with a different name, forget her loans and practice as a doctor.

Pretty sure I paid back my, paltry, student costs through taxation, mostly likely in my first two years of salaried employent.

All you need is enough money to bribe politicians - its not difficult people.

Would it be OK if an Iranian robbed the US taxpayer of $200k?

it's always the indians who are scamming the system, isn't it?

LMAO paying back your student costs. what student costs? they were footed by the taxpayer in the first place. then you proceeded to leave the country and take your tax contributions elsewhere. but the indians coming and going are the problem, right?

if there was any justice you would have spent your working life in the UK footing the tax bill for the next generation or two of students.

and, no, a STEM student's undergraduate costs are not 'paltry'. they are the most expensive degrees per head to fund, especially any scientific degree with an experimental component. what can be described as 'paltry' costs to the institution (and, by extension, the taxpayer) are ... humanities degrees.

Last edited by uziq (2022-10-19 01:47:36)

the reality of dilbert's little queef about 'indians cheating the system' is that australia cynically advertises – and relies upon – international students as a means of keeping its university sector afloat without need of public largesse.

chinese and indians flock to australia to spend oodles of cold AUD to venerable institutions and in the local economy.

the australian government itself grants education visas in a way that is cynical in the extreme, knowing that many of the people who come on such visas will join the 'grey economy' of work whilst 'studying', or end up barely studying at all at low-entry-standard destinations. it's trivially easy to get an education visa to places like australia if you have the cold hard AUD to cough up.

this sort of travesty in the australian education/university sector is covered in the UK press a lot.

https://erudera.com/news/expert-calls-a … e-country/

Australia is being accused of easily accepting immigrants, especially international students who are offered to work and live in the country during their studies, Erudera.com reports.

In an article published by Macro Business Australia, the writer, Leith van Onselen who is a Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super, claims that by offering extended work rights and a low standard for university acceptance, Australia makes it easy for international students to want to reside in the country permanently.

[...]

Although more international students are supposed to bring quality, the latter are being used to maximize profits in rent and other expenses, stomping studies quality value level.

but, of course, blame the filthy indians coughing up multi-generational amounts of savings towards tuition/visa fees, and not the greedy, grubby mongs who set up the system in the first place.

this is just one of those typical thiings where dilbert likes to rage at the chinese/indians because his country is effectively dependent on them.

Last edited by uziq (2022-10-19 07:33:08)

if dilbert had any sense he'd stop bragging about his fractional petro shares gains here, invest in a property portfolio and let to international students at exorbitant rates. that's the easy route to big money success. i have no idea why the monied high-earner, 'i paid back my tax expenses to the UK in 5 years flat because i'm so affluent' guy hasn't got into landlordism tbh.

'soon'? huge numbers of graduate students at your ivies are from east asia, india, etc. there are entire departments in the STEM disciplines mostly made up of asians, russians, etc (the cosmopolitan and global collaborative vibe was the same at UK graduate schools until b-b-b-b-brexit).

the only reason it hasn't happened for undergraduate, i guess, is that your private universities are prohibitively expensive except for all but the global 1%. not even the upper-middle class from a tiger economy with a median GDP of $35k-40k/yr is going to be sending their kids to harvard on foreign undergraduate fees.

Last edited by uziq (2022-10-19 08:00:18)

If everything could just stay flat til the end of the year I should exceed my net worth increase target by a reasonable margin.

Also with supply chain shortages the gunpowder I paid $340 for 18 months ago is now worth ~$2000, maybe I should sell it, I'd still be well stocked for the foreseeable.

Thank you.

Please keep using our coal.

You're using it now.

Thank you.

korea uses 24% coal for its energy needs, as of 2021 figures. that's less than australia uses of its own coal.

for all you know, i could be getting power for my kettle and bedside lamp from LNG right now ... or renewables. you simply do not know. derp.