I know they aren't actually asking, but it still annoys me.

  • HarryLime [any]
    ·
    edit-2
    2 years ago

    What the fuck do they mean "pay for?" It's not some spending program, it's debt cancellation. How do they think this works?

    • ClimateChangeAnxiety [he/him, they/them]
      ·
      2 years ago

      They fundamentally do not understand how money and debt work in reality. They basically think of it like digging dirt out of a hole:

      A loan is digging a hole, and you put the dirt (money) somewhere else. Paying back the loan is putting dirt back in the hole. So to cancel the debt and get rid of the hole, the dirt has to come from somewhere! Is it going to come from my dirt pile???

      But obviously that’s not remotely how it works because unlike dirt, money can be infinitely created or destroyed at will by the government. So they can just snap their fingers and fill the hole without changing any of the piles.

    • ScreamoBM0 [they/them]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Debt cancellation often involves the government paying the creditors to cancel the loans. In the case of government loans, they are the creditor and creditors are allowed to cancel debts at will without the exchange of money. But then it’s often a tax write off, which I assume a government agency can’t do XD

    • Rem [she/her]
      ·
      2 years ago

      They think that people owe debt to specific guys and the government is going to raise taxes to pay those guys on the students behalf.

      • AmericaDelendeEst [any]
        ·
        2 years ago

        Good thing our government prints its own money which is artificially inflated in value due to geopolitics and is not dependent on revenue

        • CanYouFeelItMrKrabs [any, he/him]
          ·
          2 years ago

          Yeah I know. Additionally a good chunk of the debt that is being forgiven would not have been paid in the first place, so it's not exactly changing much in that situation

    • hexaflexagonbear [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Technically it partly removes a revenue stream, but that revenue stream has been gone since the beginning of covid anyway.

  • eatmyass
    ·
    edit-2
    10 months ago

    deleted by creator

  • PZK [he/him]
    ·
    edit-2
    2 years ago

    Billions spent to bomb brown people :sleepi:

    Billions spent to slightly help an entire generation with crippling debt :monke-rage:

    • ClimateChangeAnxiety [he/him, they/them]
      ·
      2 years ago

      $0 spent*. That’s the especially insane thing, this literally doesn’t cost anything. Absolutely nothing changes. You just delete the numbers.

      • HumanBehaviorByBjork [any, undecided]
        ·
        2 years ago

        magic money brains think debt owed is as good as money, even though the majority of it is never getting paid off, and almost everyone's strategy is to default on it as soon as legally possible

      • PZK [he/him]
        ·
        edit-2
        2 years ago

        I know. It's basically saying the government won't collect on what they already spent.

        I am just framing it from the chud's point of view.

    • BerserkPoster [none/use name]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Literally. My parents wringing their hands about 40B of a one time debt forgiveness when the DoD gets like 800B dollars every year

  • ClimateChangeAnxiety [he/him, they/them]
    ·
    2 years ago

    I know that the proper way to talk to a conservative is to just call them a dumb stupid baby with baby ideas and go about your day, but holy shit things like this are infuriating and the reason why.

    How the fuck are we supposed to discuss any of this when you’re so wrong about the fundamental concepts behind why anything here works. Before we can talk about government spending you need to understand how money works!!! When they’re so wrong about the basic fundamentals we can’t go anywhere from there.

    Like there’s no good answer to this question because the right answer is “That question is fundamentally flawed and you’re a dumb stupid idiot with a baby brain for asking it”

    • Slaanesh [he/him, comrade/them]
      ·
      edit-2
      2 years ago

      That's the point. Make claims that people can grasp easily, while the refuting of the claim is exhausting and goes over people heads.

      • betelgeuse [comrade/them]
        ·
        2 years ago

        Hence why you don't focus on arguments and debate as a politician. You actually do stuff. People understand doing stuff more than some intricate ballet of technical explanations. The only reason why Fox News shit works is because Dems don't do shit. All that exists is debate. When you start doing stuff to help people, the debate shit stops working. Then conservatives have to go back to doing actual shit too. They can't just rely on telling everyone that the trans immigrant caravan is coming for everyone's bathroom toothbrushes.

        • jack [he/him, comrade/them]
          ·
          edit-2
          2 years ago

          And it's why this particular fox news tactic won't actually work, because it's in response to the rare case where dems actually did something

    • MC_Kublai [none/use name]
      ·
      edit-2
      2 years ago

      This post was therapeutic to read. Most accurate and deserved description of conservative brainrot

  • hexaflexagonbear [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    It's so funny that no one in the media is pointing out that this isn't a free handout, it's a small bribe so people don't get mad when student loan repayments start again for the first time in 2.5 years.

  • Wertheimer [any]
    ·
    2 years ago

    So, according to these people, student debt is essential to the funding of the war machine, just as the prospect of student debt is essential to the staffing of the war machine. It sure sounds dystopian when you put it that way.

  • Abraxiel
    ·
    2 years ago

    They already paid it. They're just not going to collect any more. It's so very literally just numbers in a book at this point

  • HumanBehaviorByBjork [any, undecided]
    ·
    2 years ago

    "noooooo stop saying MMT is real, the government can't just print money to pay for social goods." :wojak-nooo:

    and then you ask them why the national debt has done literally nothing to effect the US economy despite steadily growing relative to GDP for the last 20 years

  • stigsbandit34z [they/them]
    ·
    2 years ago

    A reminder that this joke of a news outlet (that is akin to a tabloid magazine) is uncritically promoted by the US entertainment behemoth because it's watched by so many fascist-lite zoomers and decaying-brained boomers

  • ThisMachinePostsHog [they/them, he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Real talk, I don't know shit about economics or taxes. When it comes to the student loan forgiveness, is it really as simple as the White House just erasing the debt? Are normal people going to pay on this with their taxes? Because I'm getting so annoyed at my family going, "Hurr durr, you liberals took out a student loan and are expecting ME to pay for it?"

    • DefinitelyNotAPhone [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      is it really as simple as the White House just erasing the debt?

      :yes-sicko:

      Something like 95% of student loans in the US are handed out by the Department of Education, who receive an IOU for the amount + interest. As the debt holder, the DoE can simply rip up the IOU at any point without any money needing to be created (because the actual money was already loaned out years/decades ago and they're just waiting for the IOU to be paid). The president could tell the DoE to cancel 95% of all student loan debt in the US on a whim without needing a single dollar from the Treasury or Congress.

    • discountsocialism [none/use name]
      ·
      2 years ago

      They are called SLABS, student loan backed securities. It's not just some magic number the government can delete. A bunch of student loans are packaged up and sold to investors in private markets. I'm sure these investors have been pretty angry about the student loan repayment pause so they will be happy that those securities have gotten a lot safer.

  • buh [any]
    ·
    2 years ago

    lol at putting all the zeros to exaggerate an amount that is less than the annual military budget

  • DrunkUncle [none/use name]
    ·
    2 years ago

    It was paid for when the loans were given out you fucking morons. It’s the money that keeps those millions of people with jobs on college campuses employed, it’s what keeps the economies of small college towns from collapsing, etc etc.

    The money has already been given out they don’t need more you idiots. Fuck.

    • SoyViking [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Not only do this money keep colleges in business, it is also an enormous handout to employers who gets skilled workers without having to invest in their training.

  • UlyssesT [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    "handout"

    What's it called when Big Bill Bumblefuck's Boat Emporium and the owner's failsons want more dollarydoos, then? :lenin-rage:

  • BigAssBlueBug [they/them]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Adding more zeros onto the number until boomers brains fry and they go ape mode and throw their liquidy greasy shit at the nearest black guy