Student loan forgiveness is being taken seriously right now by the bourgeoisie.

The Federal interest rate going near 0% has led to a massive boom in housing construction. Student loan deferment has led to many people saving up for a down payment on a house. The housing market is carrying the US economy right now.

If student loan deferment ends, this space that Capital found for expansion will disappear. There will be an immediate crisis.

Also, the effort to privatize student loans has been a failure. Betsy DeVos has been the Secretary of Education most dedicated to privatization. She killed the Perkins Loan, which has led many new students to private loans.

Although, after her reign, 92% of public student loan debt are still held by the Department of Education. It is unlikely that the Biden SoE will be more successful at speeding up the process. Capital is in crisis now.

Forgiving public debts is a method of privatization in America, where a culture of indebtedness exists. They want everyone with public student loans to take out private mortgages, owned by JPMorgan, Citigroup, etc.

I'm not saying student loan forgiveness is good or bad. It is good for me. But it serves a purpose that we should understand.

  • Bread_In_Baltimore [he/him]
    ·
    4 年前

    They're fucking idiots if they don't do it honestly. Not only would it transfer large portions of young peoples income to private banks, but home ownership Is the easiest way to give workers a stake in Capitalism. Two of millennials' top issues are student loan debt and their inability to buy homes, and we have seen a big uptick in anticapitalist sentiment among them largely due to these two issues.

    • PhaseFour [he/him]
      ·
      4 年前

      Their hesitation is because student loans discipline labor.

      The threat of student loans is the major reason I can't rock the boat at my job.

        • PhaseFour [he/him]
          ·
          4 年前

          100%

          Teachers went on strike in my city last Wednesday. The School Board revoked their health care Tuesday night.

          There was massive community support for the teachers, and the Board capitulated to their demands in a day. But still, it clearly illustrated the role of employer-based health insurance to people here.

          • Electrickoolaide32 [he/him]
            ·
            4 年前

            Anyone that yanks health care during a pandemic earns a date with the business end of a crowbar

            • PhaseFour [he/him]
              ·
              4 年前

              It became a huge scandal that hasn't let up yet (thankfully). The Board is trying to save-face right now, but people are pissed.

              They will probably get voted out next year. They deserve much worse lol

        • Infamousblt [any]
          ·
          4 年前

          And retirement via 401k / roth IRA / whatever the fuck people are doing. Tying literally your entire life to your job, every SINGLE aspect of it, is crucial towards maintaining a docile and servile labor force.

      • grey_wolf_whenever [he/him]
        ·
        4 年前

        This, plus the runaway engine of punishment. The individual actors in America arent thinking about "how can we keep capitalism going" but they do often think "young people deserve to be buried in debt."

      • acealeam [he/him]
        ·
        4 年前

        The crazy high unemployment should also be doing that

        • PhaseFour [he/him]
          ·
          4 年前

          Great point. The reserve supply of labor is high. Back when unemployment was around 3%, they needed other tools of labor discipline (student loans). They are less needed now, so the bourgeoisie are more willing to consider student loan forgiveness.

      • Bread_In_Baltimore [he/him]
        ·
        4 年前

        This is true, but as someone pointed out, unemployment can serve this function, as well as the threat of underemployment via the gig economy. Mortgages are another way to discipline labor, and it's one that private banks can profit off of more directly than student loans. Once you own a home, you will run yourself ragged to hold onto it.

        I honestly have no idea what is going to happen wrt student debt. I think it's one of the only concessions neoliberals might dole out exactly for the reasons laid out in this thread. But at the same time I'm not sure of it, because they get some kind of sick pleasure out of the misery they inflict on the working class. I guess we will just have to see.

        • PhaseFour [he/him]
          ·
          4 年前

          I was just about to respond to that post:

          Great point. The reserve supply of labor is high. Back when unemployment was around 3%, they needed other tools of labor discipline (student loans). They are less needed now, so the bourgeoisie are more willing to consider student loan forgiveness.

      • PhaseFour [he/him]
        ·
        4 年前

        They need people to buy their shit. There is an over-production of houses right now.

      • Bread_In_Baltimore [he/him]
        ·
        4 年前

        I think we on the left have a tendency to underestimate how scared of us the Bourgeoisie really is. We had massive violent uprisings all over the country this summer, uniting working class people of all races in opposition to the Bourgeoisie's tool of enforcement. Police precincts being burned down, people shooting each other, and long term sustained and even organized clashes with the police in Portland. Sure, they didn't win anything but still that scares the shit out of the porkies. Even though there was bombings and shit in the 60s we didn't have thousands of young folks, particularly young white folks gearing up in armor and gas masks, forming street phalanxes and pushing the police back for literally months. The hippies definitely were out in the streets but their ideology was inherently nonviolent. Young leftists today believe violence is a useful tool and are clearly willing to use it.

        Also, while China is obviously not the USSR, they are a serious threat to US hegemony. They would much rather focus on countering China without worrying about domestic unrest. They understand that external conflict plus domestic unrest is a recipe for disaster. They are doing well with the anti-China propaganda but in the age of the internet its going to be hard to control the flow of info from east to west. Eventually people will start wondering where the mass Uyghur graves are, and start to question the narrative. And even if they don't, it's basically impossible to conceal the fact that China is doing better and better while we are doing worse and worse.

          • Bread_In_Baltimore [he/him]
            ·
            4 年前

            True I guess that wasn't entirely accurate, just that we didn't achieve our main demand.

            I think it was a pretty big victory for the Proletariat in general to show that there can be broad based cross-racial solidarity in a militant movement. If I had to guess, the Bourgeoisie will attempt to chip away at that solidarity over the next few years because it scares the shit out of them.

            • PhaseFour [he/him]
              ·
              4 年前

              If I had to guess, the Bourgeoisie will attempt to chip away at that solidarity over the next few years because it scares the shit out of them

              Heightening the divide between college educated and non-college educated workers seems to be a strategy they are considering.

              My friends from high school and I have materially been in a similar spot. I make more, but I have a shit ton of student loan debt. If my debt is forgiven, that would change. I would be able to buy a house, I could invest in the stock market, etc. My material conditions would look similar to white Boomers. My material interests would align more with Capital.

              • Bread_In_Baltimore [he/him]
                ·
                4 年前

                Yeah for sure. I don't have a degree because I'm a dropout but I do have debt, especially debt I've ignored for years. If that disappears, especially if they wipe it from your credit score, I could actually buy a house and a car. I wouldn't look like a suburban boomer but I'd probably look similar to gen x, able to drive a 5 year old toyota and live in a 3br townhouse etc.

                I think they will also try to separate black and white workers. Student loan forgiveness would likely help white folks more than black folks already, but they also have control over cultural hegemony. Idk what it will look like but I think they will try to drive a cultural wedge like they always have.

                • PhaseFour [he/him]
                  ·
                  4 年前

                  Student loan forgiveness would likely help white folks more than black folks already, but they also have control over cultural hegemony.

                  It will. In order to qualify for big student loans, parents need to cosign, and they check your parents income. I think student debt holders are more black, but mortgage-sized student debt holders are more white.

                  Idk what it will look like but I think they will try to drive a cultural wedge like they always have

                  I think Trump's brand of politics, anti-New World Order stuff, will continue to be a big wedge. I think that aligns with the college educated divide pretty well. The only people I know who take MSM seriously have a degree lol

                  • Bread_In_Baltimore [he/him]
                    ·
                    4 年前

                    I think Trump’s brand of politics, anti-New World Order stuff, will continue to be a big wedge. I think that aligns with the college educated divide pretty well.

                    If they can manage to make that stuff seem less racist, the GOP really would become the party of non-college educated workers. Trump made inroads with black and Hispanic voters even while ramping up the racism, if they dialed it back they could probably capture a majority of nonwhites. They don't seem to be doing that though.

              • Bread_In_Baltimore [he/him]
                ·
                4 年前

                I'm not trying to diminish BLM's wins I'm just saying they didnt do broad systemic reform to the institution of policing. They've given concessions, and that is absolutely great. Direct action works.

              • MyAltUserNameIsCool [he/him]
                ·
                4 年前

                Louisville had a huge uprising and one officer got fired and no knock warrants were banned. I know that it is technically something but I really would have liked a victory that didn't feel like a spit in the face.

      • DefinitelyNotAPhone [he/him]
        ·
        4 年前

        It doesn't matter how much wealth or power or cops they have if the majority of the proletariat turns against them. Automation requires engineers and mechanics, police forces require food, supplies, ammunition, etc. You can't maintain a power structure if a massive portion of the overall population doesn't want it to exist and is willing to tear it down themselves.

        Capital can only continue to survive if it keeps a fair chunk of the population invested in capitalism. If the entirety of Gen Z and Millennials decided they wanted socialism tomorrow morning, they're up shit creek without a paddle.

      • DirtbagVegan [he/him]
        ·
        4 年前

        If people cannot buy homes the housing market will collapse again. The immediate need is less about maintaining any self-conscious allegiance to capitalism and more about saving a specific market.

          • DirtbagVegan [he/him]
            ·
            4 年前

            Can't say I fully agree with you. The European comparison is important, and I think the market would be fine with a switch to a more rent-focused model, but that change would need to be slow. That sort of change has to be a long term, intended change, in the same way that housing market was quite consciously shifted to focus on home-ownership as the suburbs were built post WWII. It's similar to the crisis we had in 2008, I think. A lot of homes with people who can't really afford them and a housing/financial market built around mortgages.