Rant: Got shut down for saying student loan forgiveness hurts people who paid theirs off

Last month at a dinner party in Austin, I mentioned that blanket loan forgiveness feels unfair to folks who worked extra jobs to pay off their debt. My friend's sister got super defensive and told me I was 'invalidating people's struggles.' I wasn't even trying to argue policy, just pointing out a real-world effect. Has anyone else brought up this angle and gotten stonewalled immediately?

2 comments

2 Comments

richardknight12d ago

My neighbor and I had this exact same conversation last year. We just sat down and I told him straight up that I worked 60 hour weeks for three years to pay my loans off early. I didn't say his situation was wrong or easy, I just asked him if he could see how that might sting a little to watch someone else get the same debt erased for free. After that we actually had a decent talk about maybe targeting forgiveness toward people with the highest interest rates instead of everyone.

ramirez.sage13d ago

I brought this up with my cousin in San Antonio and got the same defensive reaction until I said "invalidating people's struggles" back to her. I told her I understood why people feel that way but that my feeling of being penalized for paying off my loans was also valid. She finally listened when I just asked her to see it from my side without agreeing with me.