Student Debt Forgiveness Even States Could Do
Student loan debt keeps piling up. This is mostly a government problem as they fuel the tire fire and it will be their books that get wrecked. Simple forgiveness would be a taxpayer bailout of irresponsible or time delayed quasi-forgiveness as USG already has set in place. A simple forgiveness may not fly, but one never knows if or when the left will junk any concerns, even financial, of the hated kulak class. This debt load is widespread enough to have broad, long term effects on the nation all in the name of debt slavery.
There could be a quick fix for this. Forget the ladies of OnlyFans who have taken non-dischargeable debt + eroded social norms + sex positivity to create feminist approved and empowering sex slavery to pay off their debts. Not everyone is sexy. Plus, that does not work for male students and the $192 billion held by people over 50. An opportunity for all would be best if the forgiveness could also be framed as a way to provide a positive for society rather than just a write off.
Community Service!
Forget debtors prison. Use another piece of the criminal justice system: community service. There are countless government programs, schools and other entities that receive government funds that would gladly take in an extra hand. Think of retirement homes that receive copious federal and state money. They could easily become an entity that records your community service, bringing joy to the lonely, bored or abandoned elderly in the process. Like dogs? Bring a dog to an old folks' home or maybe a children's hospital ward and brighten up someone's day.
In the scheme, time becomes money. This does not equate perfectly, but there could be a way to align time served with the debt forgiven. Maybe a person who owes $40,000 can knock it down to $25,000, and if there is no cap on time served for debt forgiveness, they could work it entirely off. We do forms of this in some states with teachers and their loans as well as doctors and medical school debt. Skeptics would argue this could be gamed and rigged so that people become "no shows". Got a simple fix for that. Anyone busted for scamming this not only maintains their debt, but the enabling person lying about their service is fined the equivalent dollar amount.
Community service is an easy program to track in our criminal justice system. Many social group have two types of young volunteers: those seeking to polish their college application profile and those that need a sign off from an employee to log the time served. This would be debt forgiveness with a taxpayer bailout, but there would be services provided in place. What would the social boost and community environment be like if the young and even middle aged were forced to interact with their community? It would be an orchestrated, forced weapon against atomization, but the knock on effects are unknown. If Pokémon Go can transform a dog shelter's finances and connect people with pets, imagine integrating the smartphone set into their surroundings.
Not every gain is on a ledger, not every positive hits GDP. Something will be done with student debt. Not just the current debt, but how it is accrued and handled going forward. The Left will do nothing about costs, so even forgiveness may not protect the universities from the backlash and disengagement coming their way. This might be a goofy scheme, but forcing civic engagement may transform enough Millenials from zombies to active participants in America.