I thought the Reddit buzz would be more positive than it is. The woeful stories of student loan debt are quite prevalent there, and I just figured that this news would be warmly received. But I keep hearing expressions like, “I bet the kid who worked himself through school is pissed off!” or “I bet the 2018 graduates are feeling salty right now!”
I totally understand why someone might feel some kind of way if they missed an opportunity like this. But pissed off? Salty? I dunno, those seem like extreme reactions to something positive. I’m wondering if even if a lot of people are feeling pissed off and salty, is that really a good reason NOT to do things like this. After all, isn’t any charitable act bound to elicit butthurt in someone? “YOU SAVED MY NEIGHBOR FROM THE FIRE BUT YOU DIDN’T SAVE ME, SO I HAD TO JUMP OUT OF THE WINDOW! HOW DARE YOU NOT HELP ME TOO!”
Elizabeth Warren wants to waive some portion of debt for students who are still paying off their loans. I think this is a great idea as long as there are some reasonable limits and conditions. And yet the chorus of butthurt rings out from the masses: “I just paid off my loans! I’ll be damned if some other guy gets a helping hand that no one offered me!” Or “NO TOLD THOSE LOSERS TO TAKE OUT STUDENT LOANS! THEY NEED TO SUFFER THE CONSEQUENCES OF THEIR ACTIONS JUST LIKE THE REST OF US!”
What kind of mentality causes this reaction? I can’t even think of the best metaphor to describe it. Crabs in a barrel? Misery loves company? It’s like some people believe that if help is going to be meted out, either everyone gets helped or no one gets helped. But doesn’t this ensure that NO ONE is helped? Is no one getting helped better than only some people getting helped?
Crabs in a barrel I assume. Sadly this mentality is used by the powerful to keep everyone down by dividing people by race and class to keep them divided while they are being robbed.
Another thing that causes a lot of rage and resentment is when someone deemed an inferior is doing better than you.
I paid off my student loans but would happily welcome tuition free public college for the next generation of kids. That should be the dream, to make the world a better place for the next generation so they don’t have to share your struggles.
As someone who had to work all through college and who also worked her butt off to pay my students loans in full I am thrilled that someone did something that nice and generous for those graduates. Good on him, and good for them.
But then, I’m a weirdo who believes in lifting up others to improve the world rather than cutting others down to be on the top of the manure heap.
People naturally want equality. To see others get helped but oneself not, triggers resentment. I’ve seen warnings about not to help panhandling orphans in some places of the world because if you help some but not others, it causes strife - which seems nonsensical to me, but people have a hard-wired desire for equality.
People hate equality. They actually don’t want everyone to be helped. They want themselves to be helped, screw everyone else. I really doubt that the Morehouse graduates who are going to benefit from this windfall are feeling any resentment over the fact that their brothers in preceding classes won’t be getting any help. No, the resentment is only on the side of those who ain’t getting nothing.
I mean, it’s 100% understandable, but it has nothing to do with anger over unfairness or inequality. If this were true, we’d all be bitter and resentful all the time.
But that is the equality I was referring to. The “push for equality” almost invariably comes from those who did not get something, as opposed to it being from those who had it.
I disagree totally. Some people want equality and some people want hierarchies where those at the top have more status, privilege, rights and options than those lower than them.
In America, any period of egality and equality seems to lead to a resurgence in people embittered by the new society. The 1860s, 1920s, 1960s and today are seeing resurgence of people fighting to maintain rigid class structures because the people who support these structures benefit from them.
If that push never comes from those who’d already benefitted, then it’s not a push for equality, it’s a push for “what about ME?!” If those same people claiming to care about equality were to get theirs, at the expense of someone else not getting theirs, they’d be satisfied and silent.
It’s an opportunity cost thing. How much fun could those graduates have had by taking out MORE debt to live larger as a college student, had they known? Those who did so were essentially rewarded for doing so, while those who didn’t were essentially penalized, or at best not rewarded for doing the right thing all along.
It seems kind of unfair in a sense; maybe he should have said something like “I’m going to pay every Morehouse graduate this year the average amount of student debt across the class.”
That way, someone who managed to graduate without debt gets something for their thrift (or luck), and those with debt get something too.
For the resentful butthurt types out there I propose a long term tax break to compensate them for the tuition they did pay off. I also propose lenders assume the debt from students who do not graduate or find useful employment so that they’ll stop lending money to people they know have no chance of paying it off.
The solution to the overall problem in the future is low cost education through public schools. It should cost very little to get a college degree, just enough to make sure you are serious about it. If you want to attend fancy schmancy expensive universities pay for it yourself.
I couldn’t care less about the billionaire giving his money away. I don’t care about somebody gifting other people free stuff.
But who is going to pay for the loans Warren is talking about? The lenders aren’t just going to shrug that off. That’s IS going to be paid for, somehow.
If it’s Jeff Bezos or Bill Gates, or whoever, voluntarily, fine. If she sets up a govt equivalent of a gofundme, fine.
If it’s me? Yeah, fuck that. I paid my own loans. I’m not going to pay for yours too. Why the hell should I? You knew the deal, and if you didn’t, you’re dumb. I’ll give charity to people of my choice thankyouverymuch.
Lenders are usually willing to give people breaks through credit consolidation, but they don’t wipe the slate clean. They aren’t doing that out of the kindness of their hearts either, they do it because they don’t want people declaring bankruptcy and getting nothing.
I do think you should be able to declare bankruptcy to get out of student loans if necessary. That 2013 change was wrong imo. Bringing that back might make lenders think twice about the amount of debt they put on people.
It has nothing to do with equality. It’s about someone getting a benefit that someone else believes they aren’t “entitled”, or they’re not getting it themselves.
I’m going to a state college and have some debt because it’s impossible to work full-time AND have adequate time and energy to devote to my studies. When I read about this billionaire I thought, “Wow, that’s great!” I had no idea I should be pissed off.
I think the way both you and ** Velocity** describe it are valid, and pretty much the same thing. You get right to the point, it’s pure jealousy, “You’re getting something I’m not and that’s wrong because…”. The reasoning for why it’s wrong varies with the person, sometimes it’s about “You’re getting preferential treatment”, or “You don’t deserve preferential treatment”, or “I want preferential treatment too”.
Obviously this kind of childish reasoning is not expressed with any eloquence, or not expressed at all. Often the resentful person simply assumes their feelings must be justified and can’t come up with a reason themselves, but they can certainly listen to rabble-rousers who give them a justification for their feelings.
These feelings aren’t always a result of absolute immaturity though, life can be more unfair to some than most to the point where the resentment is inescapable.
I was in a senior level 20th Century Lit class in college–tiny little class, fewer than a dozen English majors. The entire grade for the class was to be based on a final essay, on the topic of our choosing, to be turned in at the end of the semester. Kind of a high stakes class for Very Serious English Majors…and me. Anyway, with about a month before the end of the semester, the professor was chatting with the group. “Has everyone decided what they want to write about?” I remember having a lot of trouble coming up with anything, and it must have shown on my face because Prof turned to me and said, “What’s on your mind?” I went into a decent summary of common themes and potential topics, but said I kept landing on one thread common to all the works we’d read for the class: Reality is limited to the individual’s perception, and perception is a terribly limited conduit for something as infinite as reality. Therefore, how could anyone speak with authority about anything without betraying that one underlying concept? Sure, I can tell you what I think, but in doing so I’d also have to acknowledge you may completely disagree based on your own perceptions, so what is the point? Professor thought about it for a second and amended the grading criteria for the class. “I don’t want an essay. Give me something you’ve made, instead.” Not just for me, but that option was available for the entire class.
I made cookies, I got an A. Some of the less adventurous students, who had already largely completed their essays, ‘made’ him an essay and got graded according to however insightful and well-written their work was, which wasn’t pleasant because this particular prof was notoriously difficult to get an A out of. There were complaints to the department head, Prof played the tenure card and invited the department head to piss up a rope. At least three of the students didn’t speak to me ever again.
It was his money to do with as he pleases, and I get to criticize his spending however I like. It was a dumb gimmicky stunt and to me it represents some of the problems with letting people amass wealth of that magnitude.
If he’d put the same money into a new scholarship fund, the cries of “What about me, I didn’t get that scholarship” would have been close to nonexistent.
Sucks to be next years commencements speaker, even if they don’t have the kind of wealth that allows this kind of largesse the headlines will be “No loan forgiveness for Morehouse students this year, commencements speaker just a smart woman”.
I think you have your dates off. Prior to 1976, student loan debt was dischargeable in bankruptcy. After that, the law was changed to require a certain period of time repaying the loan before it was eligible for bankruptcy discharge. In 2005, the rules were changed to make it more difficult to discharge, now requiring an undue hardship. This standard is very high.