And nursing is being automated. This doesn’t mean nurses will be replaced by robots, but it DOES mean many of their tasks will be augmented by automation meaning each hospital will need fewer nurses (and doctors, for that matter). This isn’t some far-off scifi future, this is a process that has already begun.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352013218301765
Yep, give it another 15 years, and I’ll be the only one with a job.
I gotta ask, what field are you in? 
Dog grooming.
Even if you could make a robot to do it, I don’t think clients will be very comfortable handing their precious pooch over to it.
And the pay’s not that bad, most of my full time employees are in the mid or upper 30’s. A couple broke $40k last year, and that is with being shut down for 2 months. We do all our own training, no schooling needed.
Just for the record, I am absolutely fine with anything that makes repayment easier, including giving students a chance to modify interest rates, length of the loan, forbearance, and whatever else. I’d probably be okay with discharging a portion of the loan without an impact on credit ratings if hardship can be demonstrated. And of course, ultimately discharging the loan in bankruptcy court.
But I think holding the borrower at least somewhat accountable isn’t all that unfair, and I am not convinced that discharging large sums of debt on a wide scale is good economics in the long run. One problem I’ve alluded to is the issue or moral hazard as it relates to the borrower, but also consider the institution itself: one of the reasons school tuition is so inflated right now is because it gets access to loan money that the student or the taxpayer pays off. The immediate economic concern of the institution is to keep the spigot of federally-backed loans turned on without regard for long term consequences. So the money keeps coming in, and because hundreds of schools are competing for higher ed cash, they keep building state-of-the-art facilities and building bureaucracies, each institution outdoing the other.
I don’t see the good of relieving students of their obligations if we’re not also concerned with how to control the growth of the costs in tuition altogether. In fact, we’re not even a year into a pandemic that has laid bare the unsustainability of the economic model that is higher ed in America today
And as an employer, worst case scenario you can save up and buy a couple of PoochWasher3000’s and keep raking it in 
Okay, so put a penalty on the institutions as well.
If they are not providing the “product” that society is asking of them, then they should get punished for it.
If a loan gets forgiven, then make them pay for a portion of that.
Nobody screwed you over. The government made a dumb decision, which allowed banks and colleges to screw them. They said “no banking institution in their right mind would loan tens of thousands of dollars to teenagers with zero credit or employment history, and rightly so, so what we’ll do is guarantee the loan, that way the bank takes on no risk for making such foolish loans”. Would you give thousands of dollars to a child and realistically expect that child to pay it back? If you did, I’d say that’s your problem to deal with, not the child’s.
Well, now we’re saying the time has come for the government to make good on its guarantee, and then never make such a stupid policy decision again. And next year, when nobody can afford to go to college, tuition will fall until they can, or the government will finally get its head out of its ass and fund higher education just like they fund elementary and high school education. Both scenarios will cause tuition to fall, as it should. Inflated tuition is the actual problem here, not poor kids barely scraping by after being told their entire lives this was their ticket to success.
As well as qualification inflation.
There are plenty of jobs out there that do not require a college degree to perform, but they won’t even look at your resume unless you have one.
I think there has to be a path between outright forgiveness and “you made your bed now sleep in it”.
Just spitballing here, but maybe something like have the government take over all of the loans, reduce the interest rate to near zero, and then require a minimum payment equal to 5% of your taxable income to be paid with your federal taxes.
I chose to go to colleges that were inexpensive because they offered a good education, even though they lacked the pizzazz of other places. For example, the California system includes community colleges, state colleges and the University of California system. By being willing to work my way through the various levels, I was able to get a superior education at far less money than at places like the University of Southern California…not that it isn’t a good school, but it is expensive. (I also lived like a monk, as I worked my way through on my own, except my graduate school which was paid for partly by my veterans benefits)
So choose a less expensive school. It may not have the same cachet, but after you get that first job, the source of that degree is far less important than your actual performance.
Also, choose a degree that has good prospects for well paying jobs. You may be surprised that your profession interests can be accommodated in something other than your personal interests.
Dopers above have mentioned the inflated cost of education. They are correct. It is much more difficult to work and go to school full time as I did.
I feel for those who have large debts without the reward of an appropriately financially rewarding job in the working world, but I don’t think all of us should pay for their choices.
How about, the schools and banks that drove the cost of education so ludicrously high in the first place pay for THEIR choices?
While that sounds good at a glance, would the same principle apply if I wanted a 4000 sq ft house? I want it, and so the developer and lending institution should lower or forgive the price as I consider it ludicrously high?
We allow 18 year olds to make many important decisions…voting, join the military and so forth. Why not hold them responsible for what college to go to?
I do agree that tuition is too high. But public institution’s cost can be controlled by the voters. Private institutions can charge whatever they want. That is why I made my choices. And nearly every person going to college gets to make that choice.
I would argue that the difference is, it is in the public interest for there to be a well-educated workforce, both as this makes American workers able to produce more and capitalizes on our relative advantage compared to other nations AND because a more educated population makes wiser policy decisions, which is key in a democracy.
I would also argue that you having a place to live so you are not homeless is in the public interest, but specifically having a 4,000 sq ft home as you noted is not of any more benefit than you having a roof over your head.
Happily voted no forgiveness and I bet drinking the tears of many of them would be an excellent cocktail mixer.
Person Z is someone on Twitter calling Sallie Mae a terrorist organization with $75,000 in debt. Of course, that’s in between posting about all the new vinyl albums that they got. And, Covid was such a bitch, gotta get a home peloton machine.
Nope, I’m all about the studio apartment with the mattress on the floor and a bare bulb for light.
Yep
Two years in a CA Community college is free or close to it. Two more years at Cal State is about $5000. Books etc not included. Now, if your parents arent rich and you can deal with some bureaucracy there are many, many grant programs, I got a couple small ones, my Dad was a veteran, for example. So, you can get that sheepskin for about $5k, let us say.
Thus why the $60000 student loans? Because they were talked into much more expensive choices, like UCLA or even trump Univ or other scam schools.
So why do we need to bail them out?
I dont want them to be in crippling debt for life either. If the debt is truly onerous, I support allowing it to be discharged in Chapter 7.
But no, let us not just write everyone- whether they need it or not, even if the parent are millionaires, even if they got a $250K job - a big fat check.
Can you give your family a middle class lifestyle as a teacher? A Social Worker (that one usually requires a Masters)? With a Theatre degree? Library Science (again, requires a Masters)? Early Childhood Development (Daycares are not known for their high pay scales)? Especially after figuring in your debt load there are plenty of jobs where they want four year degrees - or more - that don’t pay well.
And often because they could get into a more expensive school. In a lot of states, the state four year schools are competitive - because they ARE “affordable.” Have a B- average, and forget about it. But there are private schools who will happily take you. Not the great ones, but some perfectly decent ones.
Good points. Look, dont go to Harvard unless you can afford it. Grants, scholarships, family support, or yes - student loans you can & will repay.
This where I am right now.
As I said in the other thread, blanket forgiveness feels like the wrong solution to the wrong problem. To start, with only about 1 out of 3 adults having a college degree, this feels like it’s a nice gift to the upper half of the economic bracket - not quite a tax break for the 1%, but it’s uncomfortably in that direction for me.
Also, is the plan to do this again in 10-15 years when debt balloons up again (because it will)?
I’d be more amenable to allowing discharge in bankruptcy after a certain amount of time, or capping interest at a certain percentage of the loan*, or allowing payback programs that are based on a percentage of salary and end after X years.
I also like the idea of putting schools more on the hook for loans (e.g., if students don’t graduate in so many years, the school is on the hook for the interest, while the student only has to pay back the principal).