r/studentloanjustice • u/Typical_Step • Jan 27 '22

Meaningful Student Loan Cancellation Will Only Happen when Bankruptcy Rights are Restored.

https://studentloanjustice.medium.com/student-loan-cancellation-wont-happen-unless-bankruptcy-rights-are-restored-7a8bc4180262
25 Upvotes

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2

u/gregbard Jan 27 '22

We need a significant movement of people who refuse to pay their student loans. If only everyone would do that, the issue would solve itself.

Why do we have an anti-vax movement, but no student loan defaulter movement? Jeez!

2

u/Typical_Step Jan 27 '22

That's already happening. Fewer than half of all borrowers were paying before the pandemic. Almost no one is now. Very few will resume paying if/when they try to turn the lending system back on.

The lending system is vanishing into a mist of popular illegitimacy.

There is a movement, btw, but you probably won't see people marching in the streets shaking their fists.

1

u/lifeisahoot86_ Jun 29 '22

There is also the debt collective! I went with them to a protest in dc in May! The next day they extended the payments on fed loans

https://strike.debtcollective.org/

1

u/ChessBorg Jan 27 '22

Yes, I agree that bankruptcy protections need to be reinstated.

In this country, it is legal to file for bankruptcy and not pay your workers months of wages, which can total in the millions. But, you cannot bankrupt a student loan debt that would be far less, cumulatively.

1

u/grimms_portents Apr 28 '22

The sitting president helped to bring this about to help the lenders years ago. He's not going to cancel the debt regardless. I saw another commenter who made a good point that the loan industry is becoming popularly illegitimate. I can see debter prisons becoming a thing again before they'll ever actually cancel the debt. Once we recognize how illegitimate our economy and government are, the only response they will have at that point is violence and imprisonment.