Forgive my student loan!

No one forces anyone to take a loan for anything. It is a personal descision that you make and therefore it should be a personal responsibilty to pay it back.
Not to mention, there are TONS of grants and scholarships out there to help pay for college. If fact, the less money you make, the more help there is out there.

What ever happened to working hard for what you want?

If graduates could find decent-paying work, they could pay off their loans. The problem is that, unlike when you went to college (and higher education was also less expense during your time), current economic conditions mean that many new grads are having to settle for working at Starbucks. I might also add that if you've gone through college, I don't think hard work is an area in which you are lacking. You are not looking for handouts.

College is not a right, but having college-educated citizens is essential to the future of this country. You think this country has problems now - wait 'til higher education becomes so expensive, inconvenient, and inaccessible that it becomes more advantageous for people to not go at all.

College was cheaper during my time, but our pay was also lower, it's all relative, also I was not able to claim them as a Tax deduction like your generation can, I wish I could have.

The point is I worked TWO Jobs in College and I had loans for school, I worked my butt off.

One job was getting up at 3AM to work at a Bagel place, cook and deliver to corporate clients, be at school by 9AM, then I worked from 6PM to 10PM at a retail company.

when I Graduated i did not look for a "decent-paying" I looked for work, any work, there was a point were I barely had enough for food, thank god for Soup and pasta being a $1 a box or can, I also joined the MIlitary to help pay for my Student loans, that $10K payback was worth the 8 years of service.

You see, I hear, "I went to college and now someone should hire me and pay me a lot of money"

you got to earn it, I took the first job offered, I kept looking around for better jobs, while employed, and I landed better jobs due to my work ethic, I been with the same company (Fortune 500 CO)for the last 15 years, because of my work ethic, but I started as a teacher, then moved on to a small company, worked my way up, then a large company saw my potential and work ethic...and a degree was nice....but they liked what I had to offer and it has paid off for both parties.

What companies are seeing is that current graduates have no work experience or work ethic, they do not wish to work hard, they can't handle stressful situations, what will you do when things cave in? Will you rise up and conquer the task? or will you ask someone to bail you out?

There is a difference, i've done "generational" training while the current Generation loves school, they can't handle the pressure and they need to be told they are doing well, you can see the different generation mentality here in this thread.

Only 25% of Americans Graduate from college, be glad you have a house, a car, an oppurtunity to get a college degree, but you need to EARN it, to get respect.

You keep talking about how you had "TWO" jobs. That's all fine and good for you, and I never claimed that you had it easy, but my whole point was that young people today, who typically have little-to-no work experience, are 1) having problems finding jobs in the first place, so many couldn't work their way through college like you did even if they wanted to, and 2) having problems finding jobs that would get them through college without having to use student loans. You mentioned that pay was lower during your time, but again, economic conditions were also much more favorable. When kids today DO make it through college, through no fault of their own - but rather through the fault of their parents' generation - they are confronted with economic conditions that are not conducive to people like themselves landing jobs, whether they be decent-paying or not. They are competing with older people with both degrees AND experience for even menial jobs, and oftentimes they lose out. The fact that young adults are one of the hardest-hit groups in this economy is proof of that. No one's saying it's impossible, but the claim that my generation simply isn't working hard enough and that this explains why they don't have jobs is just false.

Student loan debt is not this bad because graduates spent four years of their lives going to school and then sat back and expected things to be handed to them, rather than pursuing opportunities themselves. Of course graduates are pursuing opportunities. They just spent 4 years+ EARNING their degrees and racking up student loans on which they will also have to pay interest. Why wouldn't they then put the degree that they've earned to use? If they had no work ethic or drive, they would not have a degree in the first place. As I've said, the problem is that - through no fault of their own - the opportunities are not there for recent college grads like they used to be. We're told to go to college, work hard, and then you can "get your foot in the door" somewhere. That's not as true anymore, even for minimum wage jobs that people used to turn their noses up at.
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Frankly, I can understand both sides of the argument, but I simply take issue with people saying 1) "if you can't afford it, don't spend it", seeing as the whole reason student loans exist is because most people cannot afford a college education, but will, ideally, be able to afford to pay off the loans once they graduate and 2) "I worked my way through college and paid off every cent of my loans, so should they!", when the root of this issue is jobs in the first place. If people could find work to start paying down the loans or to work their way through college we wouldn't be having this discussion.

I'd also like to add that even if young adults are lacking in work ethic when compared to the current generation, there's something to be said for the way the current generation raised their children.

For those of you who are against it, WHY are you against it? Is it because you think it's unfair that you had to pay yours off? Student loan debt has gone up 511% since 1999...why should WE (and I say "we" meaning those who have graduated in recent years, say the last 5) have to pay 511% more for the SAME degrees the people who graduated before 1999 got?. I graduated with my Bachelor's AND Masters in less than 5 years, and my loans cost me 600$/month. The bill says that for those of us who "make payments of 10% of our discretionary income for 10 years, the remaining debt will be forgiven". I am set up on a 10 year plan because of outrageous interest rates. So if I only have 3-5,000$ left of student loans to pay after 10 years, they shouldn't be forgiven? For those of you who graduated BEFORE 1999, how much did YOUR loans cost? Let's compare. And don't get me started on the job market. The economy is slowly sinking, and we are being punished double time by paying incredible amounts of money for college and then not being able to find jobs in our fields.

And for those of you who worked during college, awesome, I did too, but I didn't work enough to survive (and if I did, I would've never went to class). If you saved before college, awesome, some of us didn't so much. Some people don't have that mindset.

Tell me, how is this any different than paying for people on welfare? You cannot deny there are many people (probably the majority) who don't need it; they're just lazy. I understand that times are hard. I won't discredit those who really need it. But there are people who have 47 (exaggeration) kids just to live off the govt. What about those of us who work HARD...we pay taxes too and are STILL in this boat. Truth is, you don't know EXACTLY where your tax money goes. It goes to welfare, pork projects, and paying our govt officials. Why not help out those who've paved a path for themselves? Put yourselves in our shoes. Don't be selfish. This plan is to try to HELP people.

Here's more, in case you want to educate yourself further.

http://hansenclarke.house.gov/sites/hansenclarke.house.gov/files/documents/10-10 Plan FAQs.pdf

http://hansenclarke.house.gov/sites/hansenclarke.house.gov/files/documents/1-pager SLFA.pdf

For those of you who are against it, WHY are you against it? Is it because you think it's unfair that you had to pay yours off? Student loan debt has gone up 511% since 1999...why should WE (and I say "we" meaning those who have graduated in recent years, say the last 5) have to pay 511% more for the SAME degrees the people who graduated before 1999 got?. I graduated with my Bachelor's AND Masters in less than 5 years, and my loans cost me 600$/month. The bill says that for those of us who "make payments of 10% of our discretionary income for 10 years, the remaining debt will be forgiven". I am set up on a 10 year plan because of outrageous interest rates. So if I only have 3-5,000$ left of student loans to pay after 10 years, they shouldn't be forgiven? For those of you who graduated BEFORE 1999, how much did YOUR loans cost? Let's compare. And don't get me started on the job market. The economy is slowly sinking, and we are being punished double time by paying incredible amounts of money for college and then not being able to find jobs in our fields.

And for those of you who worked during college, awesome, I did too, but I didn't work enough to survive (and if I did, I would've never went to class). If you saved before college, awesome, some of us didn't so much. Some people don't have that mindset.

Tell me, how is this any different than paying for people on welfare? You cannot deny there are many people (probably the majority) who don't need it; they're just lazy. I understand that times are hard. I won't discredit those who really need it. But there are people who have 47 (exaggeration) kids just to live off the govt. What about those of us who work HARD...we pay taxes too and are STILL in this boat. Truth is, you don't know EXACTLY where your tax money goes. It goes to welfare, pork projects, and paying our govt officials. Why not help out those who've paved a path for themselves? Put yourselves in our shoes. Don't be selfish. This plan is to try to HELP people.

Here's more, in case you want to educate yourself further.

http://hansenclarke.house.gov/sites/hansenclarke.house.gov/files/documents/10-10 Plan FAQs.pdf

http://hansenclarke.house.gov/sites/hansenclarke.house.gov/files/documents/1-pager SLFA.pdf

I will answer your question by asking one. Why is your debt more important then mine?

If I pay my mortgage for 10 years should the rest of the balance be forgiven? Why not?

I bought a house in 2004 for 220k. The original owner bought the house in 1954 for 12k. Why should I have to pay more for the same house? Yes my argument is a little moronic.... but it sounds familiar

We could just say that...well....your home ownership provides substantially less to society than an educated member of society....in theory lol.

I think it makes more sense to give money to help people pay down their loans then to give money to people who choose not to work Why does an educated person have to suffer when a person who chose not to go to school, have 5 kids, and not work get every kind of benefit their it. The country pays for their food, insurance, childcare, heating, electric, baby formula and other crap because they are unmotivated... seems *kitten* backwards to me!

How about we do neither?

It an f'ing LOAN! PAY IT BACK,,,,,,,,,,,WTF, Why on earth should it be forgiven, are you from Mexico?

I enjoy racism...is the pickles.

Student Loan Forgiveness...please. Why should my tax money go to pay for someone else's loans? Nobody forced them to take out big loans. I had loans while in college and for a few years after I graduated but I worked my *kitten* off to get them paid off.

For those of you who are against it, WHY are you against it? Is it because you think it's unfair that you had to pay yours off? Student loan debt has gone up 511% since 1999...why should WE (and I say "we" meaning those who have graduated in recent years, say the last 5) have to pay 511% more for the SAME degrees the people who graduated before 1999 got?. I graduated with my Bachelor's AND Masters in less than 5 years, and my loans cost me 600$/month. The bill says that for those of us who "make payments of 10% of our discretionary income for 10 years, the remaining debt will be forgiven". I am set up on a 10 year plan because of outrageous interest rates. So if I only have 3-5,000$ left of student loans to pay after 10 years, they shouldn't be forgiven? For those of you who graduated BEFORE 1999, how much did YOUR loans cost? Let's compare. And don't get me started on the job market. The economy is slowly sinking, and we are being punished double time by paying incredible amounts of money for college and then not being able to find jobs in our fields.

And for those of you who worked during college, awesome, I did too, but I didn't work enough to survive (and if I did, I would've never went to class). If you saved before college, awesome, some of us didn't so much. Some people don't have that mindset.

Tell me, how is this any different than paying for people on welfare? You cannot deny there are many people (probably the majority) who don't need it; they're just lazy. I understand that times are hard. I won't discredit those who really need it. But there are people who have 47 (exaggeration) kids just to live off the govt. What about those of us who work HARD...we pay taxes too and are STILL in this boat. Truth is, you don't know EXACTLY where your tax money goes. It goes to welfare, pork projects, and paying our govt officials. Why not help out those who've paved a path for themselves? Put yourselves in our shoes. Don't be selfish. This plan is to try to HELP people.

Here's more, in case you want to educate yourself further.

http://hansenclarke.house.gov/sites/hansenclarke.house.gov/files/documents/10-10 Plan FAQs.pdf

http://hansenclarke.house.gov/sites/hansenclarke.house.gov/files/documents/1-pager SLFA.pdf

I will answer your question by asking one. Why is your debt more important then mine?

If I pay my mortgage for 10 years should the rest of the balance be forgiven? Why not?

I bought a house in 2004 for 220k. The original owner bought the house in 1954 for 12k. Why should I have to pay more for the same house? Yes my argument is a little moronic.... but it sounds familiar

We could just say that...well....your home ownership provides substantially less to society than an educated member of society....in theory lol.

haha you could say that.

But... my property taxes provide funds to educate the youth in my town among other things. The educated unemployed deadbeat doesn't provide much of anything .

I said "in theory" lol.

but in all honesty, I think the interest rates should be kept lowered but the debt should not be forgiven.

Student Loan Forgiveness...please. Why should my tax money go to pay for someone else's loans? Nobody forced them to take out big loans. I had loans while in college and for a few years after I graduated but I worked my *kitten* off to get them paid off.

America is so right wing, it's actually Alien to me :L

Mind you, I'm shocked even by England sometimes, I guess we're just uber liberal in Edinburgh.