The Student Debt Relief Bill

Okay, we need to talk about something that I'm noticing is coming up a lot with my peers.  The Student Debt Relief Bill.  I feel like every social media that I look at there are a hundred kids my age posting about how we have to pass this bill because they can't afford their college loans and what not. 

I need to make something perfectly clear.  This bill would do absolutely nothing for most of you.  It is not a magic wand that is waved over your debt and it all magically goes away.  It would make absolutely no sense for the government to just forgive millions upon millions of dollars in loans.  As awesome as it sounds for us individuals struggling with debt, when you think about the over all effect of something like that...it just doesn't make sense.

Luckily, the people who have written this bill have taken that into account.  They realize that no one is going to magically make their debt go away.  So they have factored this in, in an attempt to make a bill that seems more logical.  This is the part that I know most of you haven't read.  I can tell by the way you are all posting about how we have to pass this right now so that you can quit your second job or afford a new car or something like that.  The relief would only go into effect after you had paid off the equivalent of 10 years worth of payments.  Or 120 months worth of 10% of your income. For a lot of people, especially those with 15 year loans, that's still most of your loan.  Basically, you would still have to pay for your education.  The relief really comes in the interest.

So for all you recent graduates who think that passing this bill (which I don't exactly have high hopes for) will magically make all your money problems go away, you're wrong (and you're also an idiot for not doing some research before you signed your name on the thing).  You still have to work for it.  They aren't just going to reward you for sitting on your ass and missing payments. 

So I wouldn't skip payments assuming that all the online petitions that you're signing are going to take care of your loan debt.  And I don't think you need to keep posting the same petition on your facebook wall over and over and over.  We all know the petition exists, and honestly, if it has 1,000 signatures or a 1,000,000 signatures, I still don't think the bill will pass.  However, I'll join you in being hopeful, because if it does pass, I'm a hell of a lot closer to having my debt relieved than you are!

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