[learc83]

For federal student loans, there isn't a life of indentured servitude. There are income based repayment plans that with fairly low costs per month. A single guy working at starbucks making 30k per year would only pay about $100 per month even with a 200k loan (if he had a wife and kid, he'd pay nothing). Then after 20 years the rest is forgiven.

[macNchz]

That system exemplifies what seems to be a growing issue these days–people with too little income get programs like that to help them squeeze by, people making lots of money pay them back without a problem, and the people in between kind of float along paying enough monthly that they put off buying a house or having kids or starting a business because they have 10+ years of loan payments. The long term outcome of this doesn't seen like a healthy society to me.

[zardo]

In year 20 he pays income tax on the forgiven amount. He'd better be saving up for that.

[learc83]

That's never going to happen. Too many people are affected for congress not to act before the tax bill comes due.

The economic effects are too large for them to ignore.

[s73v3r]

Much like the economic effects of not passing a budget, or the economic effects of a temporary government shutdown for petty reasons?

[learc83]

Most people don't really care about government shutdowns because it doesn't directly cost most people much money. And, even then you'll notice the government never stays shutdown.

If government shutdowns meant a huge chunk of the voting population (across both parties) was suddenly going to owe thousands of dollars in extra taxes, you can bet they'd never happen.

[draw_down]

A lot of the loans that people hold are not federal loans.

[learc83]

There's about $1.2 trillion in outstanding student loans. $1 trillion of that is in federal student loans.