| > Student debt is mostly held by the richer half of the US population It's mostly held by the federal government. It's mostly owed by the richer half, but that's misleading when it comes to impact. Sure, households in the bottom half of the top quintile have twice the average student loan debt of those in the bottom quintile, they also have more than 10 times the income. The average student debt in the bottom quintile ($25,030) is about the upper income limit ($27Kish as of 2020) of the bottom quintile, while the average in the bottom half of the top quintile (80-89th percentile, $51,380) is a little.more than 1/3 the lower limit ($143K in 2020) of the top quintile. (And the upper half of the top income quintile actually has a lower average student debt that the bottom half, or the whole of the next highest income quintile, not just a lower average student debt to income ratio.) The share of households with any student debt and the average household student debt-to-income ratio decreases consistently with household income. See, https://www.businessinsider.com/personal-finance/average-stu... and https://www.taxpolicycenter.org/statistics/household-income-... EDIT: To directly answer your question: > Serious question: would it do more good if instead of giving money to people with student debt, you gave money to people without it? Would it do more good to relieve 75% of bottom-income-quintile households (student debt relief) or 25% (anti student debt relief)? Clearly the former. |