Some initial thoughts on the declaration by the Biden administration regarding student loan forgiveness:
I think this may be cover for a collapsing college system in terms of enrollment and students not paying back their loans. Many people obtained degrees that were not useful in the workplace (I don't think college degrees should be a requirement of any job, expect for maybe a couple). Pastors/priests should have degrees to show that they adhere to the faith if you will.
This reminds me of Obamacare in some ways with forcing everyone to pay for something that is collapsing. I think that Obamacare was cover for a collapsing hospital system, and the COVID response may have been the same thing.
A lot of training should be done on the job site. As far as I know, engineers learned engineering at the workplace not too long ago and not at schools. The colleges and the universities are an entrenched lobbying group and want to have the guaranteed federal money to justify high tuition. The federal government should have never been involved in this business.
This is also a tax in disguise. If you think about it, many of these loans were never going to be paid. So, the forgiveness will be taxed next year as income as far as I know. So, the borrower will have to pay tax money on this (an unexpected surprise for many).
Lastly, I don't think the executive branch has the unilateral authority to grant this forgiveness. It should be struck down by the courts in a sane world, but I don't think that sane world has existed for a long time.
P.S. Colleges like Hillsdale College that don't take any federal funding may be the future of college in the United States. I would personally recommend a college that does not take federal funding to avoid the evils of DIE policies and other initiatives.
$125k is twice the average income in the US for people who work fulltime. That's a long shot from being some downtrodden poor who can't make payments.
$125k is also more than almost all college graduates make.
This loan forgiveness is going to cost $300 billion in the first year. Without the $125k limit it would "only" go up to $344b. Meaning this is WAY more than just a handful of people who couldn't pay it back anyway. It's almost all of college students and graduates.
It also disproportionately benefits people in the top income brackets.
Because the upper income brackets start way below $125k (which is $250k for couples). $125k/$250k is more than most people make.