Democratic Primaries
Related: About this forumRather than just paying off student loans, why not give *everyone* that sort of financial security?
This is my problem with both Warren's and Sanders's student loan plans: they would do a lot for me, a college graduate with a few dozen thousand dollars of loans still to pay off, and do precisely zero for my brother and sister in law, an electrician and waitress respectively, who never went to college. I would love to have that debt paid off, but I absolutely am not going to campaign on something that gives me tens of thousands of dollars and gives them nothing.
This is why (and, come on, you knew this was coming) I support Andrew Yang. His proposal for a Freedom Dividend for all adult citizens would let people with student loans use the money to pay those loans off, while not leaving people who never got to go to college out in the cold.
We shouldn't limit our proposals to just the richest part of the population. We should be advocating programs that help all Americans. I don't want to run on giving me money and giving my brother nothing. Help us both. Vote Yang.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
Blues Heron
(5,898 posts)Does your sister want to be a waitress all her life? This would help people like her.
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
Mr.Bill
(24,103 posts)besides being a waitress and going to college. I'm 66 years old and retired. I'm not going to college.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
Recursion
(56,582 posts)He's damn good at it, and we need electricians. He's also an IBEW union organizer. He and my sister are literally the base of this party.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
Blues Heron
(5,898 posts)for whatever they want to learn, not just college. It does have to be expanded as widely as possible.
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
herding cats
(19,549 posts)The list is much longer, but the fact remains some people actually want to do, and excel at, jobs which don't require college degrees. Granted, most of my list require apprenticeships, and then years of hours to advance through the master licensing phase, but they're earning as they're learning and advancing. There's nothing wrong with being a blue collar worker if a person chooses such. They often pay better than college degreed jobs.
Antidotal aside, I have a family member who is a waitress. She has a business degree, she was a flight attendant and she walked away. Her 5 year plan (now almost 4 years in) is a food truck, and her own business. She's saved more than her goal to date.
On edit: For clarity to others, my reply was to your original post before your edit.
You said:
Does your sister want to be a waitress all her life? This would help people like her.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
OneMoreCupOfCoffee
(314 posts)College is not the only path.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
Recursion
(56,582 posts)We should help both of us. Yang's proposal of a Freedom Dividend lets both me and my brother benefit from the strength of the American economy. I may use that money to pay off my student loans; he may use it to build a treehouse for his kids. Or for something else. That's the whole point: it lets citizens decide how to spend at least a portion of the amazing amount of wealth the US economy produces.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
ehrnst
(32,640 posts)After all:
Joe Biden scored the endorsement Saturday of a major transit union that officially backed Bernie Sanders in 2016.
Joe has been very supportive of the labor movement for the last 40 years. He stands for working families. We recognize hes a great candidate, John Costa, international president of the 200,000-member Amalgamated Transit Union, told POLITICO. We think Joe can beat Donald Trump.
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/02/01/biden-amalgamated-transit-union-endorsement-110153
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
PETRUS
(3,678 posts)I have a couple of thoughts (but no conclusions):
The first is that I think tuition-free college is a good idea that would ultimately benefit everyone, including people who don't attend. But that and/or student loan forgiveness does require an adjustment period, and many people will probably feel as though they got the shaft, and/or were passed over.
The second is that the people proposing tuition-free college and student loan forgiveness are also proposing a lot of other policy changes. The economy has a lot of moving parts, and the net effect would depend on not just the one policy, but what else is in place.
I don't have a settled opinion about a UBI, but I've been trying to study up on it.
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
Recursion
(56,582 posts)I've lived in countries with free or highly subsidized tuition, and I think it's important to recognize them. First off they wind up being much much more selective about who can go to college than we are in the US. In Germany, you take a test when you're 12 that basically decides whether you get to go to college or not. When we moved to France last year I thought "hey, maybe I'll get my portfolio together and go to conservatory": no, it's only for students 25 and younger -- that's another thing: countries that do this give a student one shot at college, and that's it. I don't know if Americans would like that idea.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
redqueen
(115,096 posts)or not even able to get disability despite being disabled - they need help too. So many people besides college graduates are struggling.
A trickle up economy is something we should have tried long ago. It's time.
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
Recursion
(56,582 posts)Trickle-up is the way to go. Let's end the humiliating requirements and hoops people have to jump through to get Disability payments. Just give everybody their dividend. That will help every neighborhood at the local level.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
msongs
(67,193 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
OneMoreCupOfCoffee
(314 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
kcr
(15,300 posts)I remember the same kind of selfishness when many people were losing their homes during the crash. Plenty of people against mortgage relief for the same reasons.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden