Debt forgiveness

[kentuck]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debt_relief#Origins

<snip>
Origins

Debt relief existed in a number of ancient societies:

Debt forgiveness is mentioned in the Book of Leviticus, in which God councils Moses to forgive debts in certain cases every Jubilee year – at the end of Shmita, the last year of the seven year agricultural cycle or a 49-year cycle, depending on interpretation.
This same theme was found in an ancient bilingual Hittite-Hurrian text entitled "The Song of Debt Release".<1>
Debt forgiveness was also found in Ancient Athens, where in the 6th century BCE, the lawmaker Solon instituted a set of laws called seisachtheia, which canceled all debts and retroactively canceled previous debts that had caused slavery and serfdom, freeing debt slaves and debt serfs.
In addition, the Qur'an (the Muslim scripture) supports debt forgiveness unable to pay as an act of charity and remission of sins for the creditor. The injunction is as follows:

If the debtor is in difficulty, grant him time till it is easy for him to repay. But, if ye remit it by way of charity, that is best for you if ye only knew.
—Qur'an 2:280

[Magoo48]

1. Forgive every student loan now. Deduct all future grants directly from Defence budget.

I've been having great ideas like this since surviving HS in 1966. Still waiting for my first call from DC. What makes sense to me don't make sense to them. Que lastima!! Go OWS.......

[kentuck]

2. That would be a good start, in my opinion...

and it would be a great stimulus for the economy.

[meow2u3]

7. If they can't forgive student loans, at least forgive the interest

Former students in debt might be able to pay the prinicipal, but usurious interest, compounded by laws that effectively legalized loan sharking for banksters, keep young people trapped in mountains and heaps of debt. The least the banks and government can do is to rework the loans to remove the compound interest.

[FBaggins]

3. That was all before fractional reserve lending.

Today the money supply rests on debt. You can't just blanket-forgive debts without collapsing the system.

[LiberalEsto]

4. But it doesn't exist for private student loans.

As I know to my sorrow.

[pipi_k]

5. So true! Those things

follow a person around like gum stuck to the bottom of one's shoe.

Ten years after stopping payment on a student loan, I needed a new car and tried to get a loan. No way. Student loan stopped me.

Although I'm glad to say I contacted them and set up payments...got it paid off.

Anyway, when I see/hear people advocate for debt forgiveness, it does sort of annoy me a bit. I wasn't making much money when I paid my student loan (plus a credit card debt), but I did it.

Would debt forgiveness be retroactive, I wonder...

[RegieRocker]

6. Ursury was a crime punishable by death.