Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/02/14/gop-wants-to-take-your-student.html
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This is literally impossible to implement when it comes to getting the employer involved. This idiot thinks that the days of people getting a Job with a company out of college and staying there for 30-40 years still exist. He’s completely out of touch with reality.
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I did my college studies in Europe, but live and work in the US. I don’t have any debt.
I spoke to a friend who did a masters in mechanical engineering (she makes satellites! It’s so cool!) at Stanford, and had to get a student loan for that. I forget the exact number, but I think her rate was ~13%. (Let’s set aside the insane cost of tuition at a private college like Stanford)
Now consider that a student loan can’t be divested through bankruptcy, so it’s practically guaranteed for the lender. It doesn’t have any of the risk that credit card debt has.
And yet, 13%. That’s higher than credit card debt rates, without the risk.
My friend had gone into it knowing the numbers, and her expected salary coming out. She nonchalantly said she’d have them paid back before she was 30. To this former-European, it’s shocking that someone starting their independent life would have to start saddled with such debt.
I don’t understand how there aren’t any heads on pikes about this. It’s usury.
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Not satisfied with simply making them literally fucking inescapable, now they want them to be automatic? Christ, what a (party of) asshole(s).
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Lamar Alexander with an estimated net worth of $16,667,518 in 2015.
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I’m curious how this would apply to people like me, who have student loan debt in the US but no longer live in the US. I guarantee my employer is not going garnish my wages and send the payments to Washington.
Not to make it all about me, but of all the people in the world who have student loans, I’m one of them…
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Once the former student gets a job and the paperwork eventually reaches the employer and the money starts coming out of the paycheck, the borrower will simply find a different job, and that will keep on practically forever. At least, that was my experience with other liens when I was a personnel manager. Remember, Lamar, that these kids are mostly smarter than you are.
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“I don’t understand how there aren’t any heads on pikes about this. It’s usury.”
No, it’s late-stage Capitalism, it’s the Republican Way.
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Neoliberalism – how’s that working out for everyone?
https://americanaffairsjournal.org/2018/02/neoliberalism-movement-dare-not-speak-name/
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They’re not very popular around here, but you can’t really blame Neoliberals for Lamar Alexander.
Once upon a time, I got behind on my child support, and the state merrily garnished my paycheck. I was, for the most part, all right with that, because I love my kid. The law limits their take to 55% of the gross, which is agonizing, but several times when my hours were reduced, they went ahead and took 100% of my pay. Try explaining that to the landlord.
The point of this story is that bureaucracies make mistakes, and a mistake in wage attachment can be really really awful. And then they suggest you hire a lawyer.
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There was a local story of a guy who realized it would take years to pay off his debt, so he decided to stop paying rent. He got a gym membership so he could shower, went to his job every day, and camped out at night in some secluded spot he found. It took him a year to completely pay it off.
I wish I’d had that idea way back when, although I probably would’ve bought a van instead of camping out, make dual payments on loans and vehicle instead of paying rent.
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This is a recipe for disaster, especially considering it would make the borrower’s amount of debt known to their employer who could easily use that information to tailor promotions, offers of overtime, and raises.
…and job offers. Most states still allow employers to run credit checks on prospective employees, even when it has nothing to do with the job or their ability to do the job, and to offer/deny employment on the basis of what they find in the credit check (which, need I remind you, is frequently low quality information provided by the fucking credit bureaus). Having to provide info to HR all about your student loans would turn out the exact same way: “Hm, says here you owe $75,000 in student loans. We’re sorry, you’re just not a good fit for us here at ShittyMcJobCorp.”
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Employers would be responsible for taking the funds from their employees’ paychecks and sending them to the government.
I wouldn’t necessarily count on it, Mr. Alexander. I once had an employer who took the Social Security tax from our paychecks, but never bothered sending it to the government.
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With a cactus!
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“Are there no prisons ? Are there no workhouses?”
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TGOP has been making money off of Americans misery for some time now, fact it’s one of their corner stones.
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“Neoliberals” in the sense of “those who advocate for neoliberal policies” - i.e. conservatives. I think we can blame conservatives for Lamar.
I’m reminded of a ne’er-do-well cousin who discovered that, 14 years previously, he had fathered a child (the mother finally realized who the father had been), and owed the state a bunch of back child support. (And since he was paying back the state, they were a lot more invested in getting it than they would have been had he been paying the mother.) His solution was to stop working entirely and let his girlfriend work full time to support him. I have to wonder how many people would start working off the books in the informal economy once they realized their garnished wages weren’t livable.
Sideways!
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The GOP anti abortion stance is so transparent it’s staggering. Lets overbreed like goddam flies, leave people stuck in go-nowhere ever communities and then tell them if they “get an Education” they can break free. GOP Womb to Tomb, those slimer motherfuckers are gonna stick their nasty little white weenies in every opening you got and scream you better pay them or jezuuuz ain’t gonna let you in the heavenly country club. How do these soulless motherfuckers even walk around among human beings. They should be so scared that some day we’ll wake up and just start eating the motherfuckers like cheap greasy french-fries.
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That line you quoted stands out.
Sounds like Lamar is promoting that Commie Leftist Agenda to pile bureaucratic burdens on patriotic, flag-waving American businesses and destroy the economy and the American Way Of Life.™
He’s a liberal plant, a mole working inside the GOP!
(in tears) Won’t somebody think of the business owners!?!
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