Comments

2

@1: Wealthy fingers with a large student loan portfolio typed this.

On another subject: No. Do not make extra ice or throw towels in the freezer in anticipation of the upcoming heat wave. Unless you are one of the highly educated class with the foresight to keep all your major appliances on your front porch, this practice only serves to move the thermal energy from the rags/water to the interior of your house (Thermodynamics 101).

3

Biden's admin is incrementally cancelling student debt anywhere it can - $400 billion worth so far. Maybe Millenials (& Gen Z) should notice that?

5

They should cancel all of the student loans for the predatory and barbaric practice they are. Clearly, we have the money. We just wrote an enormous check to Defense Contracting Inc. -- the biggest yet, and bigger than even the ask! The amount of outstanding student loan debt is a mere fraction of the defense appropriate for next year, alone.

We have the money. There's more than enough. Cancel all student debt. Student Jubilee!

5

I somehow don't recall ever having had a choco-taco, but Klondike bars fuckin' blow. The chocolate outer crusty shell is paper thin, rendering it basically little more than a fairly large brick of vanilla ice cream encased in a drab and way too delicate layer of half-melted chocolate. The one with nuts is a tiny bit better, but still among the worst ice cream treats on the market. The ratio of shell/cookie/casing to ice cream is just terrible and the "taco" would seem to present as a much better option, with a thicker and denser shell containing the ice cream.

6

@5 this man ice creams

7

Yeah, that's been weighing on me for a little while now. Good to get it off the chest.

8

"The Seattle Department of Transportation says it's on track to open mid-September—see you there?"

It's difficult to imagine a Stranger staffer actually showing up in West Seattle. If anyone actually does this, be sure to take transit and document your struggles.

9

@4:

I doubt that most people lacking an advanced degree in financial planning or contract law could parse the deliberately labyrinthian payback calculations embedded in student loan applications (which reach a level of complexity that makes a typical EULA look like a child's spelling book by comparison), let alone recognize they'll end up paying several multiples of their principal over the lifetime of that repayment schedule, which will stretch out for decades, leaving most with absolutely no chance for establishing savings for things traditionally thought necessary for a functioning family, namely homes and automobiles, and maybe a bit for a modest retirement. I suspect that's also deliberate: saddle 20-somethings with usurious debt they won't reasonably be able to repay until they're in their late 40's or even 50's, thus preventing them from coming anywhere close to achieving financial independence for the better part of their adult lives, and forcing them into a perpetual cycle of indebtedness to the banks, along with the added bonus of virtually eliminating any ability to rise above their intentionally suppressed economic station. And the banks are more than happy to keep things that way, because they rake in oodles of cash those people might instead be spending to support other segments of the economy.

Higher education was traditionally a way for lower and middle-class people to achieve financial stability and economic and social advancement; now it's simply another tool the rich use to crush whatever hope many of them might have for anything short of permanent indentured servitude.

11

@9 while I generally agree with you, the concept of compounding interest is high school level if not lower. The idea that 'you pay a lot more over the long run' isn't that hard to grasp.

13

Buster P
coming in
hot hot hot!

14

Thank goodness and everyone else associated with cooling centers, but they are not the solution. If Seattle is going to turn into Riyadh in the summertime – and it looks like that’s the way it’s going – then y’all needs to get you some solar panels or something and install y’all some a-fuckin’-c. Hate to see it happen, but the days of “Seattle only needs air-conditioning a couple of days a year” seem to be over. Just read that the Democratic Republic of Congo is disavowing its recent climate change promises, and is now auctioning off vast stretches of peatland (which contain huge amounts of carbon dioxide) and old growth forests (the size of which is second only to the Amazon rainforest) for oil rights. The country’s Minister of Hydrocarbons said that his government isn’t interested in saving the planet. Its interest is in the welfare of its people (believe it or not). So, there Seattle! We’ll see how much money makes it down to the people. We won’t see how much winds up in Swiss bank accounts. After trillions of post-colonial dollars in foreign aid to that part of the world, it seems all you every see in newsreels are hungry children and barefoot people walking through streets of dirt or mud. Help us, Superman!

I’m totally fine with Ken and Mayim hosting Jeopardy. There’ll never be another Alex. Ken is impressive for a non-professional professional, and he has learned the rigors and adopted a style of hosting – something you might not have the capabilities for even if you have been a longtime contestant and seen how the machine is greased. Mayim is pleasant. She’s made some recent boo-boos, but she’s learning, and she’s learning to keep her controversial notions to herself. That’s good for a long-term career.

I was just reading about a number of folk in the cities of eastern Ukraine celebrating, I guess, their Russian capture by displaying the Russian flag, and I thought, gee, if that many people want to be Russian, then maybe that area should be annexed. But no. It can’t work that way. By that logic, California should be annexed by Mexico, and I want to stay a US citizen. So no, borders are borders and should be internationally respected – and really, shame on those who want to be Russians living in Ukraine. On another note, Putin isn’t even feeling the sanctions (although the Russian people probably are). With the price of oil being what it is, and China and India picking up more than the Western loss of business, he's spending his day polishing his jewels (oops…double entendre). What an asshole.

Not a fan of slasher flicks. Even in satire. In a quieter, safer world, I might be able to enjoy them more. I mean, I remember Halloween when it came out. Different time. But I am a fan of Kevin Bacon. Wow. The longevity. I don’t think he’s gotten the credit he deserves as an actor and maybe a lot of that is just Hollywood prejudice. He’s East Coast. Summer blockbuster cute, but a pastry. Time has shown – as it usually does - that they were all wrong. He’s just so cool.

15

@12 - Agree, and the govt. shouldn't charge interest on unpaid tax debt either.

Love the heat wave - promotes eye candy.

17

@11:

If only it were that simple, but given the exorbitant amount of interest charged and the fact that one will end up paying two or even three times the amount of principle (in extreme cases they may NEVER pay down the compounded debt, no matter how many years they make payments), most people should not be expected to have to cull that information out of the pages and pages of boilerplate legalese they're handed by the bank. But of course, the banks don't want to provide that in a clear, concise and easy-to-read/understand format, because they recognize many people wouldn't take the "bait" if they did.

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@16:

Go back to counting bullet-riddled dead bodies, you worthless fuck.

20

"Joe, the midterms are soon—cancel student loans for easy campaigning fodder! C'mon!!!"

The people who like this idea (those with college degrees) were already going to vote Blue. The people who hate this idea (everybody else) A. may or may not vote Blue, and B. are more numerous. In other words, just canceling student loan debt is likely to lose more votes than it gains.

There may be an opportunity to campaign on making student loans less onerous -- allowing them to be discharged in bankruptcy would be a start -- but "I shouldn't have to pay back my loans" is not a popular position among anyone who doesn't directly stand to benefit.

24

@19 -- The people who have the most trouble with student loans are the ones that didn't graduate. The folks with the lowest amount of debts tend to be closer to default. Some have suggested that debt forgiveness be limited to those who only owe less than $10,000. That would do the most good for the least amount of money.

Of course if you did that, those who owe more would complain. It also seems rather arbitrary (owe $10,001 and you get no forgiveness). Realistically this would spur folks to restructure their loans to get under $10,000. It is unpractical. Thus you have the idea of wiping out $10,000 of the debt, even if the former student owes more.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/22/experts-weigh-in-on-10000-in-student-debt-forgiveness.html

Of course this doesn't address the cause of the problem, which is ongoing. State funded college used to be much cheaper. In the 1980s, a transition occurred. Colleges started charging a lot more, but granting more loans and grants. The thinking was, this was more equitable (why should a rich person get cheap education?). Unfortunately, like a lot of programs, over time it essentially forgot the middle class. Student loans became the standard way that people paid for school (not working minimum wage jobs over the summer). Then there are diploma mills that used deceptive practices to lure students (e. g. Trump University). These still exist.

In short, while the quality of higher education in this country is still excellent (especially state funded higher education) it is a lot more expensive for students. This is a terrible policy, as it leads to more stratification along existing income levels. You are far better off being born stupid and rich than smart and poor (even if you go to the same schools). Educational achievement will only do so much to raise your income. Student debt doesn't help.


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