Occupy Strikes Against Student Debt

[CountDeMoney]

I'm thinking it is very effective for the people who were saddled with debt they were never going be able to service.

I don't think their situations have changed at all.

No?

I was under the impression that having non-serviced debt on your credit rating record was a bad thing, but that once that debt was discharged your could get on the path of rebuilding your credit rating.

Is that incorrect?

Hint: you and Yi are not rooting for the same team here, even though these debts are no longer the original creditor's problem.

[Admiral Yi]

Can you think of *any* issue that is not a matter of rooting for the right team?

[Ideologue]

Should there be many?  Favorite color, favorite number, boxers vs. briefs--pretty much everything else has a moral dimension.

[Eddie Teach]

Can you think of *any* issue that is not a matter of rooting for the right team?

The NHL

[Barrister]

Can you think of *any* issue that is not a matter of rooting for the right team?

The NHL

Strongly disagree.

[Martinus]

I would pay off the debt of people from disadvantaged backgrounds who are likely to be successful.

Wouldn't it make more sense to pay for people who are not likely to be successful? I would have thought people who are likely to be successful would eventually have enough money to pay off their debts. 

[Martinus]

  Is debt forgiveness considered an income? 

Bingo.

I always tell my debt forgiveness clients that they're going to get a 1099 from the lender who forgives their debt.

Guess who they call to bitch about, when they get that 1099? It ain't the fucking lender.

But the lender doesn't have to report it. If they're not looking to get the tax benefit of writing off the debt, then they are not obligated to report it at all.

I would imagine it's the debt's buyer, not the lender, who would be looking at a tax benefit in a situation like this (the original lender has already realised the tax benefit when he sold off the debt to the debt collection agency). And I don't imagine the Occupy movement would now do that.

The amount of the taxable income for the borrower should, by the way, be equal to the reduced debt's value, not the full debt in a case like this, unless you have insane tax authorities.

[ulmont]

The amount of the taxable income for the borrower should, by the way, be equal to the reduced debt's value, not the full debt in a case like this, unless you have insane tax authorities.

We do have insane tax authorities, and there's some questions here.
http://www.businessinsider.com/rolling-jubilees-tax-problem-2012-11

[Phillip V]

I would pay off the debt of people from disadvantaged backgrounds who are likely to be successful.

Wouldn't it make more sense to pay for people who are not likely to be successful? I would have thought people who are likely to be successful would eventually have enough money to pay off their debts. 

A little money does not save those disadvantaged people (suffered from broken homes, addiction, bad K-12 education, etc) who unfortunately were largely handicapped by it. However, those who already managed some success (good K-12 performance, community awards/involvement, teenage jobholder, etc.) rising above a disadvantaged background, the extra money would give them a financial safety net and serve as an accelerant/multiplier for their future contribution to societal wealth and well-being.