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Is canceling student loan debt considered stealing? (self.asklemmy)

submitted 3 weeks ago by lriv724 to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

54 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I have an economics teacher that made this claim in class yesterday. I wanted to know other people’s thoughts about it.

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[–] theonlytruescotsman@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

It doesn't have to come out today tax payers pockets, that's the entire thing. The money doesn't exist, the debt doesn't exist.

We made up this system specifically so we didn't have to keep exact books, that's the point of fiat currency over backed currency. If we don't use its primary feature for good, ever, we may as well go back to the gold standard which would elimate nearly all banks and lenders at this point in the capitalist finite curve.

[–] curious_dolphin@slrpnk.net 1 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Fractional reserve banking does not mean the debt does not exist. The debt very much exists. Nobody takes out a loan and just sits on it. As soon as the loan is created, goods and services are traded. At the end of the day, each party to downstream transactions can go to the bank and withdraw the balance of their account in cash. The fractional reserve system only works as long as not everyone does this at once.

[–] theonlytruescotsman@sh.itjust.works 0 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Except it's new money that's made up, and in the case of student loans, most of that money isn't traded for goods and services, instead more than 3/4s of the money created goes back to the lender.

[–] curious_dolphin@slrpnk.net 2 points 2 weeks ago

Looks like we are not going to agree on this, which is okay—I enjoyed the discussion nonetheless. Have a nice day.