Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Some plans for addressing American debt Proposals for helping Americans struggling to stay in their homes or pay off student loans that are worth a look By Alex Pareene / Salon

Monday, Nov 7, 2011 10:50 AM 23:10:12 PST

Some plans for addressing American debt

Proposals for helping Americans struggling to stay in their homes or pay off student loans that are worth a look

debt reduction
(Credit: iStockphoto/BrianAJackson)
Something has to be done about the debt. Household debt is currently at 90 percent of GDP and unless the powers that be do something to help people out, calls for mass forgiveness will only grow stronger.
Help still isn’t on the way, but I did see a couple of proposals worth highlighting today to actually do something concrete to help people who are struggling.
First, Mike Konczal wrote about student loan debt. A very brief history: Every single law Congress has passed regarding student loans since the federal program was introduced in 1965 has benefited lenders and made repayment or bankruptcy harder for borrowers. In addition to being unfair, this seems perhaps like bad policy, unless we really think it’s best for college graduates to spend their first decade (or decades) in the workforce sending substantial portions of their income to private lenders.
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Alex Pareene
Alex Pareene writes about politics for Salon. Email him at apareene@salon.com and follow him on Twitter @pareene More Alex Pareene

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