Canceling student debt should be a slam dunk
In reality, most student debt is destined to be canceled eventually, observes University
of Utah economist Marshal Steinbaum, a senior fellow at the Jain Family Institute,
a social science research organization. That’s the harvest of the increased popularity
of income-driven repayment programs, which cap annual repayments at a percentage of
a borrower’s income and forgives any balance remaining after a set period — 20 years
for undergraduate loans and 25 for graduate or professional study.
“Cancelation is the thing that everyone’s waiting for,” Steinbaum told me. “So why are we making them wait? Why don’t we just recognize that these are bad loans and eat them now?”