The following discussion clip is from the Occupy Wall Street demand discussion list.
Here is the lead in post from hdent:
I think it is great people are trading ideas on all of these topics. I am not sure how this could work, but I feel like recent college graduates who are not working in their fields should not be required to pay for their loans until they can secure employment in their area that they went to college for. I am no financial wiz and I am not sure how the financial institutions could help with this, but to me it seems unfair to be asked to pay for something you cannot use (education).
Nanook:
Here is a great opportunity to bring in the RESPONSIBILITY word again.
Recently, congress funded college studies to chase the myth that job growth depended on better education. Many colleges jumped in to grab the new money. Knowing that people were desperate for work, the colleges charged steep tuitions, also knowing the rules were so lax that they could get away with it. Congress recently wised up to this and is now limiting colleges based on their student job placement rate. What OWS could do is force this process back in time, make it permanent and link it with college responsibility. That is, ALL student loans would be covered by a new law, no matter when they were started. Here are more details for a possible structure:
Each college should have the RESPONSIBILITY to UNDERSTAND the employment market it is training its students for and adjust student loads to match. Therefore, each college should be required to PAY for their miscalculations by paying the outstanding interest for any of its students who are carrying college loans for any period of time the students are unemployed. Since the government and the banks were part of this scam, principle repayment should be deferred during any unemployment as well. Furthermore, during employment, total loan repayment costs should be limited to 10% of the individuals current salary. Also, any remaining loan would be cancelled as fully paid 20 years after graduation, no matter how much of it has been repaid.
