Yeah, I'd consider the COVID kids to be in a similar boat to those of us who were in college for the GFC. The only reason interest rates were raised as suddenly and drastically as they were is because of COVID, which is a freak event. (Albeit one we should have been planning for as a country.)
There are ways to get student loans discharged in bankruptcy now, and one of the criteria that can be used is essentially that you were sold a bait and switch. (e.g. if the school majorly misrepresented what graduates from certain majors earned) I'd argue that there are cohorts who had that happen on essentially a societal scale, and we should modify the existing legal principle to include deception by the government/industry and not just by educational institutions.
I also think there might be societal stability benefits to this - one of the biggest black pills I've ever encountered was that in the GFC, people could lose their houses/go bankrupt and be allowed to start over even if they took out a NINJA mortgage, that the mortgage brokers/sellers individually saw no punishment, and almost all the high up people who caused/exacerbated the issues got off scot free or were eligible for new starts. If an adult in their 30s-50s makes a bad choice, we have to bail them out or help or not hold them accountable? But the kids who made bad decisions at 17 should be held to them for life? It was just a clear case of shitting on people without the power to push back that it made me revile a lot of American 'values'.
There are ways to get student loans discharged in bankruptcy now, and one of the criteria that can be used is essentially that you were sold a bait and switch. (e.g. if the school majorly misrepresented what graduates from certain majors earned) I'd argue that there are cohorts who had that happen on essentially a societal scale, and we should modify the existing legal principle to include deception by the government/industry and not just by educational institutions.
I also think there might be societal stability benefits to this - one of the biggest black pills I've ever encountered was that in the GFC, people could lose their houses/go bankrupt and be allowed to start over even if they took out a NINJA mortgage, that the mortgage brokers/sellers individually saw no punishment, and almost all the high up people who caused/exacerbated the issues got off scot free or were eligible for new starts. If an adult in their 30s-50s makes a bad choice, we have to bail them out or help or not hold them accountable? But the kids who made bad decisions at 17 should be held to them for life? It was just a clear case of shitting on people without the power to push back that it made me revile a lot of American 'values'.