Epic win

Sadly not going to be enough for millions of folks. $10k is a hefty reduction for many, but for others it’s just a difference on paper, and it does nothing to break the systemic debt trap that causes problems in the first place: education providers mooching off the federal government by ratcheting tuition prices up and up; useless degrees from degree mills being a thing at all; the job market requiring degrees for jobs that don’t need them; private companies, spun off of banks, servicing the federal loans and misleading young people into a lifetime of debt…

Federal loans make up 92% of student loans, and the average loan is around $28,000 iirc. They can’t be erased with bankruptcy, so they’re effectively with you for life. To boot, it’s normal for the interest on the loan to be added to the principal, meaning that an aggressive loan agreement or job loss or other event can cause a debt spiral, even in the young and healthy.

For the less young 62+ cohort, mainly retired now, they have about 2.4 million people owing $98 billion in student debt. That’s $40,800 per person, and it’s highly unlikely to be repaid unless their estate has sufficient assets after their death. Since houses are most people’s main asset, especially in that cohort, their home will be put on the line to repay the loan. If their heirs don’t have the money to pay off the loan, the title to the house will need to be sold or partitioned, pushing young people further away from homeownership.

Big ol’ mess unhinged capitalism has created in the US.