re: US Marshals arresting people for not paying their federal student loans

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I don't want to punish responsible people. I don't want to reward irresponsible people.

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we could do this by taxing income over $500k per year at a higher rate.

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back to earlier, what do you do for a living?

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I'm self-employed. I'm working on a book.

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B) Unlike a car loan or home loan, there's nothing to repossess if someone does default.

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There are other bankruptcy options than the standard, Ch.7 straight liquidation bankruptcy. In fact, a debtor just can't select a Ch.7 option. The debtor declaring for bankruptcy first must pass the "means test" before he is allowed to go forward with filling out his schedules.

Given the current student loan situation, I believe they should offer a Ch. 13 reorganizational plan. Have the loan service providers agree to a structured, rigid 60-month repayment plan. After the end of the 60th month, the remaining balance (if any) is forgiven. I also think legislation should be written to bar 1099-S forms for student loan debtors who choose to pursue the Ch. 13 route.

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We have discussed a few times on here why letting someone declare bankruptcy on student loans is a bad idea.

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I respectfully disagree. If the current loans were made under the rule that bankruptcy is not allowed, perhaps those people are fricked and should be held to the terms they agreed to. But moving forward I think the law should be changed and the loans should be subject to forgiveness by bankruptcy just like any other debt. The banks would make the loans much harder to qualify for, which is fine. It should be a financial investment for those who take them out. And it should be a risk for the banks just like credit cards and mortgages are. The free market will sort out this situation.

People sometimes make mistakes that put them in debt that they are incapable of repaying (accidents and medical issues are two of them most common causes, but accruing credit card debt is another). Bankruptcy is an excrutiatingly painful process that leaves you financially crippled for a long time, but is at least a workable solution in the long run. Keeping people tied to insurmountable debt indefinitely may seem like a just solution, but it doesn't solve anything and leaves people crippled for their entire lives rather than for a decade. Debtor's prisons were outlawed long ago and bankruptcy instituted as a measure of last resort, and there are good reasons for this. Some crimes are bad enough to be worth ruining someone's entire life over. Some are not. I think debt falls in the second category.

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Debtor's prisons

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there are no debtor's prisons! Could you be any more dramatic?

Holy shite! DPH used words and made them funny!

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I'm self-employed. I'm working on a book.

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hmmm.

you have a trust fund paying you 100k a year
you pay 40k a year property taxes on your home
coincides with a 2 million dollar home
"self-employed"
writing a book
donates to PETA

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Who do you think the money to fund these programs will eventually come from? Hint, YOU!

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I don't believe this is correct. Her money comes from a trust fund and has thus already been earned and taxed. Like most liberals, they want someone else to pay for everything.

Where is the money going to come from for "free" college tuition?