Althouse: "For aspiring community organizers who go to college and then grad school before moving into a job that the government defines as public service, the forgiven debt can be $150,000..."

April 24, 2014

"For aspiring community organizers who go to college and then grad school before moving into a job that the government defines as public service, the forgiven debt can be $150,000..."

"... or more, courtesy of the taxpayer. And unlike with some other federal programs, when the government forgives the debt of one of the exalted class of nonprofit or government workers, the do-gooder doesn't have to report it as income to the IRS. Who wouldn't want to pick up $150,000 tax-free?"

37 comments:

RecChief said...: At least one creative school, Georgetown, last year offered to pay the students' monthly bills under the Pay As You Earn program while simultaneously raising tuitions. This essentially makes taxpayers pay the entire cost and turns the loans into six-figure grants.

I do't even know what to say regarding this program. Didn't anyone who designed it think about the creative ways Universities could make this work for them? Just another episode in the game show, "Can the Liberal spot the 2nd order effect?" When can we change the channel?; 4/24/14, 8:14 AM
Curious George said...: "At least one creative school, Georgetown, last year offered to pay the students' monthly bills under the Pay As You Earn program while simultaneously raising tuitions. This essentially makes taxpayers pay the entire cost and turns the loans into six-figure grants."

Big Education has been fleecing students/parents, and taxpayers for decades. Of course not one fucking peep from the left. Every time the gummint comes up with a program to make school more affordable they raise tuition to the prior pain point.; 4/24/14, 8:15 AM
RecChief said...: By the way, here's a quiz question: was driving up the prices in the used car market a first order or 2nd order effect of "Cash for Clunkers"?

Think about it; 4/24/14, 8:18 AM
PB said...: More subsidies for education doesn't mean more education or more educated people. As capacity is constrained and can't increase to meet demand in the short-term, the economic response by universities is to increase the price of education.

Public service should be a job the public is paying for; 4/24/14, 8:29 AM
Bruce Hayden said...: Just what we need, with the community organizers - the govt. massively subsidizing people to learn to game the system and get more money from the govt. so that they can live off the work of others. And, as usual, when you subsidize something, you get more of it - which is the last thing that we need with the feds taking so much of what we make already.; 4/24/14, 8:32 AM
Brando said...: The education scam will have to break eventually, and when it does, it'll be ugly.

Seeing that my alma mater now charges $56K a year just in tuition has me really wondering what I'd be doing if I were a high school senior now. I'm sure there are cheaper schools out there, and scholarships for others, but it's got to be depressing to have been raised with the notion drilled into you that you of course must get a four year degree if you want any sort of comfortable life, and then to see that that's going to mean a quarter million in debt and going into a lousy job market.; 4/24/14, 8:43 AM
Eric said...: I won't care a whit about income inequality until those who say that they do begin to support ideas that might reduce it.; 4/24/14, 8:45 AM
T J Sawyer said...: It appears that Obama has re instituted LBJ's draft.

But this time a Muhammad Ali, instead of being sent to fight a Viet Cong with whom he had no quarrel, would be sent to fight the rich who oppressed him.; 4/24/14, 8:48 AM
Rick67 said...: One of the more despicable aspects of the Obama age, this sick warped exaltation of "public service" (which is such a nice warm fuzzy sounding phrase that means "work for the government rather than in private sector"). When Cokie Roberts gave the commencement speech at LSU last year she sang the same tune and I was appalled. We denigrate work on the one hand, and on the other imply that careers that use (rather than generate) wealth are somehow nobler. I am not saying working for the government/state is bad, only that we exalt and reward it (over free market, private enterprise, entrepreneurism) at our peril.; 4/24/14, 8:52 AM
test said...: The left's number 1 goal: fund their political machine with tax dollars.; 4/24/14, 8:57 AM
CWJ said...: RecChief and Curious George,

Agreed. The "invisible hand," even though invisible, doesn't disappear simply because of the good intentions of your financial intervention. The market just takes whatever the latest government program is and factors it into a new price point.

But I wonder about RecChiefs assumption of liberal ignorance. Cynical CWJ thinks they know the effects full well. The programs exist to favor the institutions who ultimately receive the money. The poor, students, or whoever receives the initial money are merely delivery agents to the ultimate beneficiaries. Glorified, noble, bagmen.

The initial recipients receive the warmth of your good intentions. Your institutional support receives the money. Win win.; 4/24/14, 9:05 AM
Anonymous said...: It is the way the government (nomenklatura) is able to let the tax-payers (peasants) pay for their natural masters ("progressives").
How else do you think that progressives can propagate?; 4/24/14, 9:14 AM
Larry J said...: This is yet another example of government employees getting a benefit that isn't available to those working in the private sector. Here's another one: in some states, government retirement benefits are exempt or capped for state income tax purposes. That tax benefit doesn't apply to private pensions or retirement savings like IRAs and 401Ks. Why the difference?; 4/24/14, 9:16 AM
Strelnikov said...: Actual example: A good friend of mine, an atty earning in the six figures, recently married a woman with $220k+ in college loans; however, since she has been working for the local university for the past seven years, she's only three years away from the entire amount being dropped. Her job counts a "public service" even though she also earns in the six figures. In the meantime, she need only make a small payment each month that doesn't even represent the interest accrued.; 4/24/14, 9:23 AM
rhhardin said...: Community organizers learn to say, as the last buildings collapse, my work here is done.; 4/24/14, 9:23 AM
madAsHell said...: This is ROTC without commitments.; 4/24/14, 9:26 AM
Scott said...: If we can subsidize community organizers, why can't we do it for doctors? I would rather live in a country awash with doctors than with community organizers.; 4/24/14, 9:41 AM
Jaq said...: This is simply paying the expenses of the Democrat Party.

One more step to the one party state they dream about.; 4/24/14, 9:49 AM
Fred Drinkwater said...: My father was not just in "public service", he was a double dipper. (Gasp!) He was an active duty Marine pilot and lifetime reserve squadron CO, and also a research pilot for NASA.
I've always (read: never) felt secretly guilty about that.
No education debt or forgiveness, though. Darn his bad timing.; 4/24/14, 9:49 AM
MadisonMan said...: Here's another one: in some states, government retirement benefits are exempt or capped for state income tax purposes.

This is why Dad won't move out of Pennsylvania -- no tax on his pension there.

As to why? Because the State Legislators (who get a generous pension) don't want to be taxed.

Duh.; 4/24/14, 9:58 AM
southcentralpa said...: When you subidise something you get more of it.

Do we honestly need more community organisers? In the words of the anti-Atomkraft people, "Nein, danke!"; 4/24/14, 10:05 AM
Anonymous said...: Or look at it another way, how else can you subsidize professors in vagina-studies, minoring in (the) burqa (isn't really oppressive to women, you know) studies.; 4/24/14, 10:11 AM
chillblaine said...: Someone once said, "If you want more of something, subsidize it. If you want less of something, tax it." I can think of several avocations more useful to society than community antagonist.

Blogging about your poop.

ADA-related shakedowns of small businesses.

Marijuana dispensary technician.

Opening a window repair shop, then paying kids to go around breaking windows.

Marijuana rehab counselor.; 4/24/14, 10:13 AM
Hagar said...: Outrageous.; 4/24/14, 10:32 AM
David said...: Another program to encourage fraud and lying also.; 4/24/14, 10:47 AM
chuck said...: Right, the government is now dedicated to overthrowing the government. Or at least government by the people, for the people.
This is a good argument for taxing colleges. Giving a tax free pass to institutions who can accumulate billions that they dedicate to reducing the rest of us to serfdom is foolish.; 4/24/14, 10:47 AM
cubanbob said...: It's time to kill the whole student loan program outright. Let the universities with their endowments decide who to grant loans to.; 4/24/14, 10:49 AM
Anthony said...: >>The left's number 1 goal: fund their political machine with tax dollars.

That's kind of the end of the thread right there.; 4/24/14, 10:51 AM
Anonymous said...: More yuan for our native Mandarins.; 4/24/14, 11:00 AM
RecChief said...: But I wonder about RecChiefs assumption of liberal ignorance

See my second comment, I think you'll find that I'm in agreement with Curious George that those "unintentional consequences" may not be so unintententional.

I still believe in Hanlon's Razor though.; 4/24/14, 11:22 AM
ken in tx said...: We do subsidize doctors who agree to work so many years in a community health center, prison, or Indian reservation. It is called the Public Health Service Corps. A certain amount of their education loan is forgiven for each year they work in a so-called under serviced area.; 4/24/14, 12:37 PM
cubanbob said...: What is needed is a redefinition of public service, a rational one. Farmers and ranchers are true public servants since without them we don't eat. truck drivers are truly public servants sine every thing we consume has had a truck deliver some aspect of it. The guys who drill for oil and gas along with coal-miners-without them we have no energy to transport the goods we need. There are a lot of jobs that are true public service jobs, most of them aren't in government or non-profits.; 4/24/14, 1:12 PM
Birches said...: We do subsidize doctors who agree to work so many years in a community health center, prison, or Indian reservation. It is called the Public Health Service Corps. A certain amount of their education loan is forgiven for each year they work in a so-called under serviced area.

I have a friend who is doing that. I think he's in year three. Has five kids and they're all somewhere in the middle of nowhere NM. He did the math after being part of a practice for a few years after med school --- there's no way he'd be able to start making real money without getting out from under all the loans sooner than 20 years.

I have no problem with that program, but let's try and keep the definition of public service a little bit restricted. I don't think working for most non-profits should count.

It's the same thing as the DREAM act. I actually don't have a problem with illegal kids joining the military and paying their dues, giving their years and then getting citizenship at the end. But I have a huge problem with attending college as a "get out of jail free card."; 4/24/14, 1:49 PM
Paul Kirchner said...: The federal government's student loan program caps payments at 10-percent of income and the duration of payments at 20 years. (This is if tyou don't go into the public sector.) If a college graduate gets a high paying job, the government will get its money back. However, if after four years, the graduate comes out with $150,000 in debt and a degree in women's studies, and ends up making $20,000 a year at Starucks, the gov't will get barely a third of its loan back. With that in mind, won't there be pressure not to loan money to students who don't major in areas that are likely to yield a good salary? It only seems logical for me. A tuition loan for petrochemical engineering, not for the drama program.; 4/24/14, 11:09 PM
J said...: Strangely enough during the 80's the Army was supposed to pay off my student loans. But they never did it.Now they want to do it for state agent provocateurs?; 4/25/14, 2:14 AM
J said...: The Army promised to forgive my student loans during the 80's as recruitment tool-then did not.Strange now it is considered a vote buying tool.; 4/25/14, 2:16 AM
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