Want Trump back? Forgive student loans and make college free

Want Trump back? Forgive student loans and make college free 

It takes years of study and experience to understand these issues. It is more than can be understood in a weekend.

I agree that non-college programs need to be more generous - they should pay the minimum wage - which should be $18 per hour. Job Corps provides at risk students with room, board or commuting programs and free practical education (and remedial if needed). Too many of these programs are federal pilot programs rather than universal.

There are community college programs combined with employment for technical skills training, which are offered through local Workforce Investment Boards (although when I was helping run the program, it offered grants instead of being universal). TANF offers training for nurses aid work. Some state schools raise tuition to fully use Pell Grants. In Iowa, there is a private school tuition grant to make them competitive with state schools.

Social welfare programs for remedial students pay opportunity costs, but not enough. While dislocated worker programs do that, they are not enough.

Students in 11th Grade through Sophomore or at technical high school and trade school should have free tuition and be paid to go, including at Catholic Schools. For too long, Catholic education has hung out non-academic students out to dry. They need to create non-college track schools, including vocational training AND religion class. People in glass cathedrals should not be throwing stones,

Students with children should get a child tax credit at median income levels (refundable). Before Junior year in college, one should have to find a job - be paid - and have tuition paid by employers in exchange for work contract. Like military academies, require two years of work for every one of school - and federal loans to cover cases when employment does not work out.

Federal student loans should never charge interest when deferred - no requirement to capitalize interest. Students and graduates should not be a budgetary cash cow. One quarter of the cost of the Obamacare baseline was expanding this program. Loan repayment is so high, as are premiums for the ACA, that it is hard to make ends meet - and if you retire with a loan balance, it comes off the top of your Social Security.

The white working class votes Republican for other reasons than class envy. Racism and abortion keep them in the Trumpist camp - and will keep them GOP long after Trump is gone unless Catholic Democrats (Biden) do a better job explaining why Roe will not go anywhere. As long as the White GOP is racist, Black voters will be Democrats.

The national debt held by the public (both through mutual funds and direct holdings) have an 80/20 ratio - meaning that for every 10 citizens, the top 10% hold 20% of such assets, while the top 1% hold 80%. Rich people like the debt that they can buy. Social welfare debt (Social Security, et al), not so much. 

As long as Chinese and European currencies are not backed by a national or confederation debt funded by income taxes, the U.S. debt will be secure. That cannot last forever. Debt is not only an investment, it is an obligation to be repaid based on income taxes paid. There is no per capita debt obligation. For a more progressive tax system (which would also protect wages from rent seeking by executives), the wealthy must see the debt as an obligation their children and grandchildren must eventually pay. No one else is able to. They have to want to pay more for any reform to pass, including the modest social democracy proposed by the Bernie youth.