So after the Biden admin promised to cancel some student loans, lots of folks cried foul. They said it was robbing the poor to pay for the poor choices of the rich. If you have student loans, that was a choice you made. Pay them back!
Here's the thing they don't understand:
Many if not most borrowers did NOT make any such choice. Here's my story, and it's the same basic story I've heard over and over again from folks with undergrad student loans:
Before college, my parents told me that they would be able to help pay for college. I took out a single loan for a manageable amount of money, and that was it.
After college, I went to pay back that loan and behold! I discovered my parents had taken out hundreds of thousands of dollars in loans in my name to pay for my college. They hadn't “helped” at all – just used my information to take out loans in my name for me but without my knowledge or consent.
I hadn't agreed to any of it. I consulted a lawyer and was told there was nothing I could realistically do unless I wanted to engage in a complex and expensive legal process to attempt to get my own parents thrown in jail.
I had never noticed, since the bills had all been paid on time in my student account, and since I hadn't signed up for these loans, I wasn't getting any information about them. The emails, phone numbers, and addresses were all my parents'.
The claim that we all agreed to student loans is wrong. They're designed to involve parents at every step of the way and boy do parents get involved.