Your Tax Dollars At Work: Govt Officially Forgiving Student Debt

by Simon Black via SovereignMan.com,
ZeroHedge.com
Tue, 01/01/2019

When all the tribes of Israel still lived in their holy land, they practiced something called the Jubilee.

According to the Book of Leviticus, the Jubilee existed because the Israeli land actually belonged to their god Yahweh…. and the current owners were just borrowing it (sounds like land ownership today – try not paying your property taxes and see who really owns your land).

So every 49 years, the Israelites would celebrate by freeing slaves, redistributing property and forgiving debts.

Of course, a 49-year cycle where debt is forgiven and land is returned to previous owners is ridiculous… markets can’t function under this system. Imagine buying a piece of land and not knowing if you have to give it back down the road… or lending someone money with the possibility that those debts just disappear and you get nothing back for the risk you took.

The Jubilee originated sometime around 1406 BC, so you would think it’s ancient history.

Fast forward 3500 years…

The US government is a record $21 trillion in debt and running $1 trillion annual deficits.

US corporations have a record $9 trillion in debt – with nearly half of that debt maturing in the next five years (meaning the businesses either have to roll that debt into a new loan or pay it back).

Consumer debt – which includes credit card debt, auto loans and student debt – is already at a record high and should pass $4 trillion in 2019.

But the largest portion of consumer debt is student debt. Yes, Americans have borrowed $1.5 TRILLION to earn degrees of questionable use.

As I wrote in a previous Notes:

According to the latest stats, the average student loan debt in the US is nearly $40,000.

There are more than two million former students in the Land of the Free with more than $100,000 of debt… around 415,000 people have more than $200,000 of student debt.

And the US Department of Education guarantees 90% of that debt. Which means you, the taxpayer, guarantee that debt. If the borrower defaults, YOU’RE on the hook.

The Rest…HERE

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 1st, 2019 at 2:36 pm and is filed under Economics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.