I am luck and privileged enough that I do not have student debt. But I still support loan forgiveness, because it’s an unfair burden, and predatory industry, that hinders people’s lives.

I’ve had friends go years in grad school getting promises of finding “next year,” and end up taking out more loans, finally get a minimal amount of department funding, then abruptly get funding cut off, and have to leave grad school.

There are so many people that spend years in grad school, have their unpaid or poorly paid labor exploited, and then end up forced out after 5-6 years.

I have friends who successfully gotten PhDs, spent years on the academic job market while teaching and publishing, and end up filing for bankruptcy because the accumulated credit card debt on top of student debt was too much.

And the sad thing was—filing for bankruptcy was only a month reprieve from the bills.

Student loans are predatory, those loans need to be forgiven, and the system needs major upheaval.

And higher education is a bubble that is bursting—unless the system changes, students are no longer going to go to college and accrue debt they’ll never pay off—especially if their parents are still mired in that debt.