Various forms of debt are absolutely crushing Americans and the American economy. Some believe it is time to cancel certain forms of debt in order to stimulate the economy and ease the burden on the American people.
Astra Taylor, contributing writer to The Nation Magazine explained how life changing debt cancellation would be to millions of Americans and provided specific actions to be taken to make it a reality on America’s Work Force Union Podcast.
The Debt Collective
As cofounder of the Debt Collective, Taylor believes that indebted people can rise up and rid themselves of their debts by taking collective action.
The group organizes indebted Americans and organizes them to defy their debt collectors. The group is comprised of people from all walks of life, carrying different types of debt. There are students, seniors and others who carry student debt, medical debt and more.
They have won cases for members and absolved their debt because of costs taken on that were built on a foundation of lies.
Federal Student Loans
A hot button issue in recent years has been canceling federal student loans. Taylor said President Biden’s Secretary of Education can do this with the stroke of a pen.
She said the benefits of doing so would be massive. Canceling this debt would allow more young people to participate in their local economy. More people would be able to purchase homes, go on vacations and have a comfortable amount of money to spend in their communities.
Finally, she said this can easily be done. The U.S. has a massive military budget and spends an unnecessary amount of funds elsewhere. She added that federal student loans have been put on hold since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, proving that the department can operate without collecting these debts.