> in what universe does it make any sense for the bank to go to the store or stores you purchased from to demand the money back rather than to you, the borrower?

It's a common legal strategy to sue those with deep pockets, regardless of whether they bear the greatest responsibility, in order to get more money. Makes perfect sense because they (the store in your example) actually have the cash. Are you going to sue the gambler or the casino?

Another strategy is aggregation. If you can combine cases into a single case, the payout can be larger for similar effort - but once again this depends on ability to pay.

Going one step further, if the seller is part of an illegal cartel or pyramid scheme, the government might be able to justify seizing its assets, or perhaps collecting punitive damages.

Dont confuse economics with politics. Commenter may simply be pointing out that a government already well known for its distaste of higher education institutions might decide that taking the money from them in one fell swoop and instantly wiping out student debt is vastly preferable to annoying a swath of voters that could make a difference in the midterms.

They aren't a bank. Banks get paid in interest for the risk they take in making the loan. Student Loans have no risk because you can't discharge them. But they carry high interest rates.

Schools made bad predatory loans. Schools colluded with other schools to raise tuition. And schools made loans to any warm body they could to get them in the door. They did discount some tuition, but that was only enough to justify it as charity and not have to pay taxes. Its all a fraudulent scam.

Or allow people to declare bankruptcy and punish the schools and the loan companies. Garnishing wages is also a normal thing to do with debt you can't pay.

Forgiveness means paying them back, which means these companies (and the people who got loans) will have learned nothing.

We have financial tools available to this. The only problem is very, very wealthy donors will suffer immensely.

> Garnishing these wages is a regressive, punitive tax that will further slow an economy very near recession territory.

Probably not. It will certainly impact inflation however. Just like the PPP and trump bux.

> In particular, the Paycheck Protection Program has so far forgiven $757 billion in loans to private businesses

The PPP shouldn't have forgiven anyone either. There's a reason we are in the situation we are in. The financial system is not allowed to fail as intended. Instead we prop it up like weekend at the bernies with infinite money printing and forgiveness.

I struggle with this idea people aren't allowed to FAFO anymore. If we do this, why not pay back every loan. That'll certainly bolster the economy!