Anxious young Millennial college students overwhelmingly threw their support behind Bernie during the Democratic Primary. As a student, why wouldn't you support a candidate offering to pay for your school and socialize your existing student loan debt? Bernie seemed like the "logical" choice. But, now that the "obvious" choice is no longer in the race, the folks at LendEDU conducted an online poll of 1,500 people, who currently have student loan debt, to figure out to whom the Bernie voters will be shifting their support.
Unsurprisingly, a lot of Bernie supporters with student loan debt are tossing their support behind Hillary. And why not? Hillary's "deal" for students, though not quite as good as Bernie's, is also very enticing. Per Hillary's website:
- Every student should have the option to graduate from a public college or university in their state without taking on any student debt
- All community colleges will offer free tuition
- A $25 billion fund will support historically black colleges and universities, Hispanic-serving institutions, and other minority-serving institutions
- Borrowers will be able to refinance loans at current rates, providing debt relief to an estimated 25 million people. They’ll never have to pay back more than 10 percent of their income, and all remaining college debt will be forgiven after 20 years.
- Delinquent borrowers and those in default will get help to protect their credit and get back on their feet
- To reduce the burden for future borrowers, Hillary will significantly cut interest rates so the government never profits from college student loans.
- Aspiring entrepreneurs will be able to defer their loans with no payments or interest for up to three years. Social entrepreneurs and those starting new enterprises in distressed communities will be eligible for up to $17,500 in loan forgiveness.
- Hillary will take immediate executive action to offer a three-month moratorium on student loan payments to all federal loan borrowers.
Quick question before we move on…isn't every unemployed Millennial living at home with mom an "aspiring entrepreneur?" Well, congrats "entrepreneur", now you're getting free rent and a 3-year moratorium on your student loan bills. And why should students have to pay for public universities? Those schools don't really cost anything…professors donate their time for the common good, right?
But, what we found more interesting is that a lot of students, in the absence of Bernie, just don't know what to do. LendEDU's August poll found that 34% of respondents were still undecided with the election only a few months away. In fact, since LendEDU's last poll in Feburary, 39% of Bernie supporters shifted into the "undecided" column vs. only 37% who say they will now support Clinton and 25% shifted their support to Trump.
Chart per Bloomberg.
The poll also echoes every other national poll which have all indicated that Trump has a "female" problem. Female respondents were found to be over 3x more likely to vote for Clinton whereas male support for Clinton was much more muted.
Chart per Bloomberg.
One might hope that at some point a logical candidate will emerge to talk about the government's role in massively inflating college tuition by offering completely open access to cheap debt serving to enslave a generation of naive students. Actually, on second thought, that wouldn't win many votes so never mind.
via http://ift.tt/2bG4fh3 Tyler Durden