There is no reliable evidence that student debt forgiveness would have a meaningful effect on inflation. The entire argument that you are making is flawed at best and disingenuous at worst. As we saw this year, inflation was driven by rising costs from global supply chain instability that have downstream effects on the economy. Forgiving college debt will not logically have any noticeable impact on that type of inflation.
Let's look at the numbers. In the past 1-2 years,
inflation went from around 1.9 to 2.3% to 8.5% (or 9.1% on some estimates).
Estimates from economists on student debt forgiveness say it might increase inflation 0.1 to 0.2% which is completely irrelevant in the grand scheme and basically lower than the natural fluctuation in yearly inflation between 2012 and 2020. In other words, 0.1 to 0.2% is meaningless. Not a single average person would ever notice the statistically difference between 9.1% and 9.0% inflation or between 1.9% and 2.1%.
And the argument from the people even talking about increased inflation is flawed to begin with because as we saw this year, it wasn't driven by demand from the poor and middle class suddenly having some more money to spend but by the global supply chain which has been exposed over the last 2-3 years because it overly focused on perceived and shallow "efficiency" instead of stability. To try to take the circumstances that massively increased inflation in the last year and then slap student loan forgiveness on top of that, demonize it, and claim that suddenly families are going to suffer more is just disingenuous and not based on economic reality. It's far-right scare tactics that you've fallen victim to instead of looking at the actual economic reality.
You just made the argument earlier in the thread that you believed most/average student debt is around 30K and now you are pivoting to talk about reducing 90K to 80K. You can't claim that it won't have an impact on the economy but will magically increase inflation (which is basically what your posts amount to).
Reducing student debt from 30K to 20K absolutely will have a measurable positive impact in the mid and long-term because it will reduce monthly payments from something unmanageable to something manageable. Personally, I'd prefer 20K-30K debt forgiveness which would eliminate the majority of student loan debt outright and that would definitely have a better effect on the economy but 10K is without a doubt better than nothing. It's not something that instantly makes the economy better but it's something that sets the stage for a more stable next 10 years.
Will student debt forgiveness, all by itself, suddenly make everything great? Of course not. But, it's absolutely a piece of the puzzle to reverse the horrifying trend of increasing wealth inequality and addressing the massive systemic flaws in our system that favors the top 10% of wealth while being a huge detriment to the bottom 90%. We obviously need more reforms but the fact this isn't perfect is not a valid reason to oppose it.
And this emotional appeal you are making that tries to force this divide and turn "blue-collar workers" against college graduates is disgusting right-wing propaganda. Trying to rile up "blue-collar workers" and get them angry at those damn liberal college grads. It's a fairly common tactic that Trump played like the Devil's fiddle and it's disgusting because none of it is based on reality. If we excused 20-30k in student loans, it would overall be a net benefit for blue-collar workers over the next decade because there would be more money available in the next 10 years to spend on things that help blue-collar jobs instead of just enriching large financial institutions and their wealthy beneficiaries which don't actually benefit non-college grad workers.
