Is student loan forgiveness fair? Americans without degrees are split

• Some people without student loan debt described debt forgiveness as a handout. Others said they were not against the idea of student loan relief, but hoped it would go to the people struggling the most.
• Many Democrats have argued that Americans are being held back by more than $1.7 trillion in student debt and need relief, while many Republicans have said people who didn’t go to college or who already paid off their student loan debts shouldn’t see their tax dollars go toward helping others.
• A recent round of polls show many Americans — Democrats more so than Republicans– are open to some kind of debt forgiveness.

Nat Lownes, 40, didn’t attend college because it was too expensive and he came from a poor family. But Lownes, a software engineer who has had a variety of odd jobs, said he is squarely in favor of debt cancellation. 

Lownes, who lives in Philadelphia, is among a majority of Americans who say student loan debt relief is needed, even if it doesn’t benefit themselves. Plenty of his friends have a lot of debt and no guarantee of a job. And while they’re canceling student loan debt, he said, the government should wipe out other debts like car loans.