vox--2020-12-28--I was always terrified of wasting time. A cancer diagnosis made me reconsider.

The room didn ’ t spin like they say it does .
My life didn ’ t flash before my eyes .
I had no difficulty understanding the verdict : It was incurable .
They could offer no prognosis .
They had some general ideas about how they might treat me ; it was considered “ manageable ” in its normal form , but in my case , there was no telling what would or wouldn ’ t work .
They told me that if they could find an effective treatment , I should expect to be on it “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 2016 election , my foot had gone numb — paralyzed , actually .
I ’ d first arrived at the neurologist ’ s office unable to wiggle my toes , and now I was leaving with a singularly rare cancer diagnosis , a blood cancer that had jumped its track and hadn ’ t shown up as it was supposed to .
Even though my blood , lymph , and bone marrow were all clear , a blood cancer had somehow emerged in my cerebrospinal fluid and lodged itself along my spinal cord @ @ @ @ @ @ @ oncologist ( who specialized in rare lymphomas ) responded , “ Get out !
” when the neurologist shared the results of my spinal tap .
They were looking forward to meeting me .
There isn ’ t much that ’ s good about being a unique cancer case , but at least the specialists are excited to see you .
It wasn ’ t until the drive home , as my husband , David , and I tried to figure out how and what to tell the children , that the terror @ @ @ @ @ @ @ my middle schoolers for what we might face ?
There was no reassurance I could offer .
Any expectation that the next day would be better or even vaguely resemble the days before had disappeared entirely .
We told them the naked truth .
The doctors couldn ’ t say what might happen next because they had never seen this before .
The outcome was uncertain , so hope and fear were both reasonable .
Anything could happen : anything bad , anything good , or anything in between .
That night , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ intrusive thought scrolled through my head : “ The future has been amputated.
” There would be weeks of hospitalizations , infusions , nausea , and fatigue before I could summon the presence of mind to interrogate that thought .
On my first wobbly walk around the park near my home , I spotted a cute two-bedroom house on a side street .
“ Maybe , ” I wondered , “ we could downsize to a cute little house like that once the kids are off to college … ?
” I stopped @ @ @ @ @ @ @ years away .
My survival relied on the efficacy of a chemotherapy , fresh out of trials , designed to treat cancers of the blood .
My medical team wasn ’ t sure if it would work at all .
I might not live to see my eldest graduate .
Who knew if I would survive even the year ?
I sat down on a bench , dizzy .
People hurried past me , some rushing home from work , some squeezing in a run before dinner , others racing toward schools to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ headed , it seemed , was a lot more important than where they happened to be right now .
For decades , my life had been as organized as theirs .
I was always ambitious , my calendar overflowing : a private psychotherapy practice , parenting , writing , martial arts , caring for elderly family members , volunteering as a community organizer .
Friends and colleagues marveled at how I got so much done .
Now it was clear I had been running on overdrive for years , racing toward some magical @ @ @ @ @ @ @ d have accomplished enough and might allow myself to rest .
It was as if cancer had flung me into a parallel universe where I would never again spend , waste , or experience time as others did , or as I had before .
Sitting on that bench watching the early winter sunset , I realized that I never had the ability to shape my future .
I ’ d been chasing an illusion .
The causal chain I ’ d been constructing was wiped away in a single stroke .
The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sun setting , the park bench , the crisp , cold air filling my lungs .
I thought of the many future-focused conversations I had daily : psychotherapy clients dreaming of one day finding the right partner , or the right job , or hoping to eventually leave the wrong ones .
Neighbors planning their vacations .
Other parents fantasizing about their children ’ s college and career trajectories .
Every weekday conversation filled with yearning for the next weekend .
The systems that surround us intensify our future fantasies , like an @ @ @ @ @ @ @ proverbial stick , driving us all to press ourselves harder and faster toward some end that never quite comes in the way we imagine .
Ambition has a necessary function : It may offer hope in times of desolation , or motivate us out of states of suffering and depletion .
Yet aspirations have their shadows .
Striving can imply that the present moment is inadequate .
It seems as though ambition has been elevated into a distorted religion .
But our relentless cultural habit of structured goal-setting and futurizing are nonsensical once @ @ @ @ @ @ @ philosophy and therapies , Buddhist notions of impermanence , and the Christian practice of memento mori ( remember your death ) all assert that the process of accepting the inescapability of death can help us to live a more meaningful life .
The amputation of my felt-sense of unfolding time was violent and sudden .
It began with a visceral realization of how I spent my now-limited time .
If lost time could not be recouped , did I really want to spend much ( or any ) of it at a professional @ @ @ @ @ @ @ or trapped on long phone conversations with a needy acquaintance ?
Over the next three years of treatment , I extricated myself from activities and relationships that either didn ’ t serve or took precious time away from core priorities : being present for my family , supporting my clients , giving what I could to my community , and — always — respecting my limitations .
I no longer worried about reaching arbitrary goals , building “ momentum , ” or even growing a business .
I sat with the person in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ were in front of me .
Each moment , pleasant or unpleasant , had become an end in itself , rather than a means to an end .
My small family downsized our home and our lives , and we adjusted expectations in order to reduce financial pressures .
I abandoned long-term writing projects and wrote only when I felt I had something to say .
I gave up the belts and stages of martial arts practice and instead took long walks .
My book list shifted to shorter collected readings that would @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , free of the demand to reach every last page .
Eventually , I had no more attachments or plans beyond a general weekly schedule , no more fantasies of a great come-and-get-it day .
The tasks were simple : to fully live the one day I ’ d been given ; to be who I meant to be in each moment , to the best of my abilities .
At first , this shift in my orientation to time was alienating and lonely as everyone around me continued to think ahead .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ t miss that .
A large bite had been taken out of my sense of linear , causal , chronological time — the Greek notion of chronos .
But what I ’ d found in its place was kairos : this particular , critical moment .
The appointed time .
The time of action .
My unpredictable cancer unpredictably became undetectable after 30 hard months of treatment .
I have been off chemotherapy for a year and a half .
It is possible that I have 10 , even 20 , years of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this unpredictable cancer will reemerge when I least expect it .
Maybe next week I ’ ll learn that I have a lesion on my optic nerve .
No one knows , because there is no knowing .
A smaller , lighter sense of future has crept back into my life , terrifying in its own way .
I can now permit myself to fantasize a year ahead , or sometimes two .
I ’ ve noticed gentle new goals sneaking in : to spend a little more time teaching and a little @ @ @ @ @ @ @ applied to a seminary program , aware that I may not make it to enrollment or live to finish the program .
But I do know this will be a pleasurable , meaningful project — one that I can make practical use of each new day .
I can picture our home emptier as the kids move into the world .
But my sense of meaning and identity aren ’ t dependent on any of these imaginings .
I ’ ll be the best mother , partner , therapist , and friend that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ will take long hikes and watch the hawks circle overhead .
I will rest when I am tired .
And when my time comes , it will have been enough .
Martha M. Crawford is a psychotherapist , coach and supervisor in private practice since 1998 in NYC and now in Santa Fe and the author of the blog What a Shrink Thinks .

The room didn’t spin like they say it does. My life didn’t flash before my eyes. I had no difficulty understanding the verdict: It was incurable.
They could offer no prognosis. They had some general ideas about how they might treat me; it was considered “manageable” in its normal form, but in my case, there was no telling what would or wouldn’t work. They told me that if they could find an effective treatment, I should expect to be on it “for life.”
The week of the 2016 election, my foot had gone numb — paralyzed, actually. I’d first arrived at the neurologist’s office unable to wiggle my toes, and now I was leaving with a singularly rare cancer diagnosis, a blood cancer that had jumped its track and hadn’t shown up as it was supposed to. Even though my blood, lymph, and bone marrow were all clear, a blood cancer had somehow emerged in my cerebrospinal fluid and lodged itself along my spinal cord, forming hundreds of microlesions. The oncologist (who specialized in rare lymphomas) responded, “Get out!” when the neurologist shared the results of my spinal tap. They were looking forward to meeting me. There isn’t much that’s good about being a unique cancer case, but at least the specialists are excited to see you.
It wasn’t until the drive home, as my husband, David, and I tried to figure out how and what to tell the children, that the terror overcame me. How could I prepare my middle schoolers for what we might face? There was no reassurance I could offer. Any expectation that the next day would be better or even vaguely resemble the days before had disappeared entirely.
We told them the naked truth. The doctors couldn’t say what might happen next because they had never seen this before. The outcome was uncertain, so hope and fear were both reasonable. Anything could happen: anything bad, anything good, or anything in between.
That night, unable to sleep, a strange, intrusive thought scrolled through my head: “The future has been amputated.” There would be weeks of hospitalizations, infusions, nausea, and fatigue before I could summon the presence of mind to interrogate that thought. On my first wobbly walk around the park near my home, I spotted a cute two-bedroom house on a side street.
“Maybe,” I wondered, “we could downsize to a cute little house like that once the kids are off to college … ?”
I stopped myself short. That would be seven years away. My survival relied on the efficacy of a chemotherapy, fresh out of trials, designed to treat cancers of the blood. My medical team wasn’t sure if it would work at all.
I might not live to see my eldest graduate. Who knew if I would survive even the year?
I sat down on a bench, dizzy. People hurried past me, some rushing home from work, some squeezing in a run before dinner, others racing toward schools to fetch their kids. Everywhere they were headed, it seemed, was a lot more important than where they happened to be right now.
For decades, my life had been as organized as theirs. I was always ambitious, my calendar overflowing: a private psychotherapy practice, parenting, writing, martial arts, caring for elderly family members, volunteering as a community organizer. Friends and colleagues marveled at how I got so much done. Now it was clear I had been running on overdrive for years, racing toward some magical day in the future when I’d have accomplished enough and might allow myself to rest.
It was as if cancer had flung me into a parallel universe where I would never again spend, waste, or experience time as others did, or as I had before. Sitting on that bench watching the early winter sunset, I realized that I never had the ability to shape my future. I’d been chasing an illusion. The causal chain I’d been constructing was wiped away in a single stroke. The only real time was now: the sun setting, the park bench, the crisp, cold air filling my lungs.
I thought of the many future-focused conversations I had daily: psychotherapy clients dreaming of one day finding the right partner, or the right job, or hoping to eventually leave the wrong ones. Neighbors planning their vacations. Other parents fantasizing about their children’s college and career trajectories. Every weekday conversation filled with yearning for the next weekend. The systems that surround us intensify our future fantasies, like an unattainable carrot at the end of a proverbial stick, driving us all to press ourselves harder and faster toward some end that never quite comes in the way we imagine.
Ambition has a necessary function: It may offer hope in times of desolation, or motivate us out of states of suffering and depletion. Yet aspirations have their shadows. Striving can imply that the present moment is inadequate. It seems as though ambition has been elevated into a distorted religion. But our relentless cultural habit of structured goal-setting and futurizing are nonsensical once we gaze into the abyss. Existentialist philosophy and therapies, Buddhist notions of impermanence, and the Christian practice of memento mori (remember your death) all assert that the process of accepting the inescapability of death can help us to live a more meaningful life.
The amputation of my felt-sense of unfolding time was violent and sudden. It began with a visceral realization of how I spent my now-limited time. If lost time could not be recouped, did I really want to spend much (or any) of it at a professional association meeting, or organizing fundraisers, or trapped on long phone conversations with a needy acquaintance?
Over the next three years of treatment, I extricated myself from activities and relationships that either didn’t serve or took precious time away from core priorities: being present for my family, supporting my clients, giving what I could to my community, and — always — respecting my limitations. I no longer worried about reaching arbitrary goals, building “momentum,” or even growing a business. I sat with the person in front of me for the time they were in front of me. Each moment, pleasant or unpleasant, had become an end in itself, rather than a means to an end.
My small family downsized our home and our lives, and we adjusted expectations in order to reduce financial pressures. I abandoned long-term writing projects and wrote only when I felt I had something to say. I gave up the belts and stages of martial arts practice and instead took long walks. My book list shifted to shorter collected readings that would offer up new ideas along the way, free of the demand to reach every last page. Eventually, I had no more attachments or plans beyond a general weekly schedule, no more fantasies of a great come-and-get-it day. The tasks were simple: to fully live the one day I’d been given; to be who I meant to be in each moment, to the best of my abilities.
At first, this shift in my orientation to time was alienating and lonely as everyone around me continued to think ahead. Later, I realized I didn’t miss that. A large bite had been taken out of my sense of linear, causal, chronological time — the Greek notion of chronos. But what I’d found in its place was kairos: this particular, critical moment. The appointed time. The time of action.
My unpredictable cancer unpredictably became undetectable after 30 hard months of treatment. I have been off chemotherapy for a year and a half. It is possible that I have 10, even 20, years of time and health left. Or maybe this unpredictable cancer will reemerge when I least expect it. Maybe next week I’ll learn that I have a lesion on my optic nerve. No one knows, because there is no knowing.
A smaller, lighter sense of future has crept back into my life, terrifying in its own way. I can now permit myself to fantasize a year ahead, or sometimes two. I’ve noticed gentle new goals sneaking in: to spend a little more time teaching and a little less time counseling. I’ve applied to a seminary program, aware that I may not make it to enrollment or live to finish the program. But I do know this will be a pleasurable, meaningful project — one that I can make practical use of each new day. I can picture our home emptier as the kids move into the world. But my sense of meaning and identity aren’t dependent on any of these imaginings. I’ll be the best mother, partner, therapist, and friend that I can be, today. I will take long hikes and watch the hawks circle overhead. I will rest when I am tired. And when my time comes, it will have been enough.
Martha M. Crawford is a psychotherapist, coach and supervisor in private practice since 1998 in NYC and now in Santa Fe and the author of the blog What a Shrink Thinks.


vox--2020-12-28--The debate over Joe Biden canceling student debt, explained

Until fairly recently , student debt cancellation was considered to be a fringe idea that , while popular among the Occupy Wall Street crowd and on the left , was a mainstream nonstarter .
That ’ s begun to change .
The Covid-19 pandemic and resulting economic downturn have pushed the issue even further to the forefront .
The CARES Act and then President Donald Trump put a pause on federal student loan payments during the pandemic that expires at the end of January .
But with the coronavirus crisis worse than ever , there is a growing chorus of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for student debt cancellation as a form of economic stimulus .
That chorus is pushing Democrats and , namely , President-elect Joe Biden to go big on student debt , using federal action to wipe out some or even all of what borrowers owe .
“ What ’ s attractive about student debt cancellation in this moment is that in addition to righting a policy wrong — which is the decision to make the cost of college an individual burden when I would say it ’ s a public good — is that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a moment when we need economic stimulus .
And it has significant racial equity implications as well , ” said Suzanne Kahn , director of education , jobs , and power at the Roosevelt Institute and an advocate for complete federal student debt cancellation .
It ’ s also something Biden could try to do independently of Congress , which is attractive since stimulus talks have stalled out .
Biden ’ s campaign backed legislation forgiving the first $ 10,000 in federal student loan debt , but some Democrats and progressives are pushing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ through executive action — and not just $ 10,000 , but $ 50,000 or even all of it .
Biden is reluctant to the idea of canceling student debt unilaterally .
Beyond direct cancellation , there ’ s a lot Biden can do to make preexisting student debt programs work better and help more people .
“ There is a tremendous opportunity through executive action for President-elect Biden to improve the lives of millions of Americans , ” said Seth Frotman , executive director of the Student Borrower Protection Center and former student @ @ @ @ @ @ @ conversation around student debt in the United States stretches far beyond questions of education , law , and economics .
It also entails thorny discussions around racial justice , politics , and fairness .
Advocates argue that debt cancellation will carry a range of benefits — stimulating the economy , promoting racial justice , and righting the wrong of pushing millions of Americans into life-hindering debt .
But as the Biden administration plans its first steps , a debate is raging about whether loan forgiveness is really the best way to get the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who need it .
Some critics warn it could be a politically costly push that doesn ’ t solve the underlying problems with higher education in the US .
Why this , why now Broad-based student debt cancellation isn ’ t a new idea , but it being discussed in establishment political circles is .
Forty-five million Americans now owe a total of about $ 1.6 trillion in student loans , and one in 10 loans are in delinquency or default .
The Federal Reserve estimates the typical monthly payment to be between @ @ @ @ @ @ @ suggests people are delaying buying homes , having kids , and changing jobs in part because of student loan debt , which means it could become a drag on the overall economy .
The burden is especially heavy on Black borrowers , who generally carry more debt and struggle more to pay it off .
“ This is not some niche problem , ” said Bharat Ramamurti , a member of the Congressional Oversight Commission that oversees the CARES Act funds and former adviser to Sen. Elizabeth Warren .
“ Student loan debt @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s basically a fifth of all adults.
” Student debt was a major theme during Occupy Wall Street , a widespread protest movement that emerged in reaction to the global financial crisis in 2011 .
In the years following Occupy , activists continued to focus on the issue and push it into the conversation : In 2012 , they organized 1T Day to mark student debt surpassing $ 1 trillion , and they subsequently launched Strike Debt and fundraisers to help cancel student debt .
Student debt strikes began to pop up @ @ @ @ @ @ @ paying their loans in protest of the situation , and organizers helped propel regulations to protect student borrowers against misleading and predatory practices .
As student debt , which is difficult to get discharged in bankruptcy , has become an increasingly prevalent issue , so have proposals regarding how to address it .
In the 2020 Democratic presidential primary , Bernie Sanders ran on canceling all student debt , and Elizabeth Warren proposed canceling debts of up to $ 50,000 .
Many Democrats and progressives are calling for Biden to cancel some or @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , a “ settlement and compromise ” provision that they argue would allow for debt to be canceled through executive authority .
“ The law is pretty clear that the secretary of education has the authority to compromise — that ’ s the term — which means effectively cancel any individual debt of up to $ 1 million , ” said Ramamurti , who helped devise the plan Warren ran on .
Now Warren and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer are urging the incoming administration to cancel up to $ 50,000 in student @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Senate .
In the House , Reps. Ayanna Pressley ( D-MA ) , Ilhan Omar ( D-MN ) , Alma Adams ( D-NC ) , and Maxine Waters ( D-CA ) have introduced a companion resolution also calling for Biden to cancel debt .
But as the idea has grown more popular , so has the resistance .
On the right , detractors say it ’ s a pointless government give-out .
In the middle , they warn it ’ s not a good way to stimulate the economy .
And on the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s a regressive policy that will help people who don ’ t need it .
Some critics have panned the idea as a “ Brahmin bailout ” that would help out the upper class ( those who went to college ) and do little , if anything , for everyone else , and some people have warned that such a bailout could prove a messaging disaster for Democrats .
“ No matter how it ’ s designed , student-debt forgiveness is very poorly targeted , ” Bloomberg ’ s editorial board warned in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be better focused on the poor , severe drawbacks remain .
For one , the vast majority of Americans who don ’ t have student debt would rightly feel left out .
Many never had the opportunity to get a higher education ; others put off financial goals ( such as saving for retirement ) to pay it down .
Also , it would do little to improve the immediate cash flow of the many debtors who — because they ’ re in default or in income-based repayment plans — are making small @ @ @ @ @ @ @ conducted by Vox and Data for Progress found that 51 percent of likely voters support forgiving student loan debt up to $ 50,000 , especially if it is tied to national or community service or comes with a $ 125,000 income threshold .
Only about one in four likely voters , however , supports forgiving all student debt .
And the idea is much more popular among those with debt than those without it .
Other polls have also found that canceling some student debt is a moderately popular idea , though not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
And it is pretty well liked among members of the Democratic base — Black voters and middle-class professionals — who helped hand Biden the election .
If Democrats do go ahead with student debt forgiveness via executive actions , they could pair it with something that would benefit non-college-educated people , such as requiring federal contractors to pay a $ 15 minimum wage .
That would benefit millions of workers .
How much can Biden do to reduce student debt ?
The Trump administration has extended the federal loan payment pause through @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to extend it .
Still , leaving people in limbo month to month is not ideal .
There are other steps Biden could take short of full debt cancellation , including improving programs to relieve debt for students defrauded by predatory schools or who signed up for programs that let them repay loans based on their income , loan forgiveness for people who go into public service , and debt relief for student veterans and students with disabilities , among others .
But the big conversation has shifted to whether Biden should set @ @ @ @ @ @ @ if so , how much .
The burden of student debt in America isn ’ t equally shared .
In 2019 , households with graduate degrees owed 56 percent of education debt , even though only 14 percent of adults over the age of 25 have graduate degrees , and the 3 percent of households with doctorates or professional degrees held 20 percent of all debt .
Meanwhile , many of those struggling most with student debt are those who never finished their degrees .
Biden has backed legislation that would cancel $ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ take control of the Senate and make a big effort to push that through , that ’ s not likely to become law .
In terms of what advocates want Biden himself to do , the more conservative number rests around the $ 10,000 range , which is the number the president-elect had initially thrown his weight behind legislatively .
Capping forgiveness at $ 10,000 could eliminate debt for more than 15 million borrowers and reduce by half the debt of 9 million more .
Adam Looney , a nonresident fellow at the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Marriner S. Eccles Institute at the University of Utah , noted in a Washington Post op-ed that it would specifically help “ borrowers with smaller balances , who , paradoxically , tend to struggle most , accounting for 60 percent of all defaults.
” Borrowers who owe the least are often the ones who struggle most to pay their loans , in part because many of them are people who dropped out of school and aren ’ t getting the benefit of a college degree in their careers .
From the $ 10,000 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and Warren are pushing Biden to forgive $ 50,000 .
At the most ambitious end of the spectrum , some activists , organizers , and politicians want to cancel all federal student loan debt for everyone .
Ramamurti told me he sees it as “ purely a matter of political will , ” and once the mechanisms are in place , there ’ s room for adjustment on forgiveness amounts and thresholds .
“ The nice thing about this policy is you can tweak it , depending on what your goals are , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ comment , the Biden transition team pointed to his campaign education plan and noted his support for the $ 10,000 forgiveness legislation .
In December , Biden told a group of newspaper columnists that he is “ unlikely ” to pursue student debt cancellation on his own .
“ It ’ s arguable that the president may have the executive power to forgive up to $ 50,000 in student debt , ” Biden said in remarks first reported by the Washington Post .
“ Well , I think that ’ s pretty questionable @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
I ’ d be unlikely to do that.
” At the heart of the argument for canceling student debt , especially in the midst of the pandemic , is that it would be good for millions of people and , therefore , the economy .
How good is where the disagreement resides — and because mass student debt forgiveness isn ’ t something we ’ ve seen in the past , the data on what could happen is relatively limited .
One 2019 working paper from Harvard Business School looked at what @ @ @ @ @ @ @ debt discharged because of a lawsuit .
They found that borrowers reduced their overall indebtedness by a quarter and were also less likely to default on other accounts .
That ’ s good for them and for the entities they owe money to .
“ We actually find that these individuals tend to lower their total liabilities over time by repaying , for instance , credit card debt , so their overall financial health improves , ” said Marco Di Maggio , an associate professor of business administration at Harvard and one of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ also demonstrated more mobility — they moved states , changed jobs , and took more risks that often translated to higher incomes .
45 million Americans now owe a total of about $ 1.6 trillion in student loans Di Maggio ’ s research focused on people who were in default and weren ’ t making payments at all .
But if it were broader federal debt forgiveness that includes borrowers who are paying , he thinks the impact could be much greater .
“ If you give the same type of forgiveness to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , one effect that we don ’ t capture is that your monthly payment is going down , ” he said .
The $ 300 people were putting toward loan payments every month could then be spent elsewhere .
Some critics have argued that student loan forgiveness could be quite regressive , especially at higher amounts , because it would mean canceling debts for high-earning households .
And there is disagreement among economists about just how effective stimulus forgiveness would be .
The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget , a group that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ student loan forgiveness would have relatively small near-term multiplier effects , meaning the impact on the economy would be limited ( and that ’ s assuming it ’ s tax-free — more on that later ) .
“ We found that it ’ s all really poorly targeted stimulus , ” said Marc Goldwein , senior policy director at CRFB .
“ It would boost the economy , but by our estimates , for every $ 1 of loan forgiveness ... it would boost the economy by somewhere between 8 and 23 cents @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” Other analysts disagree .
Di Maggio estimates the multiplier to be at least $ 1 on every $ 1 — meaning that spending on forgiveness would directly boost the economy .
A 2018 study from the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College projected that debt cancellation could boost GDP by tens of billions of dollars a year and reduce unemployment .
Biden ’ s appetite for loan forgiveness might even depend on how willing Congress is to do other stimulus .
“ I would expect that student loan cancellation by executive action @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Republicans are blocking progress on a stimulus package through Congress , ” said Bob Shireman , the director of higher education excellence and a senior fellow at the Century Foundation .
“ It is definitely not one of the most effective ways to stimulate the economy , but if it is one of the things available to the administration , then it might be something they do.
” But economic stimulus is not the only argument for wiping out debt .
Black borrowers are disproportionately burdened with debt .
From 2000 to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ young white borrowers with a bachelor ’ s degree about doubled from $ 12,000 to $ 23,000 .
For Black borrowers , it quadrupled , from $ 7,000 to $ 30,000 , even though white families tend to have more cumulative debt than Black families overall .
A study from Brandeis University found that 20 years after starting college , a typical Black borrower still owes 95 percent of their debt , while the typical white borrower has paid off 94 percent of their debt .
Across socioeconomic levels , Black borrowers wind @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
“ Black students borrow more often , they borrow more , and they have a harder time repaying than their peers , ” said Tiffany Jones , senior director of higher education policy at the Education Trust .
“ That ’ s true all the way up the income ladder.
” Forgiveness is a racial justice policy .
A recent Roosevelt Institute working paper found that while white borrowers stand to gain the most in absolute dollars from cancellation , “ the relative gains for Black borrowers are much larger and the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Black wealth overall would experience much more growth as a result.
” They did not , however , find that it would meaningfully address the racial wealth gap .
Darrick Hamilton , a professor of economics and urban policy and founding director of the Institute for the Study of Race , Stratification , and Political Economy at the New School , said the wealth gap isn ’ t entirely the point .
“ If you ’ re really trying to close the racial wealth gap , the main component , from an accounting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , ” he said .
“ Debt is problematic because it ’ s almost like sharecropping — that ’ s hyperbole — but it puts people in a debt trap where they are not permitted pathways for social mobility because they are constrained by a financier and the efforts of their labor go to pay off the interest on finance.
” “ Any debt relief is better than what ’ s happening right now ” Advocates say the racial justice argument applies at the top and bottom of the income spectrum , for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who are not , and that narrow targeting isn ’ t necessary .
“ Folks are feeling like providing relief to a group that are high earners is probably not the right thing to do , forgetting and erasing that among high earners there are Black and brown people who would be impacted , ” Jones said .
But student loan forgiveness could also be a restorative justice issue in that it would help right past wrongs .
Higher education has long been held up as the gateway to a livable wage , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ into debt to go to school , build their résumés , and advance .
Now millions of young Americans are living through their second recession at the outset of their careers , and they ’ re saddled with debt they were told was a good idea .
Forgiveness could be “ stimulus to a generation that ’ s been particularly scarred , ” Hamilton said .
Frederick Wherry , a professor of sociology at Princeton University and director of the Dignity and Debt Network , emphasized that if student debt is canceled , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ idea to cancel it in a way that ’ s not denigrating for the debtors ” — making it easy to access instead of making people feel bad about jumping through hoops to reap the benefit .
“ For those who are already drowning and you are saying you want to do a stimulus , do a stimulus , ” Wherry said .
“ No one says anything when rich people get a tax break.
” One major policy and political issue that hangs over the forgiveness discussion is taxes .
Debt cancellation @ @ @ @ @ @ @ So if someone has $ 50,000 in student loans forgiven , that would mean $ 50,000 would be counted as gross income for the year it was forgiven on top of other income .
Under today ’ s tax rates , that would be taxed likely somewhere between 22 and 37 percent .
In other words , major student debt cancellation could come with an enormous tax bill for borrowers .
Those who have studied the issue say there are workarounds .
John Brooks , a law professor at the Georgetown University Law @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , told me that there are a number of legal arguments that would allow the secretary of education , the treasury department , and the IRS to make forgiveness tax-free .
Forgiveness could get a “ general welfare ” exclusion , or qualify as disaster relief , or get a scholarship exclusion , among other options .
“ Student debt is just really , really weird , and it just doesn ’ t fit into the categories and the ways we think about other kinds of debt , ” he said .
“ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ funding for higher education , and it ’ s designed to provide as many people as possible with a way to get over some degree of affordability problems that ’ s limiting their ability to enroll in higher education.
” Jessica Thompson , associate vice president at the Institute for College Access & Success ( TICAS ) , said the case that there ’ s a preexisting legal way around taxes on cancellation is “ definitely more in question ” than forgiveness proponents would like , though there ’ s an argument to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ your case , but in the end , you ’ ve got to meet every single hurdle that could be thrown at you , ” she said .
“ Treasury and the IRS tend to be conservative and careful about how they interpret their authority to act.
” It ’ s worth emphasizing that the tax issue isn ’ t limited to the current executive action forgiveness question — the assumption for people repaying loans through programs that eventually forgive any remaining balance is that they ’ ll owe taxes , too .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ up whether there ’ s mass cancellation or not .
The moment to cancel debt might be now .
It also doesn ’ t solve the bigger problem .
The conversation the United States is having right now around student debt cancellation isn ’ t a new one — it ’ s the result of years of activism , organizing , and thinking among people who think it ’ s a good , just , and right idea .
But this is also indicative of the moment : Millions of Americans are hurting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Covid-19 pandemic , especially as much of the federal stimulus already provided has run out or is about to .
Debt forgiveness may be an outlet for the Biden administration to be creative and nimble in addressing the crisis .
“ Any debt relief is better than what ’ s happening right now , ” Jones said .
But wiping out debt is only part of the equation when it comes to the cost of higher education in the United States .
Even if you cancel all existing debt , you have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to school who are going to wind up stuck in the same loop .
“ Every breath that you hear someone talking about debt cancellation , we need to be talking about the urgency of people who are in school right now and people who should be in school right now , ” Thompson said .
That translates to issues such as making college more affordable , keeping students away from predatory institutions , and fostering degrees and training that are worth the money .
The issue on those fronts is that Biden @ @ @ @ @ @ @ own .
“ We need a Congress that ’ s willing to have that conversation , ” the Century Foundation ’ s Shireman said .
“ We can not address the broader affordability questions , the broader affordability problem , without Congress and the administration working together.
” Is widespread student debt cancellation the optimal path toward stimulus ?
Reasonable minds can disagree , but probably not .
But if there ’ s ever a time to try it , the moment could be now .

Until fairly recently, student debt cancellation was considered to be a fringe idea that, while popular among the Occupy Wall Street crowd and on the left, was a mainstream nonstarter. That’s begun to change.
The Covid-19 pandemic and resulting economic downturn have pushed the issue even further to the forefront. The CARES Act and then President Donald Trump put a pause on federal student loan payments during the pandemic that expires at the end of January. But with the coronavirus crisis worse than ever, there is a growing chorus of activists, politicians, and voters calling for student debt cancellation as a form of economic stimulus. That chorus is pushing Democrats and, namely, President-elect Joe Biden to go big on student debt, using federal action to wipe out some or even all of what borrowers owe.
“What’s attractive about student debt cancellation in this moment is that in addition to righting a policy wrong — which is the decision to make the cost of college an individual burden when I would say it’s a public good — is that it can help stimulate the economy at a moment when we need economic stimulus. And it has significant racial equity implications as well,” said Suzanne Kahn, director of education, jobs, and power at the Roosevelt Institute and an advocate for complete federal student debt cancellation. It’s also something Biden could try to do independently of Congress, which is attractive since stimulus talks have stalled out.
Biden’s campaign backed legislation forgiving the first $10,000 in federal student loan debt, but some Democrats and progressives are pushing for him to cancel more student debt through executive action — and not just $10,000, but $50,000 or even all of it. Biden cast doubt on the idea of canceling student debt unilaterally.
Beyond direct cancellation, there’s a lot Biden can do to make preexisting student debt programs work better and help more people.
“There is a tremendous opportunity through executive action for President-elect Biden to improve the lives of millions of Americans,” said Seth Frotman, executive director of the Student Borrower Protection Center and former student debt ombudsman at the CFPB.
The conversation around student debt in the United States stretches far beyond questions of education, law, and economics. It also entails thorny discussions around racial justice, politics, and fairness. Advocates argue that debt cancellation will carry a range of benefits — stimulating the economy, promoting racial justice, and righting the wrong of pushing millions of Americans into life-hindering debt.
But as the Biden administration plans its first steps, a debate is raging about whether loan forgiveness is really the best way to get the economy moving and get relief to people who need it. Some critics warn it could be a politically costly push that doesn’t solve the underlying problems with higher education in the US.
Why this, why now
Broad-based student debt cancellation isn’t a new idea, but it being discussed in establishment political circles is.
Forty-five million Americans now owe a total of about $1.6 trillion in student loans, and one in 10 loans are in delinquency or default. The Federal Reserve estimates the typical monthly payment to be between $200 and $299. Research suggests people are delaying buying homes, having kids, and changing jobs in part because of student loan debt, which means it could become a drag on the overall economy. The burden is especially heavy on Black borrowers, who generally carry more debt and struggle more to pay it off.
“This is not some niche problem,” said Bharat Ramamurti, a member of the Congressional Oversight Commission that oversees the CARES Act funds and former adviser to Sen. Elizabeth Warren. “Student loan debt affects a lot of people — it’s basically a fifth of all adults.”
Student debt was a major theme during Occupy Wall Street, a widespread protest movement that emerged in reaction to the global financial crisis in 2011. In the years following Occupy, activists continued to focus on the issue and push it into the conversation: In 2012, they organized 1T Day to mark student debt surpassing $1 trillion, and they subsequently launched Strike Debt and fundraisers to help cancel student debt. Student debt strikes began to pop up across the country, where borrowers stopped paying their loans in protest of the situation, and organizers helped propel regulations to protect student borrowers against misleading and predatory practices.
As student debt, which is difficult to get discharged in bankruptcy, has become an increasingly prevalent issue, so have proposals regarding how to address it. In the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, Bernie Sanders ran on canceling all student debt, and Elizabeth Warren proposed canceling debts of up to $50,000.
Many Democrats and progressives are calling for Biden to cancel some or all debt through executive action, namely, a “settlement and compromise” provision that they argue would allow for debt to be canceled through executive authority.
“The law is pretty clear that the secretary of education has the authority to compromise — that’s the term — which means effectively cancel any individual debt of up to $1 million,” said Ramamurti, who helped devise the plan Warren ran on.
Now Warren and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer are urging the incoming administration to cancel up to $50,000 in student loan debt with a resolution in the Senate. In the House, Reps. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Alma Adams (D-NC), and Maxine Waters (D-CA) have introduced a companion resolution also calling for Biden to cancel debt.
But as the idea has grown more popular, so has the resistance. On the right, detractors say it’s a pointless government give-out. In the middle, they warn it’s not a good way to stimulate the economy. And on the left, there are concerns it’s a regressive policy that will help people who don’t need it. Some critics have panned the idea as a “Brahmin bailout” that would help out the upper class (those who went to college) and do little, if anything, for everyone else, and some people have warned that such a bailout could prove a messaging disaster for Democrats.
“No matter how it’s designed, student-debt forgiveness is very poorly targeted,” Bloomberg’s editorial board warned in November. “Even if relief could be better focused on the poor, severe drawbacks remain. For one, the vast majority of Americans who don’t have student debt would rightly feel left out. Many never had the opportunity to get a higher education; others put off financial goals (such as saving for retirement) to pay it down. Also, it would do little to improve the immediate cash flow of the many debtors who — because they’re in default or in income-based repayment plans — are making small or no monthly payments.”
A poll conducted by Vox and Data for Progress found that 51 percent of likely voters support forgiving student loan debt up to $50,000, especially if it is tied to national or community service or comes with a $125,000 income threshold.
Only about one in four likely voters, however, supports forgiving all student debt. And the idea is much more popular among those with debt than those without it.
Other polls have also found that canceling some student debt is a moderately popular idea, though not the most popular idea in the world.
And it is pretty well liked among members of the Democratic base — Black voters and middle-class professionals — who helped hand Biden the election.
If Democrats do go ahead with student debt forgiveness via executive actions, they could pair it with something that would benefit non-college-educated people, such as requiring federal contractors to pay a $15 minimum wage. That would benefit millions of workers.
How much can Biden do to reduce student debt?
The Trump administration has extended the federal loan payment pause through January 31, and Biden could continue to extend it. Still, leaving people in limbo month to month is not ideal.
There are other steps Biden could take short of full debt cancellation, including improving programs to relieve debt for students defrauded by predatory schools or who signed up for programs that let them repay loans based on their income, loan forgiveness for people who go into public service, and debt relief for student veterans and students with disabilities, among others.
But the big conversation has shifted to whether Biden should set students free from their debt — and if so, how much.
The burden of student debt in America isn’t equally shared. In 2019, households with graduate degrees owed 56 percent of education debt, even though only 14 percent of adults over the age of 25 have graduate degrees, and the 3 percent of households with doctorates or professional degrees held 20 percent of all debt. Meanwhile, many of those struggling most with student debt are those who never finished their degrees.
Biden has backed legislation that would cancel $10,000 in debt, but unless Democrats take control of the Senate and make a big effort to push that through, that’s not likely to become law.
In terms of what advocates want Biden himself to do, the more conservative number rests around the $10,000 range, which is the number the president-elect had initially thrown his weight behind legislatively. Capping forgiveness at $10,000 could eliminate debt for more than 15 million borrowers and reduce by half the debt of 9 million more.
Adam Looney, a nonresident fellow at the Brookings Institution and executive director of the Marriner S. Eccles Institute at the University of Utah, noted in a Washington Post op-ed that it would specifically help “borrowers with smaller balances, who, paradoxically, tend to struggle most, accounting for 60 percent of all defaults.”
Borrowers who owe the least are often the ones who struggle most to pay their loans, in part because many of them are people who dropped out of school and aren’t getting the benefit of a college degree in their careers.
From the $10,000, the scale goes up. Schumer and Warren are pushing Biden to forgive $50,000. At the most ambitious end of the spectrum, some activists, organizers, and politicians want to cancel all federal student loan debt for everyone.
Ramamurti told me he sees it as “purely a matter of political will,” and once the mechanisms are in place, there’s room for adjustment on forgiveness amounts and thresholds.
“The nice thing about this policy is you can tweak it, depending on what your goals are,” he said.
When reached for comment, the Biden transition team pointed to his campaign education plan and noted his support for the $10,000 forgiveness legislation. In December, Biden told a group of newspaper columnists that he is “unlikely” to pursue student debt cancellation on his own. “It’s arguable that the president may have the executive power to forgive up to $50,000 in student debt,” Biden said in remarks first reported by the Washington Post. “Well, I think that’s pretty questionable. I’m unsure of that. I’d be unlikely to do that.”
The economic argument for canceling student debt
At the heart of the argument for canceling student debt, especially in the midst of the pandemic, is that it would be good for millions of people and, therefore, the economy. How good is where the disagreement resides — and because mass student debt forgiveness isn’t something we’ve seen in the past, the data on what could happen is relatively limited.
One 2019 working paper from Harvard Business School looked at what happened when students in default had their debt discharged because of a lawsuit. They found that borrowers reduced their overall indebtedness by a quarter and were also less likely to default on other accounts. That’s good for them and for the entities they owe money to.
“We actually find that these individuals tend to lower their total liabilities over time by repaying, for instance, credit card debt, so their overall financial health improves,” said Marco Di Maggio, an associate professor of business administration at Harvard and one of the paper’s authors.
People also demonstrated more mobility — they moved states, changed jobs, and took more risks that often translated to higher incomes.
45 million Americans now owe a total of about $1.6 trillion in student loans
Di Maggio’s research focused on people who were in default and weren’t making payments at all. But if it were broader federal debt forgiveness that includes borrowers who are paying, he thinks the impact could be much greater.
“If you give the same type of forgiveness to people that are not in that situation, one effect that we don’t capture is that your monthly payment is going down,” he said. The $300 people were putting toward loan payments every month could then be spent elsewhere.
Some critics have argued that student loan forgiveness could be quite regressive, especially at higher amounts, because it would mean canceling debts for high-earning households. And there is disagreement among economists about just how effective stimulus forgiveness would be. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a group that advocates for fiscal responsibility, estimates that student loan forgiveness would have relatively small near-term multiplier effects, meaning the impact on the economy would be limited (and that’s assuming it’s tax-free — more on that later).
“We found that it’s all really poorly targeted stimulus,” said Marc Goldwein, senior policy director at CRFB. “It would boost the economy, but by our estimates, for every $1 of loan forgiveness ... it would boost the economy by somewhere between 8 and 23 cents, which is a very poor multiplier.”
Other analysts disagree. Di Maggio estimates the multiplier to be at least $1 on every $1 — meaning that spending on forgiveness would directly boost the economy. A 2018 study from the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College projected that debt cancellation could boost GDP by tens of billions of dollars a year and reduce unemployment.
Biden’s appetite for loan forgiveness might even depend on how willing Congress is to do other stimulus.
“I would expect that student loan cancellation by executive action is more likely the extent to which the Republicans are blocking progress on a stimulus package through Congress,” said Bob Shireman, the director of higher education excellence and a senior fellow at the Century Foundation. “It is definitely not one of the most effective ways to stimulate the economy, but if it is one of the things available to the administration, then it might be something they do.”
But economic stimulus is not the only argument for wiping out debt.
The justice argument for canceling student debt
Black borrowers are disproportionately burdened with debt. From 2000 to 2018, the median student debt for young white borrowers with a bachelor’s degree about doubled from $12,000 to $23,000. For Black borrowers, it quadrupled, from $7,000 to $30,000, even though white families tend to have more cumulative debt than Black families overall.
A study from Brandeis University found that 20 years after starting college, a typical Black borrower still owes 95 percent of their debt, while the typical white borrower has paid off 94 percent of their debt. Across socioeconomic levels, Black borrowers wind up worse off than their white counterparts.
“Black students borrow more often, they borrow more, and they have a harder time repaying than their peers,” said Tiffany Jones, senior director of higher education policy at the Education Trust. “That’s true all the way up the income ladder.”
Forgiveness is a racial justice policy. A recent Roosevelt Institute working paper found that while white borrowers stand to gain the most in absolute dollars from cancellation, “the relative gains for Black borrowers are much larger and the greater proportion of Black borrowers means that Black wealth overall would experience much more growth as a result.” They did not, however, find that it would meaningfully address the racial wealth gap.
Darrick Hamilton, a professor of economics and urban policy and founding director of the Institute for the Study of Race, Stratification, and Political Economy at the New School, said the wealth gap isn’t entirely the point.
“If you’re really trying to close the racial wealth gap, the main component, from an accounting standpoint, is assets, not debt,” he said. “Debt is problematic because it’s almost like sharecropping — that’s hyperbole — but it puts people in a debt trap where they are not permitted pathways for social mobility because they are constrained by a financier and the efforts of their labor go to pay off the interest on finance.”
“Any debt relief is better than what’s happening right now”
Advocates say the racial justice argument applies at the top and bottom of the income spectrum, for Black borrowers who are well-off and those who are not, and that narrow targeting isn’t necessary. “Folks are feeling like providing relief to a group that are high earners is probably not the right thing to do, forgetting and erasing that among high earners there are Black and brown people who would be impacted,” Jones said.
But student loan forgiveness could also be a restorative justice issue in that it would help right past wrongs. Higher education has long been held up as the gateway to a livable wage, and students have been encouraged to go into debt to go to school, build their résumés, and advance.
Now millions of young Americans are living through their second recession at the outset of their careers, and they’re saddled with debt they were told was a good idea. Forgiveness could be “stimulus to a generation that’s been particularly scarred,” Hamilton said.
Frederick Wherry, a professor of sociology at Princeton University and director of the Dignity and Debt Network, emphasized that if student debt is canceled, “it’s also a good idea to cancel it in a way that’s not denigrating for the debtors” — making it easy to access instead of making people feel bad about jumping through hoops to reap the benefit.
“For those who are already drowning and you are saying you want to do a stimulus, do a stimulus,” Wherry said. “No one says anything when rich people get a tax break.”
One looming question: Taxes
One major policy and political issue that hangs over the forgiveness discussion is taxes. Debt cancellation is generally counted as taxable income. So if someone has $50,000 in student loans forgiven, that would mean $50,000 would be counted as gross income for the year it was forgiven on top of other income.
Under today’s tax rates, that would be taxed likely somewhere between 22 and 37 percent. In other words, major student debt cancellation could come with an enormous tax bill for borrowers.
Those who have studied the issue say there are workarounds. John Brooks, a law professor at the Georgetown University Law Center who has studied student debt taxes, told me that there are a number of legal arguments that would allow the secretary of education, the treasury department, and the IRS to make forgiveness tax-free. Forgiveness could get a “general welfare” exclusion, or qualify as disaster relief, or get a scholarship exclusion, among other options.
“Student debt is just really, really weird, and it just doesn’t fit into the categories and the ways we think about other kinds of debt,” he said. “It’s a form of government funding for higher education, and it’s designed to provide as many people as possible with a way to get over some degree of affordability problems that’s limiting their ability to enroll in higher education.”
Jessica Thompson, associate vice president at the Institute for College Access & Success (TICAS), said the case that there’s a preexisting legal way around taxes on cancellation is “definitely more in question” than forgiveness proponents would like, though there’s an argument to be made. “You can make your case, but in the end, you’ve got to meet every single hurdle that could be thrown at you,” she said. “Treasury and the IRS tend to be conservative and careful about how they interpret their authority to act.”
It’s worth emphasizing that the tax issue isn’t limited to the current executive action forgiveness question — the assumption for people repaying loans through programs that eventually forgive any remaining balance is that they’ll owe taxes, too. So this problem is going to show up whether there’s mass cancellation or not.
The moment to cancel debt might be now. It also doesn’t solve the bigger problem.
The conversation the United States is having right now around student debt cancellation isn’t a new one — it’s the result of years of activism, organizing, and thinking among people who think it’s a good, just, and right idea.
But this is also indicative of the moment: Millions of Americans are hurting and in desperate need of help amid the Covid-19 pandemic, especially as much of the federal stimulus already provided has run out or is about to. Debt forgiveness may be an outlet for the Biden administration to be creative and nimble in addressing the crisis.
“Any debt relief is better than what’s happening right now,” Jones said.
But wiping out debt is only part of the equation when it comes to the cost of higher education in the United States. Even if you cancel all existing debt, you have students in school or about to go to school who are going to wind up stuck in the same loop.
“Every breath that you hear someone talking about debt cancellation, we need to be talking about the urgency of people who are in school right now and people who should be in school right now,” Thompson said.
That translates to issues such as making college more affordable, keeping students away from predatory institutions, and fostering degrees and training that are worth the money. The issue on those fronts is that Biden can’t do much on his own.
“We need a Congress that’s willing to have that conversation,” the Century Foundation’s Shireman said. “We cannot address the broader affordability questions, the broader affordability problem, without Congress and the administration working together.”
Is widespread student debt cancellation the optimal path toward stimulus? Reasonable minds can disagree, but probably not. But if there’s ever a time to try it, the moment could be now.


vox--2020-12-28--The real cost of smart speakers

The real cost of smart speakers

This holiday season , you ’ re likely to know someone who buys or receives a smart speaker .
One in five US households already have one , and 1.8 million are expected to ship in the last quarter of 2020 .
Amazon , Google , and Apple make the most popular models , which now include voice-activated headphones , rings , eyeglasses , and doorbells .
But essentially , smart speakers are microphones that connect to the internet .
And they come with a hidden cost : some of our privacy .
After listening to our questions and demands @ @ @ @ @ @ @ where they can be stored indefinitely .
But what do these tech companies do with the recordings ?
Watch the video above to learn what we know and don ’ t know about how smart speakers use our data .
You can find this video and all of Vox ’ s videos on YouTube .
And join the Open Sourced Reporting Network to help us report on the real consequences of data , privacy , algorithms , and AI .
Open Sourced is made possible by Omidyar Network .
All Open Sourced content @ @ @ @ @ @ @ journalists .

This holiday season, you’re likely to know someone who buys or receives a smart speaker. One in five US households already have one, and 18 million are expected to ship in the last quarter of 2020. Amazon, Google, and Apple make the most popular models, which now include voice-activated headphones, rings, eyeglasses, and doorbells.
But essentially, smart speakers are microphones that connect to the internet. And they come with a hidden cost: some of our privacy. After listening to our questions and demands, these devices send recordings to servers where they can be stored indefinitely. But what do these tech companies do with the recordings?
Watch the video above to learn what we know and don’t know about how smart speakers use our data.
You can find this video and all of Vox’s videos on YouTube. And join the Open Sourced Reporting Network to help us report on the real consequences of data, privacy, algorithms, and AI.
Open Sourced is made possible by Omidyar Network. All Open Sourced content is editorially independent and produced by our journalists.
Correction, December 29, 2020: 18 million smart speakers are estimated to ship in the last quarter of 2020, not 1.8 million.