I mean giving them an minimum-wage job. Pay them $6/hr (whatever minimum wage is idk) tax-free, that's $8640/yr guaranteed income. If you're $86,400 in debt then that's only ten years. And $80k is ALOT to be debt too.
Another example, let's say that you own a large home, and you have a $600,000 mortgage, with $400,000 left on it. You are already $20,000 in credit card debt, and you happen to lose your job. Instead of crying to the government for help, the logical thing to do would be to sell the house. Let's say you sell it for $500,000 instead since the real estate market failed. You use some of the money to pay of your credit card debt, and then you have $80,000 left. That is enough so that you can rent an apartment for a year and find a new job, isn't it? Although it is a horrible idea to buy a house if you can't make at least a 10% down payment. The problem that got the US into this crisis was companies that were offering loans with as little as no money down. That was the problem.
Nope, that's not the problem at all. I bought my house with no money down. The trick was, I didn't buy a house that the payment was 95% of my monthly income.
Me and my coworker, both are in the same position at work, both make relatively the same wages, both have 2 kids and wives who (this is going to shock you...) don't work and stays home to take care of the kids. I bought my house, $88k. It is small, and I would like to have somewhere to eat as there is no dining room and the kitchen is too small to have a table in it, but that's what I could afford. Coworker, has a house built on property he was already paying on, $200k. His payment is going to be more than he makes in 1 of the monthly paychecks.
Many folks that I know probably are in the $60-70k income range. They live in $300-500k houses. Sure, a $70k income would sure help me out, but I darn well know that I wouldn't be able to afford a $300k house on that salary.
People got suckered into the variable interest rates. The banks have been advertising extremely low variable interest rates for the past several years like crazy. Then the people buy homes based on the current rate and when rates go up, BAM, they can't afford the payment anymore.
Sorry, my views on this are a little odd because of where I live. $105k is actually the median income where I live. The median sale price of homes is $400k. I guess it's basically the same as what you're talking about, except the numbers are just more inflated.
The useful work that they can do inside a prison is limited, and has a low economical value. If you give them decent pay, you are effectively subsidizing them with taxpayers money. And if the inmates must pay for the cost of imprisonment (food, housing, healthcare, security), they have very little left to relieve their debt.
Wrong example? You can use the $500,000 to pay back the remaining mortgage and credit card debt ($400,000 + $20,000), so you still have $80,000 left. (BTW, 500 grand is optimistic. In some areas the prices have already dropped 10-20%. And with a forced sale you will get around 90% of the actual value of the house.)