Natty Light is donating $10 million to offset 'crippling' student loan debt, and it reveals a dark reality about America
- Natural Light announced plans to donate $10 million to offset student loan debt on Tuesday.
- In 2018, the beer brand donated $1 million to 25 people to help them pay off their debt.
- While recipients were grateful for the donation, the fact that Natty Light had to step in to respond to the "crippling" $1.5 trillion in student loan debt across the United States reveals a disturbing way the American government is falling short.
Natty Light is making a massive donation to offset American student loan debt.
On Tuesday, Natural Light - the Anheuser-Busch-owned light beer brand often referred to as "Natty Light" - announced it plans to give students and former students $10 million over 10 years to offset student loan debt.
The news comes as Natty Light concludes its efforts to donate $1 million in 2018 to fight what the brand calls the "crippling $1.5 trillion in collective student loan debt across America." Over the course of the last year, the beer brand gave 25 people who made videos about their inspiration for attending college hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay off their debt.
Read more: Beer brand Natty Light is giving away $1 million to pay off student loans
If you want a chance at having Natty Light pay off your college loans, you need to post a video on social media with the hashtags #NattyStories and #Contest, explaining your inspiration for going to college. The only fine print is that you need to include the green dollar-sign beer tab found on limited-edition Natty Light cans in the video.
The beer brand is also giving out $53,000 to fans during the Super Bowl, intended to help pay off more student loans. If you post your Super Bowl plans to social media with the hashtags #NattySB and #sweeps, as well as your Cash App user name, you are entered for a chance to win $351 - the average monthly student loan payment - via the app.
While the promotion is great news for the people who get money to pay off their loans from Natty Light, it also serves to highlight how massively in debt many Americans are due to student loans. Natty Light might help dozens of people, but $10 million is ultimately just a drop in the $1.5 trillion bucket.
In some ways, the donations are reminiscent of a Domino's promotion that rolled out in 2018. In June, the pizza chain announced a campaign to repair potholes, working with local governments to fix roads.
Road repairs are typically the responsibility of the government, paid for by taxes. The fact that a pizza chain stepped up in areas where the government is falling short seemed, for some, to be a dystopian solution.
Read more: Domino's is repairing roads, and some people say it reveals a 'dystopian' truth about America
The student loan crisis is similarly something that many believe the government should address. Over the last 11 years, student loans have seen 157% in culminating growth, Bloomberg reports. Nearly 40% of borrowers may default on their loans by 2023, according to a Brookings Institute report.
The Higher Education Act, which in part sets parameters and processes related to studen loans, has not been updated since 2008.
Currently, there is a bipartisan push to rewrite the law. Until then, Natty Light will apparently be leading the charge on the student-loan crisis.
Here's the commercial Natty Light will be airing to promote the donation effort:
