#CancelStudentDebt is currently trending on the back of an Ilhan Omar tweet. It’s a topic picking up steam in the Democratic primary race, especially after Elizabeth Warren recently stated that she would cancel student debt on the first day of her presidency, with just one stroke of her pen, aaand it’s gone. If you think the federal government would ever in a million years choose out of the kindness of its heart to simply eat a $1.5 trillion loss without recouping the funds elsewhere, wake up. There is no such thing as “canceling” student loans.
What these socialist Democratic candidates have proposed is to instead reallocate the outstanding debt, not cancel it. They promise to remove the debt from the people who agreed to the loans and received degrees in exchange for it, and place that debt on the shoulders of people who did not agree to the loan and did not receive anything in exchange. Student debt will still be paid, it’ll just be paid by taxpayers, people who are already in debt themselves.
That’s the thing, what makes student debt deserving of being paid by others when credit card and car loan debts are as equally high and mortgage debt is a five times greater crisis? These other debts are owned by families, the working class and are behind much of the homelessness in the country. While I can sympathize with students who take out loans to study real and worthy things, students going into debt for choosing subjects where they will only learn how oppressed they are and spend four years protesting against the racial make up of the school’s faculty doesn’t quite stack up.
College graduates are suffering? Well, so are families and blue-collar workers. Absolving college graduates their debts would free up funds that could then be injected back into the economy? Well an even better argument could be made for car, credit card, and house debt. What we are talking about here, either way, is a massive additional welfare program. Why in the world should we create something like that for college students who usually come from wealthier backgrounds when we could be saving families and ending homelessness?
It seems there are only two possible actions. One is to throw open the floodgates and call for the absolution of all debt, or the other is to forgive nobody’s debt and expect adults to pay their way and live with their choices. Don’t buy a car you can’t afford or a house you can’t afford or a college degree you can’t afford. If you’re going to college just for the sake of it or studying something you know there’s no market for but you’ll just “figure it out later,” don’t. That just means you’re going into debt for the sake of it. College has a specific purpose, to obtain specific careers, it’s not a purpose that applies to most people. If you’re just going along for the “experience” or to “find myself,” you’re better off learning a trade or going straight into the workforce. You don’t have to owe student debt and then vote for socialist candidates to artificially absolve you of your responsibilities if you make smart choices to begin with.
