Floaters are already out there about Joe Biden’s first 100 days, which is obviously an arbitrary timeline intended to suggest what his priorities will be. It’s like saying he’s going to do something on “Day 1,” as if he won’t be busy attending inauguration balls.
One thing that’s being floated is that he’s going to pay back the Warren supporters for their votes with a gift, fulfillment of Warren’s purchase of their love.
"I've saved all my money. [My daughter] doesn't have any student loans. Am I going to get my money back?"@eWarren: "Of course not."
"So you're going to pay for people who didn't save any money and those of us who did the right thing get screwed." pic.twitter.com/eqK7o4Cl9Q
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) January 23, 2020
New York’s Senior Senator, Chuck Schumer, who hopes to hold onto his position as a leader in the Senate, even if not of the majority, is pushing Biden as the new FDR, with one of his first moves being the cancellation of $50,000 in student debt by Executive Order.**
Schumer saying Biden can cancel first $50,000 in student debt via executive order. And will do so in first 100 days. This will change so many lives. https://t.co/nkWZykLJVE
— Tom Winter (@WinterForMT) November 7, 2020
To those sinking under debt, this is an unmitigated good, and all arguments to the contrary are just haters hating. Except there are actual issues to be considered.
My wife and I have over a quarter million dollars of student debt
And I’m a professor
And I am politically left/progressive on most things
So please understand I’m speaking strongly against my own self-interest when I say:
THIS IS A TERRIBLE IDEA
A thread https://t.co/pyxRQfQxa4
— Carlton Galbreath (@Carlton__G) November 16, 2020
The thread proffers many of the considerations, not the least of which is the core problem of government providing easy money in the hope of allowing every student, regardless of means, to get a college degree, which facilitated an absurd rise in the cost of tuition. Hey, somebody has to pay for those Title IX admins.
Students knew, or should have known, that they were assuming massive debt that would present a problem when they looked for a job at the grievance studies store. Okay, that was gratuitously snarky, and there is nothing wrong with a liberal arts education provided one can either afford it or is willing to suffer the cost of paying it back, knowing that there would be no job for which you were qualified other than as a minimum-wage writer for Slate. Okay, that was gratuitously snarky too. My bad.
You paid for your education? You paid back your student loans? Your parents paid for your education? Your parents didn’t go out to dinner or buy a new car so they could provide you with an education? Are these fair concerns, since the repayment of these debts to the colleges that milked these kids with mumbles such are promises has to come from somewhere? So you’ll be paying for college again, except this time for some other student.
Then again, there is no denying that the assumption of massive debt is crushing the soul and the future expectations of college graduates. They can’t find decent paying jobs. They can’t even discharge their debt in bankruptcy when it is no longer possible to manage it.
Did the government, with its good but misguided intentions, destroy their lives? Did the colleges who love them dearly as long as their seats are filled, their tuition paid and the tenured profs paycheck’s cashed, burn their beloved babies?
The situation may be untenable, but how do we get out of it?
And for those of a social justice view, why should Biden give a $50,000 gift to the privileged Ivy whiners when there are plenty of black and brown people on the streets trying to come up with a way to buy diapers on their minimum wage. Or does this no longer matter since the government can afford everything by pulling trillion dollar coins off the Money Tree, with a little 2% assist from the obscenely wealthy?
What about lesser fixes, like eliminating accrued interest and making debts dischargeable in bankruptcy again? And what about coming to grips with the relative value of a college education? Maybe a gender studies degree doesn’t provide the same value as, say, computer science? Maybe the solution should incentivize better educational choices, that not everyone is cut out for higher ed, and that some degrees are remarkably poor choices for students who don’t have a trust fund to fall back on?
And should colleges and universities, and their minions, who got all this loot, escape unscathed?
*Tuesday Talk rules apply.
**Whether it can be done by EO is a remarkably dangerous and controversial question, but outside the scope of this TT. Let it go for now.
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