Mass forgiveness of student loans –$300 billion to $1.7 trillion dollars, $10,000 per student for 40 million Americans – is being pushed by Biden. The idea is wrong – counter-productive, irresponsible, and should be stopped. Five reasons argue against this notion.
You will say: “Gosh, the economy is tough, life is rough, students are indebted; where is your compassion for those who need free money, loan forgiveness?” The answer is, think harder.
As someone who came from a family with no money for education, who worked, earned, received, and repaid loans of more than $100,000 for college and law school, never wanted them forgiven, never imaged them forgiven, would not want them forgiven now, please hear me.
First, when someone takes a loan – for a house, car, or college – they are learning something. They are saying something about themselves to a lender, whether government, bank, school, company or relative. They are saying – “trust me, I am undertaking a commitment, intend to honor it.”
Go one layer deeper: When taking a loan for college, someone is saying, “on my honor, with recognition that the future, economy, my skills, and life are uncertain, I promise to pay this back.” They are asking and committing to a lender’s trust, making a pledge of trust to themselves.
Historically, a long shadow was cast over people – often by their own conscience, relating to a sense of honor – if they could not get out from under a debt. Over time, the notion evolved. Debt was seen as permissible, necessary for essentials like home or schooling, and it became commonplace.
In effect, there was no dishonor in carrying debt, so long as we kept our word to the lender and to ourselves, that a loan or debt assumed, with an expectation of honorable repayment, got honored.
What exactly happens to honor, to that process of pledge and fulfilment, investment in oneself with risk of failure, trust by others in us and us in ourselves, when we are suddenly relieved – by a hovering federal government – of this obligation?
In short, the process breaks – with honor no longer expected, risks taken are no longer believed real, trust to be proven is suspended, a chance to show we are up to the pledge is removed. Like being given anything, especially something we assumed we had to pay for, it is cheapened.
Second, think reality. Where does the $300 billion – or God forbid, $1.7 trillion – come from? You want honor, truth, honesty? It comes from others’ bank accounts, hard work, and sweat of another man or woman’s brow; that is where it comes from.
In other words, there is no free lunch. When you accept federal largess, as if that money is picked from the “magic money tree,” you are actually – and knowingly – putting your own debt, stress, burden, and obligation on the back of another. Here then, is the second assault on honor.
Third, what does the idea of broad, un-means-tested, open-ended federal debt forgiveness teach those who look on from outside, who are neither borrowers nor even taxpayers, perhaps just kids? What does that act tell anyone?
It says the federal government is run-a-muck, ready to give away money regardless of federal debt, now $30 trillion. Giving away money we do not have, lack of fiscal discipline, forgetting responsibility not to spend what you do not have, strapping taxpayers, driving up inflation, further cheapening the dollar, and weakening the economy is both reckless and immoral.
“Whoa,” you say, “now that is a strong statement!” Yes, it is. But think. Who will pay this debt through inflation? Wage earners, middle class families, those barely holding on. Who else? Future generations, those who cannot afford it, did not ask for it, get nothing from it, are yet unborn. Sound immoral to you?
Fourth, think about the obvious motivation for debt forgiveness. Democrats want to buy votes with money. How better than buttering bread on both sides, give you loans, only to forgive them.
Ask yourself, “at what price?” Just your vote for greater dependence on the federal government, less control over life, concentrated power, a little public corruption – not a lot, just a little. But history is made – and liberty unmade – by inches, in little increments, while you nod and sleep.
To paraphrase Edmund Burke, all it takes for evil – benignly described – to prevail, is that good people do nothing, look the other way, accept it, imagine a little is okay. Is it? You tell me? And are a few dollars in the account, relief of debts you promised to repay, okay if all they want is your vote? Remember Charlie Daniels’ song, “Devil came down to Georgia”? Souls sell, selling?
Fifth, this opens the floodgates to socialist debt forgiveness across the board, beyond education, relating to any “equitable” or “wealth redistribution” scheme for votes, relief of debts for cars (electric, for example), houses (for “social justice”), credit cards (federal assumption of underprivileged, underserved, minority, or even majority debt), any other debt you wish. Is that the way to teach personal responsibility, keep a nation solvent, protect the future?
In short, lots of things look good at first, but prove not so on closer examination. The idea of giving away free money, more magic federal dollars, to 40 million Americans – tradesmen to lawyers, the voluntarily unemployed to doctors – is clever. It might win some votes. It is also wrong.
The Communists – er, I mean the Democrats – have become quite expert at buying votes for themselves with other people’s money. It needs to stop, for a great many reasons.
The DEMORATS have been giving anyone that pissed and moaned a little almost everything they asked for ,,,many years now and its not likely to stop now hell they need the votes and to help sway the younger generation even more to the WOKE side of HELL that they will have to pay for long after we are gone and the SOCIALIST DEMS. run everything ,,,
This Democrat run DC White House Administration is “ STRATEGICALLY BURYING “ our nation so deeply in debt, it’s going to be largely impossible to recover. THIS IS TREASON & ALL THOSE INVOLVED SHOULD BE DEALT WITH “ACCORDINGLY”!
Control , control, that is what this is all about!! Keep everyone afraid and you can control them even more!!
God is the only one in control of his country, and the world, and his people..
Amen and Amen
What is the matter with the people pushing this idea? SIMPLE: people applied for loans to go to school. They were offered loans by the Gov’t which they accepted. They went to school got an
advanced or very advanced education. They went to work AT HIGHER PAY THEN THE MEDIAN INCOME DUE TO THEIR EDUCATION. They are required to repay the loan FROM that higher
income they have as a RESULT of the education they received. They got their money’s worth in most cases and should shoulder their responsibility and repay the loan. Will the next thing be
Federal Loans on HOMES? Loan forgiveness due to “not wanting to pay” is unforgivable idea!
A blatant attempt to buy votes for Democrats this November. More importantly, it fills the socialist agenda of taking the people’s money (taxes) from one group and giving it to a more favored group. They would say it takes money from the “haves” and gives it to the “needy”. In fact it does just the opposite: it gives it to the better educated group of college graduates who stand to earn a higher lifetime income on average, and takes it mostly from the rest of society that includes many under achievers and lower intelligence people who perform lesser paying tasks and live paycheck to paycheck. A typical woke solution to enable the elites to avoid their personal responsibilities at the expense of the lower classes.
This is “modern monetary theory” from hell. My daughters paid back their student loans. Now these tyrants want them to pay for younger students’ loans. This is a step toward universal free university tuition, which will teach everyone the wrong lessons.
1.7 TRILLION? It’s just an extension of the build back better program, put another few trillion on the already stressed and weakened backs of middle class Americans and watch it break. The more pork and garbage they can shove onto this already fragile economy the better.There relentless right now, and are trying to collapse our entire social structure. Marxist strategy, this administration is being run by an extremely diabolical cabal.
I wish I had seen so much resolve among conservatives when Obama and left wing States were giving free money to illegal aliens, foreign refugees, Afghanistan, the UN, Ukraine, or when our hard earned money was freely given to bail out airlines, real estate firms, wall street trading companies, banks, and carmakers, tax rebates depending on the number of kids, higher income tax rates for those who make more, no income tax for those who have more kids and make less. All of it was wrong and should have never happened, nor should people without children have to pay property tax that to 68% funds schools, and those who live in apartments not have to pay any of it, however it somehow it seems that this student loan forgiveness must be somehow “wronger” (before someone sharpens their pencil I am aware that this is not a word it is merely chosen to illustrate the mind set of those who are fine will all the above but now feel the urgent need to make a point on principle they long abandoned) than all else because it is always declared “more morally wrong”. The moment government got involved with pensions and benefits for its employees, and charity is when the train of government went off the rails, think about that much as it might hurt for many. The moment government was able to take from one and give to the other by legislating the theft and without legal consequence to themselves they became able to buy votes.
Great article. There is no free ride. I like many others had to work hard while going to college to help pay our tuition, and we kept working post college to pay off our college loans. Hard work and paying off our bills teach responsibility. I agree that this Communist Lefty political scheme is nothing more than buying votes at legal American citizen’s expense. Why should people who don’t even go to college have to pay for others that do? I guess anyone can pay extra if they want. But this should be a choice not forced on all of us. How about cutting Joe Biden & the lame Lefty Congress salaries to help offset this expense. If our Great Country stops giving our monies away to foreign countries and rid itself from wasteful spending, I believe we then could help offset our kids tuition, and perhaps consider reduced costs for our “legal American citizens” medical costs, and reduce all of our taxes. I am done with this spend, spend, spend, print more money concept. Who the heck is doing our National Budget. They need to go back to school and overall get a grip.
It is also discriminatory….if you are going to pay off loans, then you need to pay ALL of them off, not just the ones you pick and choose….you know everyone’s equality. This is the biggest try at purchasing votes for this November election I have seen so far. If these people got a loan, then they need to pay off their own debt….it is not the responsibility of the people who had to work for a living because they could not afford nor could they get a loan to go to college…why the hell should they be responsible for the younger, stupid generation’s debts…Communism is at work here folks….from the Jan 6 Hoax Committee witch hunt, to paying off debts from the money treee?, to trying to limit our ammo since they cannot take our guns. It is just a matter of time before the final straw is broken and the shot heard around the world starts….another American Revolution.
There are no free lunches, those who get forgiven today will be paying for someone else in the future.
The rich professionals who went to “prestigious” colleges will get a break while “deplorables” who went to colleges where they actually learned useful skills will get little or nothing. AS USUAL
Very bad idea, that is only intended to get a few votes at mid-term. If you take a loan: you are responsible to pay it back.
I pay my debts. Why should I have to pay other people’s debts.
Have a question for this board: Biden is taking 1-million barrels of oil per day out of Strategic Reserve. If Government is getting $100 per bbl, then that is $100-million per day, WOW, where is all that money going & why is this not on news media?? And what Presidents bought & paid for oil in Reserve & what are plans to ever replenish this for an emergency reserve.
The liberals cannot count on their “go to” groups for support. (Blacks and Hispanics) They constantly cheat in elections, but get caught more often. They need new groups that will keep them in power in perpetuity… Illegals, ex students that were “bailed out,” a few union groups, Snowflakes, and Soros paid rioters.
Simply another move from the Feds to play santa clause and capture a voter block that wouldn’t have given consideration to such a dramatic move. Hopefully those recipients will have the moral and ethical fiber to not take this give away program the boot in another way to BUY votes.
RBC nailed it!
It is unquestionably wealth redistribution-SOCIALISM.
It is unquestionably A BRIBE.
It will unquestionably further degrade people’s duty of accountability and responsibility.
There is NO SUCH THING AS DEBT FORGIVENESS. No debt disappears; somebody always pays. I vote that it’s paid by the people that actually owe the money!
PS The federal government sticking their faces into student loans is a BIG factor in skyrocketing tuition to begin with!
Good article Mr. Charles. The whole problem is most people don’t have the same logic as you and I do. However, I will forward this article onto people that I know in hopes that they too will see the forest through the trees and send it onto their contacts. That’s the best we can do.
The title: Mass Student Loan Forgiveness – bad idea.
Since when has anything Bozo Joe has done been a good idea? He a Colossal failure who is killing our Country.
Great points brought up by the author of this article. I, too, worked and paid for my college degrees, and had to give up the party aspect of the learning process of those years to get my costs of getting those degrees behind me. I am also not a big fan of nepotism ( which is now under the umbrella of @networking”) because there’s no guarantee of skills in a referral like that. Maybe because my studies in college were mainly in STEMS learning, I didn’t see any need for expanding my social life because of lack of exposure to the individuals whose studies were in the liberal arts areas which have more discussion interpretations than using scientific facts to prove theories.
Whatever the differences, those of us who worked to pay off our college debts, deserve consideration for realizing the value of the money spent for the degree earned. I did not chose a college based on its name value ( hey I was accepted to Columbia University and chose not to attend)
If they remove the burden of the debt of student loans then everyone else who actually paid for their college loans should be reimbursed also. That will force the college ( especially those name brand ones) to lower tuition costs to the real value of the education.
based on the democrats continued desire to make me pay for other people’s poor decision making i believe it is time to end all government financial aid of all type. If private groups want to provide financial assistance that is up to them. the governemnt needs to be completely out of the funding of colleges altogether.
further if you are so stupid you go get loans to get a degree you can not get a job that would pay back the loans then the school should have to give you the money back because they should have never let you in in the first place.
Why are there so many stupid people goign to college now?
More of the same Democrat’s trash in quid pro quo vote acquisitioning. Throw in an Obama phone and a guaranteed income with that and a few lies that segregate people groups based on race, income, sex, gender philosophy, etal, and you will win elections…..More free stuff and zero accountability while appealing to every people group possible…Hey, free next it will be play stations and controllers for the youthful idiots with no brains…..
I am a low wage earner of $14 hr. And would be great to have my fafsa loan forgiven for the kind of humanity type work I do. But I DO understand that we shouldn’t do forgiveness at THIS scale. I thought there last was forgiveness ONLY for certain humanity jobs that have LOW wages…….uggggh, so much controversy..
Playing politics with the yutes.The only way the demoncrats will win . Bunch no good scum bags.
The student loan at the time seemed like a good idea. Concentrate on grades and learning without the hassle of working. So, what went wrong? Why after getting your degree can’t you get a job and pay it off? I bet you bought a car and a house with a loan. Are you not paying those either? You’re not even paying the principle, you’re not paying anything. You took out the loan, it’s your responsibility. Pay back the money.
Anything the DIRTY DEMS SAY OR DO is not intended to benefit students or Americans! GEt a dose of REALITY !!!!!!
Work your butt off to pay it back,its the real world,NOT the democRATS world.You will appreciate your education and hard work more and then,work hard to NOT become a liberal.
This is buying the votes with taxpayer money and borrowed money at that. We do have irresponsible people with no honor. The big mistake was the decision the government taking over student loans. If this is done and more loans are made for next school year, this will repeat.
Many of these loans are uncollectible and that record will follow the student for the rest of his life.
The big problem is that when the loans are made, there is no way to know the student will succeed, earn a living, and repay the loan. People use bankruptcy to disgorge credit cards but are not able to use bankruptcy when they can’t pay college loans. Is this where the change needs to be made? Meanwhile “higher” education increases tuition and fees even more than the rate of inflation.
If the only loans were coming from the school’s endowments, there would be some balance, some awareness and the future would begin to make sense. As it is now, there is no accountability.
Nothing says, “Your education is worthless” more strongly than not having to pay for it. After all, among the marketable skills that should be acquired in the education system is the most fundamental, economic transaction. Politics is ALL about indebtedness.
I paid back my student loan. Not a good idea. People need to learn that when you make a commitment you follow through.
Honor…..? In the value lacking generations of late? You have got to be kidding, the only definition they know for the word honor is all the honors they got as children for mediocre performance. There are literally values we all know as older generations that they couldn’t even describe, let alone show.
“Bad idea?” No it isn’t. How to pay for it is the issue and from where the money will come. Since the benevolent government created the basis for this problem, let the same meddlers fix it—by nationalizing all universities and institutions of higher learning, confiscating all their properties and assets, including their massive trust funds and bank accounts; by reorganizing the national education system to produce people trained to perform useful tasks employers want to hie people to perform, eliminating programs, instructors and staff occupied in useless and unprofitable pursuits, reduce the administrators and their staffs by 75%, and hire professional managers to run the facilities. Dismantle and eliminate the current department of education, start over with people dedicated to creating an educational system which trains students to develope skills useful to themselves and their communities after graduation. No more private universities with billion dollar bank accounts.
Per IRS regulations, forgiven debt is treated as regular income. If someone has their $100k debt forgiven, they may suddenly find they owe the IRS $30k . I’m pretty sure that would be a worse situation for most.
College should be free for those who pass the entrance exam and maintain their grades. We are overlooking intelligent students who cannot afford tuition and could greatly benefit this country if they could only get the right education.
Another in a series of STUPID decisions by marxist democrat politicians!
Grow up, if you borrow money YOU pay it back!
Not mommy and daddy,not taxpayers, YOU, go out and get a job and honor your commitment!
What is wrong with the marxist democrat party and its members? What mindless NONSENSE is this?????
This is absolutely insane! If you took the loan you pay it off, plain and simple. Nobody paid for my college. I had to work two jobs just to pay for the classes I did take resulting in an associates degree and never getting my bachelor’s because I was offered a job and had to take it. How about someone pay for my car loan? Or better yet my mortgage? What is wrong with these people? They are making it so that nobody is responsible for anything!
I saved for many years to send my daughter to college. Of course, I do not get any of my money back. But lets take monies from all the tax payers that did NOT go to college to give money to people who did. Work to PAY your own loan off. Another woke joke and the joke’s on us.
Forgiving these debts is wrong. Nobody twisted anyone’s arm to sign and it teaches responsibility to get them paid off.
I am an senior citizen American and I feel defeated each day when our country is run by Joe or his cronies. Can it be repaired?
You are correct. If you take out a student wrong, or any other loan, you’re obligated to pay that loan back with any interest that you agreed to. Giving somebody a free education, is not free, because someone Hass to pay for it. That someone is not me if I didn’t get the education. We do not need to add to the national debt for student loans, the person taking out a loan is obligated and must pay it back. If they made a man choice, I am sorry for that, but I didn’t make the choice they did.
I enlisted in the Army after Grad School with 30K of loans under Loan Forgiveness for my first 4 year term. And applied for a Direct Commission during my third year. I served my Country with Honor and integrity. My loans were in return paid back by Uncle Sam in return for my Enlistment. Perhaps this should be addressed instead of shouldering all this debt back on honest hard working taxpayers who also pay for their automobiles and homes, and raise families. And a general studies class in finance.
Why should those of us who didn’t go to college have to pay off loans for college tuition for people who made a conscious choice to go to college? It seems to me the only thing this administration does well is spend money we don’t have. This should not fall on the shoulders of tax payers.
I am definitely not for student debt loan forgiveness even though we are currently burdened by a son and daughter’s current debt.
I am however in favor of eliminating any interest on student loans from here on out. That makes more sense to me
I remember I applied for a student loan. When it came time to pay it back, my husband passed away so I applied for a hardship. They said that wasn’t considered a hardship so I had to pay it back. If losing your spouse isn’t considered a hardship, I don’t know what would be. I still had to take care of myself and my children. If I could pay it back then I see no reason that others can’t.
Totally wrong for all especially the students that were unable to get to College because they could not afford it and did not want to put this financial burden on their families.
My family didn’t have the money to send me to college. Besides, I really wasn’t sure what my interest was in a career. So, I enlisted in the US Air Force because of my interest in aircraft. Flew most of my career on transports. Went to school on my off hours and took the work with me on the road. Expended the GI BILL and took loans out. Payed those loans in half the time and served over 20 years. A Gulf War ,too!. So if I am willing to do this, they all can or go work for Target. Pay your way. Lots of blue collar jobs. Many retiring. Great money as aircraft mechanic, plumber and electrician. As examples. Don’t ask me to pay. The university got the money and the parents need to step in. Need to ask what they are taking for so much money and is it useful outside with good pay. This is horse hockey. Paying everyone but , ME.
How about we tie student loan debt forgiveness to acknowledgment of the degree? If your debt is expunged so too would any record of your degree. So the loan is forgiven you are left with a high school diploma.
Ya create the bill you pay for it. Its called growing up. Put your crap back in your pants. Grow your own set stop hanging on mine.