Virtually no one argues that college costs bear any resemblance to reality. Why college costs skyrocket each year and always exceed general inflation has been the subject of many books and is thus beyond the scope of this article. But the short answer is this— college prices are not set in anything even close to a free market. The federal government provides the money and guarantees student loans. There is no incentive for colleges to run a lean operation. In fact, they are overly bloated enterprises, incredibly top-heavy with deans and other administrative positions. Most continue spending millions on new concrete structures on campus with little regard for cost.
Charles Payne of Fox Business pointed out that no bank would give an 18-year-old a $200,000 loan for a four-year degree in pottery. Yet the federal government will. But Payne took issue with something else. The Left has been trying to wipe out student loans for years. It’s not a new issue. However, the topic got the most press when Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren were trying to outflank each other on this in the last Democrat presidential primary campaign of 2019-2020. Joe Biden remained steadfastly cool at best to the concept, though White House Press Secretary Jenn Psaki has been teasing the idea of a major announcement soon.
Enter a new take from far-left progressives and Squad member Rep. Pramila Jayapal—canceling student loans is social justice. What? Payne remarked, “the whole thing is a sham” and took viewers through the reasoning in a recent appearance on “Fox and Friends.” He laid out the fact that 70% of this debt is owned by whites. Payne noted Jayapal’s district is only 4.8% black, yet her biggest donor is Microsoft, a so-called progressive company where a scant 3% of its managers are black.
Payne cited data showing those with college degrees can expect to earn over $3 million in their lifetimes. Contrast that with $900,000 in average lifetime earnings for one who completes only high school. Why should the poorest in society foot the bill for richer folks who made a choice to borrow money to go to college? It’s exceptionally regressive, the exact opposite of progressive policy!
It was a refreshing perspective by Charles Payne, himself black, to have some data and explain that he doesn’t hear loan forgiveness come up in his own conversations with other black voters. Crime and safe streets top the list of what is on black voters’ minds.
Conservatives often get lambasted for being frugal with taxpayer money and opposing ideas like wiping out debt. Traditional moral, ethical, or even contractual arguments like, “you took out the loan – you pay it back” get lampooned by the liberal media mob. Heartless. Cold. Those are the labels liberals pin on conservatives. And now, apparently, racist, at least if leftists get their way.
Just check out some recent tweets. On April 2nd Sen. Warren tweeted, “canceling student debt is a matter of racial, economic, and generational justice.” Sen. Schumer tweeted on March 4, “Today would be a great day for Biden and Harris to cancel student debt.”
But would it truly be great? Setting aside the fact that millions who already worked hard to pay off their debts could become a mob of their own and demand justice, is this idea even remotely good economics? The answer is no, according to an analysis by the University of Chicago’s Becker Friedman Institute for Economics. This scheme is destined to disproportionately benefit wealthy Americans.
The study concluded erasing all student loan debt would deliver $192 billion to the top 20% of earners in the U.S., but only $29 billion to the bottom 20% of U.S. households. Further, the study found under a universal loan forgiveness program, the average person among the top-earning borrowers would receive $5,944 in forgiveness, while those with the lowest incomes would receive $1,070 in forgiveness.
No matter. Never confuse economic facts with today’s progressive politics. If you oppose wiping out student debt, even though it was taken on by people of their own free will, you risk being branded a racist.
Jeff Szymanski works in political communications at AMAC, a senior benefits organization with nearly 2.3 million members. He previously taught high school economics for 15 years.
As an American who paid off a $120,000 student loan by working 3 and 4 jobs at a time for over 10 years and speaking on behalf of those who did not go to college because they could not afford it or paid their way through by working while going to college, this proposal is insulting. The simple solution– if one is needed at all– is allowing debtors to file for bankruptcy.
Two things would happen:
1. only debtors who truly cannot pay the debt would qualify and be required to liquidate their assets to have the loan “forgiven.”
2. more due diligence and scrutiny would be given to those requesting student loans if they were not “guaranteed” to be repaid, through wage garnishment, if necessary.
Student loans were historically easy to get and, as we all know, were used to buy many cars, etc. Easy, unsecured loan–not a good practice for the lender. Many student loan recipients are withholding and deferring student loan payment deliberately — anticipating release from the debt.
What next, use billions of tax-payer dollars to forgive mortgages that should not have been loaned—-in the name of —- what, exactly? Americans need to be responsible and quit taking the money of those who are responsible to support those who are not.
Some student loans have already been forgiven for specific trade schools and “colleges” that had a history of graduates without jobs (due to the quality of the education or the quality of the student??).
FTC
February 2022
“Department of Education Approves Loan Forgiveness for DeVry StudentsThe U.S. Department of Education recently announced that it will approve federal student loan forgiveness for 1,800 borrowers who were deceived by DeVry’s job placement claims and submitted a valid borrower defense application. The Department of Education is continuing to process new and existing applications and expects to approve additional claims. All borrowers with approved claims will receive full loan forgiveness.”
Isn’t inflation high enough–we need to spend more?? Attending college is a choice in our country, not a requirement.
“Pathetic, that’s what it is, pathetic.” Winnie the Pooh/A.A. Milne
Not good for the country–all in the name of politics. The federal government needs to get out of the student loan business–and the education business, for that matter..
… so, no free money for me because, I paid off my student loans? I play by the rules, so I’m left out? I’m punished? I’m not getting a stimmy?
These young adults signing up for college debt is doing so with complete knowledge that they are signing a loan document that they have to pay back that debt. It’s a CHOICE to go away to college when the college in there state is just as good. The taxpayers do NOT want to pay their debt.
The responsibility of college debt isn’t the taxpayers debt! Everyone has a choice of how to finance college and the taxpayer doesn’t make that choice for anyone bet themselves! Responsibility for one’s self has become a real problem! No longer do people want to take responsibility for their lives and the choices that they make in their lives especially if something goes wrong!
Why should we pay for free college for these people who are only coming out as wacky liberals because of the communist leftists professors ! And they went to college for prestige or what ever ! I don’t want to foot their bill !
Naturally when the Federal Government meddles in loans they screw it up. The wacky left is hellbent on bankrupting our country and we are coming upon doing that. Besides teaching our young people irresponsibility.
All the gifted money given to Universities by other Countries to commandeer the USA through our students AND not reported by Colleges like UNC-CH, Yale, Harvard, Berkley, Duke, et al., [Remember China’s Viral project started at UNC-CH with Chinese Graduate student work that went back to China and released 3-4 years later resulting in a Global Pandemic.] would be a great place to start collecting money to pay US Federal Student Loans. Let us not forget Civil Penalties for unreported monies with Interests could be used also. The incenitive would be money into our economy.Virginia Sykes, BSN RN-from this Minority person.
he college courses are set in cost as the books for the course of study. the books are looked upon as the tools that the student will be using to earn a certain amount of money each year. given that amount, it is passed onto the cost f the books for that degree. the professors want to be paid and the building needs to be kept up that is where the tuition comes in. that has got to be paid somehow.
My wife and I both paid off our student loans. First we never went insane borrowing tens of thousands of dollars and secondly…..a contract is a contract.
Now, if the left somehow rams through this crap…….I either want my money back or will go full blown nuts and cease complying with the annual April 15 mandate.
This is…….beyond socialism…….this is insanity again!!
great lesson to be teaching people. Then they go get themselves in debt and expect the Sanders and Schumer of the world to wipe it out and shift it to others to pay. If you ask these low life politicians where does the debt go on the balance sheet they have no answer! They’re destroying the country!
My generayion was taught, you go into debet, you pay back a certen amount. No if’s ands or buts. Kyle L.
Don’t people get it. NOTHING the government does is FREE. Someone else had to work to give the government money to give it to you. Don’t be lazy and dependent on the government. If you want something then work for it. the last time I checked about 50% of college graduates could not find a job in their field of study. Why do we need more college educated folks unemployed?
If colleges quit paying full professors for doing little work while writing books and columns and quit pushing a Marxist social and economic agenda, they would be able to make tuition more affordable. Most of the “prestigious” universities have multiple millions of dollars in their endowments as well.
Plus, their “education” doesn’t prepare their graduates for REAL jobs. It’s a bunch of leftist propaganda. How many people will get jobs related to “gender studies, ” radical lesbianism,” etc ?
if they forgive college debt, what about reimbursing the folks that went into business for themselves and had to buy equipment, or trade schools where they had to buy tools for their profession. Several worked as apprentist at lower wages to learn a profession, where is their compensation. Why reimburse only the ones that took a 4 year party course at colleges that do not even teach them to think, just get leftist indoctrination. The so called elite wanting the rest of us to pay for their debt. I contracted for and paid mine, going through many useless courses to get to the gist of the education I signed up for. They took the college route to be able to make more money than those that went directly into the work force. So use the big money to pay your debt. Or sue the colleges for false advertising and useless degrees.
If the government truly was interested in helping young graduates they would go back to the universities and demand they payoff the student loans with the funds they excessively overcharged the student. Also, if I understand correctly delaying the payment because of Covid doesn’t stop the I interest from running all the delay is doing is running up more debt for the borrower.
fIMHO: About all free education will do for the country is produce a lot of people with worthless degrees to support the government welfare programs. If you don’t put some skin in the game, the degree won’t be worth having and will soon have little to no value in life, particularly in someones working life. But that’s what the liberal extremists want, full socialism and government support; as they say “you’ll own nothing, and be happy!” That doesn’t work well in my mind and we’ll no longer have a USA.
Whatever happened to: “YOU borrowed it, YOU pay it back”
They are going to use my tax dollars to pay someone else’s debt?? How about paying of my credit cards also? Same thing.
Majority of high school graduates is barely literate what is it they study in higher ed institutions do they graduate from them and are they employable ?
If the student debt is forgiven aka canceled, will a 1099-C be filed on the amount of the cancelation?
The school system, including higher education has been taken over by the left. Tenure began with professors voting for people with their same values. After a number of years, nearly every professor at a school is on the same page. I don’t know what all the schools do with all the money collected for tuition, but I suspect many of them have a stockpile of money. Not that it’s directly related to this, but a wonderful series of movies, God is not dead, give some insight into the education system.
The government needs to stop borrowing money to pay for programs so they can get reelected.
If they keep this up you won’t have to worry about a college education, you’ll be standing in the government bread line to get something to eat.
If its so important for Warren, Jaypal, and Schumer to pay of student loans, why don’t they use their own money to do so? What are the odds we ever see that happen?
What a wonderful synopsis of this marxist democrat attempt at fleecing Real Americans again!
The idea of forgiving student loans is both stupid and ludicrous!
IF you want to educate these misguided young people, teach them that if you borrow money, YOU also pay it back!
Especially if your buying a useless object of any type including a useless degree!
Time for the liberal snowflakes to get a dose of reality and honestly instead of the democrat bullsh**
Cancelling student debt will assure the kids of the super rich will have their bills cancelled because none of them got anything out of college except how to not work and pay their bills like everybody else in history has had to do. If they screw us on this one, they ( Congress will pay!!!)
I earned an associates degree, a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree without student loans. If I can do it anyone can. Forgiving student loans is a slap in the face for those of us who didn’t fall for the debt trap.
Great!!!
And what about students like my son who worked their butt’s off on various part time jobs while in college to pay their tuition as they went? My son graduated with a four-year degree from a state university without taking any loans and owed absolutely nothing when he graduated! He has the pride of knowing that he accomplished his degree on his own. No loans to pay back or forgive!
What will this tell hard working students, like my son, that have the self-determination and initiative to sacrifice and work hard for what they want? This is yet another example of the slow, systematic destruction of our great republic!
One of my sons went to college and law school. When he graduated, the first thing on his agenda was to pay off those student loans, which he did. After that, what he made was his to spend where he wanted to. Under this potential forgiving of student loans, will he get his money back? NO! Paying their own loans back is a good lesson in taking responsibility for their actions.
Forgive student loans is a bad idea & would only be a potical play to gain some younger votes this year. It is a personal choice to go to college & to take out loans to continue. I did this & I worked part-time and summers to save money to go to college. I know some people that dropped out for a while in order to make enough money to continue education at a later date. This is too close to Socialism, & so what is next that the govt. will forgive what people owe on a car or their house. Stop this nonsense: And go back to the American Way “LIVE WITHIN YOUR MEANS” & take responsibility to pay back your debts and loans as our parents & grandparents did.
The USA has Federal Debt deficit of about $30-Trillion , so how can Congress even consider forgiving college loans by more debt dollars. One of the big college problems has happened in the last 30-years when College Presidents, coaches, professors started getting paid huge salaries some in the $Millions and most do not do as good as the generations before them.
As an American who paid off a $120,000 student loan by working 3 and 4 jobs at a time for over 10 years and speaking on behalf of those who did not go to college because they could not afford it or paid their way through by working while going to college, this proposal is insulting. The simple solution– if one is needed at all– is allowing debtors to file for bankruptcy.
Two things would happen:
1. only debtors who truly cannot pay the debt would qualify and be required to liquidate their assets to have the loan “forgiven.”
2. more due diligence and scrutiny would be given to those requesting student loans if they were not “guaranteed” to be repaid, through wage garnishment, if necessary.
Student loans were historically easy to get and, as we all know, were used to buy many cars, etc. Easy, unsecured loan–not a good practice for the lender. Many student loan recipients are withholding and deferring student loan payment deliberately — anticipating release from the debt.
What next, use billions of tax-payer dollars to forgive mortgages that should not have been loaned—-in the name of —- what, exactly? Americans need to be responsible and quit taking the money of those who are responsible to support those who are not.
Some student loans have already been forgiven for specific trade schools and “colleges” that had a history of graduates without jobs (due to the quality of the education or the quality of the student??).
FTC
February 2022
“Department of Education Approves Loan Forgiveness for DeVry StudentsThe U.S. Department of Education recently announced that it will approve federal student loan forgiveness for 1,800 borrowers who were deceived by DeVry’s job placement claims and submitted a valid borrower defense application. The Department of Education is continuing to process new and existing applications and expects to approve additional claims. All borrowers with approved claims will receive full loan forgiveness.”
Isn’t inflation high enough–we need to spend more?? Attending college is a choice in our country, not a requirement.
“Pathetic, that’s what it is, pathetic.” Winnie the Pooh/A.A. Milne
Not good for the country–all in the name of politics. The federal government needs to get out of the student loan business–and the education business, for that matter..
… so, no free money for me because, I paid off my student loans? I play by the rules, so I’m left out? I’m punished? I’m not getting a stimmy?
These young adults signing up for college debt is doing so with complete knowledge that they are signing a loan document that they have to pay back that debt. It’s a CHOICE to go away to college when the college in there state is just as good. The taxpayers do NOT want to pay their debt.
The responsibility of college debt isn’t the taxpayers debt! Everyone has a choice of how to finance college and the taxpayer doesn’t make that choice for anyone bet themselves! Responsibility for one’s self has become a real problem! No longer do people want to take responsibility for their lives and the choices that they make in their lives especially if something goes wrong!
Why should we pay for free college for these people who are only coming out as wacky liberals because of the communist leftists professors ! And they went to college for prestige or what ever ! I don’t want to foot their bill !
Naturally when the Federal Government meddles in loans they screw it up. The wacky left is hellbent on bankrupting our country and we are coming upon doing that. Besides teaching our young people irresponsibility.
All the gifted money given to Universities by other Countries to commandeer the USA through our students AND not reported by Colleges like UNC-CH, Yale, Harvard, Berkley, Duke, et al., [Remember China’s Viral project started at UNC-CH with Chinese Graduate student work that went back to China and released 3-4 years later resulting in a Global Pandemic.] would be a great place to start collecting money to pay US Federal Student Loans. Let us not forget Civil Penalties for unreported monies with Interests could be used also. The incenitive would be money into our economy.Virginia Sykes, BSN RN-from this Minority person.
he college courses are set in cost as the books for the course of study. the books are looked upon as the tools that the student will be using to earn a certain amount of money each year. given that amount, it is passed onto the cost f the books for that degree. the professors want to be paid and the building needs to be kept up that is where the tuition comes in. that has got to be paid somehow.
My wife and I both paid off our student loans. First we never went insane borrowing tens of thousands of dollars and secondly…..a contract is a contract.
Now, if the left somehow rams through this crap…….I either want my money back or will go full blown nuts and cease complying with the annual April 15 mandate.
This is…….beyond socialism…….this is insanity again!!
great lesson to be teaching people. Then they go get themselves in debt and expect the Sanders and Schumer of the world to wipe it out and shift it to others to pay. If you ask these low life politicians where does the debt go on the balance sheet they have no answer! They’re destroying the country!
My generayion was taught, you go into debet, you pay back a certen amount. No if’s ands or buts. Kyle L.
Don’t people get it. NOTHING the government does is FREE. Someone else had to work to give the government money to give it to you. Don’t be lazy and dependent on the government. If you want something then work for it. the last time I checked about 50% of college graduates could not find a job in their field of study. Why do we need more college educated folks unemployed?
If colleges quit paying full professors for doing little work while writing books and columns and quit pushing a Marxist social and economic agenda, they would be able to make tuition more affordable. Most of the “prestigious” universities have multiple millions of dollars in their endowments as well.
Plus, their “education” doesn’t prepare their graduates for REAL jobs. It’s a bunch of leftist propaganda. How many people will get jobs related to “gender studies, ” radical lesbianism,” etc ?
if they forgive college debt, what about reimbursing the folks that went into business for themselves and had to buy equipment, or trade schools where they had to buy tools for their profession. Several worked as apprentist at lower wages to learn a profession, where is their compensation. Why reimburse only the ones that took a 4 year party course at colleges that do not even teach them to think, just get leftist indoctrination. The so called elite wanting the rest of us to pay for their debt. I contracted for and paid mine, going through many useless courses to get to the gist of the education I signed up for. They took the college route to be able to make more money than those that went directly into the work force. So use the big money to pay your debt. Or sue the colleges for false advertising and useless degrees.
If the government truly was interested in helping young graduates they would go back to the universities and demand they payoff the student loans with the funds they excessively overcharged the student. Also, if I understand correctly delaying the payment because of Covid doesn’t stop the I interest from running all the delay is doing is running up more debt for the borrower.
fIMHO: About all free education will do for the country is produce a lot of people with worthless degrees to support the government welfare programs. If you don’t put some skin in the game, the degree won’t be worth having and will soon have little to no value in life, particularly in someones working life. But that’s what the liberal extremists want, full socialism and government support; as they say “you’ll own nothing, and be happy!” That doesn’t work well in my mind and we’ll no longer have a USA.
Whatever happened to: “YOU borrowed it, YOU pay it back”
They are going to use my tax dollars to pay someone else’s debt?? How about paying of my credit cards also? Same thing.
Majority of high school graduates is barely literate what is it they study in higher ed institutions do they graduate from them and are they employable ?
If the student debt is forgiven aka canceled, will a 1099-C be filed on the amount of the cancelation?