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The Student Debt You Willingly Took On Is Not My Problem To Solve
The Federalist ^ | 02/17/2020 | Margot Cleveland

Posted on 02/17/2020 7:41:53 AM PST by SeekAndFind

Of all the pandering showcased during Democrats’ attempts to win back the presidency, wiping out student debt ranked at or near the top.

“I believe that education is the future for this country,” socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders barked during the first round of Democratic primary debates, explaining that’s why we must “eliminate student debt and we do that by placing a tax on Wall Street.” Sen. Amy Klobuchar spoke similarly. “I can tell you this,” the Minnesota senator demagogued, “if billionaires can pay off their yachts, students should be able to pay off their student loans.”

There can be no serious discussion of this issue, however, in 60-second sound bites. So, beyond the soak-the-rich shtick that shades every Democratic economic debate point, the candidates resorted to two tactics: shock and sob stories.

The Shock Strategy

The size of student debt provides the jolt necessary to peddle their plans to the American populace. “I got $100,000 in student loan debt myself,” California Rep. Eric Swalwell bemoaned. “College affordability is personal for us,” South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg shared, noting that his household has “six-figure student debt.” So, sure, “I believe in reducing student debt,” Buttigieg announced.

Next came the sob stories. Those student loans are suffocating a generation, the candidates suggested. After all, “40 million of us who can’t start a family,” the diaper-changing daddy Swalwell contradictorily proclaimed, adding that they “Can’t take a good idea and start a business and can’t buy our first home.”

“We can’t put people in a position where they aren’t able to go on and move on,” frontrunner Joe Biden agreed.

Tellingly, when not constrained by the debate format, these same politicians push the same narrative to garner support for bailing out student loans, all while the media provides the Democrats a free assist.

“With loans totaling more than $130,000,” Buttigieg’s household is “among the 43 million people in the United States who owe federal student loan debt,” the Associated Press reported last month, before highlighting the myriad plans to bail out student debt pushed by a cadre of presidential candidates. The AP then furthered the narrative by using statistics to shock the public into socialism:

The debtors are so numerous and the total debt so high—more than $1.447 trillion, according to federal statistics—that several of the Democratic candidates have made major policy proposals to address the crisis. Their ideas include wiping away debt, lowering interest rates, expanding programs that tie repayment terms to income and making college free or debt-free. Student loan debt is often discussed as an issue that mostly affects millennials, but it cuts across age groups. Federal statistics show that about 7.8 million people age 50 and older owe a combined $291.9 billion in student loans. People age 35 to 49, a group that covers older millennials such as Buttigieg as well as Generation X, owe $548.4 billion. That group includes more than 14 million people.

Sob Stories Reign Supreme

Then the sad tales continue the sales pitch for a government solution to student debt—a ploy that began well before the 2016 elections. Here’s one of myriad media examples.

“Shayna Pilnick, 28, would like to buy an apartment but can’t afford a mortgage. Jacqueline Mannino, 23, and her boyfriend, Benjamin Prowse, 26, want to get married. Jacob Childerson, 24, and his wife, Jennifer, 25, wish they could start a family, but they live with Jennifer’s parents,” is how USA Today opened its 2013 profile of millennials unable to obtain their dream life because they are “tethered” to “tens of thousands of dollars in student loan debt.”

There are many ways to counter these arguments, based on both economics and equity. But it’s hard to counter soundbites with sense, so instead, here are my inquiries for these politicians, the press, and all the students demanding relief from the burdens of their debt: Tell me your sob stories from age 12 on, not what you can’t do now, but what you couldn’t do then. Tell what you had to do then and through college to avoid what is now, to you, crushing student debt.

What time did you get up to deliver papers in junior high? How many hours a week did you work since 14 to save for college? How many toilets did you scrub? How many high school football games did you miss because you were working? What dream college did you forgo to avoid taking out student loans?

Which 8 a.m. class did you take so you could complete your major’s requirements and still work in the afternoon? Which bus line did you take to get to your job because you didn’t borrow to buy a car? What job did you work full-time while completing your MBA at night?

What did you do to afford college? What didn’t you do because of the cost of college? Were you getting tattoos and traveling your way through college? Were you pledging and partying? Did you go to your top-choice university? Maybe an out-of-state public university with higher tuition rates? Which spring break and study abroad destinations did you visit along the way?

Did you splurge on your fairytale wedding instead of paying down your student loans? What cars did you buy or lease? Where did you live? What electronics did you own? What clothing and other personal expenditures did you have? In short, show me the money and how you spent it!

None of my business? You’re right. Nor is your student debt my business or my problem.


Margot Cleveland is a senior contributor to The Federalist. Cleveland served nearly 25 years as a permanent law clerk to a federal appellate judge and is a former full-time faculty member and current adjunct instructor at the college of business at the University of Notre Dame. The views expressed here are those of Cleveland in her private capacity.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Education; Society
KEYWORDS: college; studentdebt
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To: A Navy Vet

I was lucky in that my kid was not a flake. Got through college in 3 years instead of four with a summa cum laude and then went to medical school and has been a practicing surgeon for the last ten years. It cost me about $270,000 altogether in the mid 90’s, and I don’t regret spending a penny of it.


41 posted on 02/17/2020 8:24:10 AM PST by from occupied ga (Your government is your most dangerous enemy)
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To: SeekAndFind

That chart on what degrees cost around the world is another huge factor in driving this.

These kids come out deep in hock and end up sitting in an office next to an H1B holder who got his degree for next to nothing.


42 posted on 02/17/2020 8:25:00 AM PST by Buckeye McFrog (Patrick Henry would have been an anti-vaxxer)
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To: central_va

5 to 7k a semester!!! Wow. Mine went to private colleges 50k plus a year each. Damn right they worked part time and summers. Ever hear of work/study. The college gets you a job.

The world is not all STEM. Plenty of degrees between stem and basket weaving.


43 posted on 02/17/2020 8:25:52 AM PST by gcparent (Justice Brett Kavanaugh)
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To: SeekAndFind

Our granddaughter took out student loans, has her degree and is working.......she fully intends to pay back her loans. If one of those Communist running for office on the Demonrat side told her she didn’t have to pay them back she’d tell them to go pound sand!!


44 posted on 02/17/2020 8:27:01 AM PST by Dawgreg
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To: Future Snake Eater

Short version of one of my most heartfelt rants ...

I believe that you and several others here recognise that the biggest problem is the higher education (H.E.) portion of the mix. There is no economic pressure on H.E. to control prices and to provide a desirable product. Their position is “pay what we say. We don’t care where you get the money but we will be paid in full before you as a student can set foot in a classroom.”

If H.E. had to stand behind their product financially, things would be drastically different.


45 posted on 02/17/2020 8:27:10 AM PST by ByteMercenary (Healthcare Insurance is *NOT* a Constitutional right.)
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To: gcparent

Worked every summer, took a year off to earn, worked while in school, took textbooks out of the library one semester because I couldn’t afford to buy them, drove my dad’s leftover cars. My wife and I paid off my student debt in four years(she didn’t have any; parents and scholarships).


46 posted on 02/17/2020 8:28:49 AM PST by redangus
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To: gcparent
5 to 7k a semester!!! Wow. Mine went to private colleges 50k plus a year each. Damn right they worked part time and summers. Ever hear of work/study. The college gets you a job.

You and you kids were penny wise and pound foolish. If I was paying 50K per year I would not work at minimum wage and risk my GPA.

47 posted on 02/17/2020 8:29:35 AM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: Paladin2
At my university most professors (full, associate, or assistant) teach a 4-4 load...there is talk of moving to a 3-3 load but some departments don't like the idea because it would be hard to offer all the courses their students need. I have sometimes taught 5 courses in a semester but the current provost doesn't allow that. We also have a lot of underpaid adjuncts.

There are a lot of state universities which charge somewhere in the $6K to $10K range for annual tuition and fees. If students attend an in-state university, live at home and work part-time they don't have to be deep in debt by the time they graduate. Of course some live too far from a state university to be able to live at home.

48 posted on 02/17/2020 8:30:10 AM PST by Verginius Rufus
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To: ByteMercenary

I prefer the term “Big Education”.


49 posted on 02/17/2020 8:30:31 AM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: Buckeye McFrog
These kids come out deep in hock and end up sitting in an office next to an H1B holder who got his degree for next to nothing.

The FR old coot "back in my day" brigade won't even get what you said.

50 posted on 02/17/2020 8:32:30 AM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: central_va

Min wage here is 15 hr. 20 hrs week is 300 wk or 1200 a month before taxes.


51 posted on 02/17/2020 8:32:49 AM PST by gcparent (Justice Brett Kavanaugh)
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To: SeekAndFind
Re: “Tell me your sob stories from age 12 on, not what you can’t do now, but what you couldn’t do then. Tell what you had to do then and through college to avoid what is now, to you, crushing student debt.“

The system is set up so that a student who actually works jobs in high school to save money for college, as well as summers, and throughout the school year while in college will receive less or nothing in federal grant money than a student who never works at all to help with education costs. At least that was the way it was with our kids.

52 posted on 02/17/2020 8:32:55 AM PST by Nevadan
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To: gcparent
There is no state with a $15.00/hr min. wage.


53 posted on 02/17/2020 8:36:03 AM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: Fai Mao

What years?


54 posted on 02/17/2020 8:37:10 AM PST by Theoria (I should never have surrendered. I should have fought until I was the last man alive)
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To: central_va
These kids come out deep in hock and end up sitting in an office next to an H1B holder who got his degree for next to nothing. The FR old coot "back in my day" brigade won't even get what you said.

I am an old coot but I get this. There is a famous story about a company here in town about 15 yrs. ago where some engineer who was $70K in debt on his BSEE discovered that he H1B co-worker in the next cube had gotten his MSEE basically for free in his home country. A FISTFIGHT broke out.

If we're going to run a system where you are expected to go into debt for your training and then pay it back we can NOT be undercutting that by bringing in debt free foreign competition. These debts can not be discharged in bankruptcy. If you can't pay your only way out is to vote your way out, which they will.


55 posted on 02/17/2020 8:41:33 AM PST by Buckeye McFrog (Patrick Henry would have been an anti-vaxxer)
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To: central_va

The minimum wage in NYC as if dec 31, 2019 is 15 per hour regardless of size of business. Google it if you dont believe me.


56 posted on 02/17/2020 8:44:12 AM PST by gcparent (Justice Brett Kavanaugh)
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To: SeekAndFind

How to make college more affordable: 1) 2 years of community college and then transfer; 2) eliminate student loans which would lower tuition; 3) a BA/BS could be reduced to 3 years instead of 4 (England offers 3 year Bachelor degrees) by reducing electives needed (which in the US are usually leftist propaganda electives anyway).


57 posted on 02/17/2020 8:44:19 AM PST by olivia3boys
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To: SeekAndFind

So we are the dummies for helping our kids through college?
This is crazy unfair to those who scraped and saved to pay for college. While students were using loans to buy luxury cars and vacations?


58 posted on 02/17/2020 8:44:49 AM PST by entropy12 (You are either for free enterprise or want gov't to interfere with corporate issues.)
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To: gcparent

What does the min. wage in NYC have to do with going to school and working in Virginia?


59 posted on 02/17/2020 8:45:56 AM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: entropy12

I assume that forgiven student debt will still show up on a credit report.

And companies use credit reports to make hiring decisions, just saying.


60 posted on 02/17/2020 8:47:39 AM PST by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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