Can the Youth Vote Be Bought For a Trillion Dollars?

Real Clear Markets ^ | October 24, 2011 | Bill Frezza

[neverdem]

In the realm of economic stimulus proposals, none is as audacious, as Machiavellian, and as transparently designed to buy the votes of a critical electoral demographic than the proposal to forgive all student loans. Even if it fails, as it likely will, the seamless coordination between members of Congress, leftist advocacy groups, and the media to try to sell this idea is a perfect example of how brilliantly certain factions play their hand in the high-stakes game of crafting the dominant political narrative.

[neverdem]

Bill Frezza is a fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, and a Boston-based venture capitalist. He can be reached at bill@vereverus.com. If you would like to subscribe to his weekly column, drop a note to publisher@vereverus.com or follow him on Twitter @BillFrezza.

[Beowulf9]

In the words of Sarah Palin, “You betcha”.

[hinckley buzzard]

They can buy young skulls full of mush for a lot less than a trillion dollars. Look at 2008.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Where are the schools? Aren’t they going to scream that this would spell the end of their own gravy trains as nobody, not even Uncle Sam, will want to dole out huge amounts of money to students which they now know will never come back?

[txhurl]

You can get those mushy skulls for free by promising to legalize pot vis-a-vis Ron Paul.

[henkster]

Yep; buying their votes with their own money; it’s all borrowed. I won’t have to pay it back, I’ll be dead. They’ll be stuck with the bill for their trillion dollar bling party. Fools.

[noprogs]

Seems like “they” have bought the votes of everyone who won’t support themselves over the last 45 years with the $14 Trillion spent warring against poverty.

Why not?

[neverdem]

"Even if it fails, as it likely will, the seamless coordination between members of Congress, leftist advocacy groups, and the media to try to sell this idea is a perfect example of how brilliantly certain factions play their hand in the high-stakes game of crafting the dominant political narrative."

Aren’t they going to scream that this would spell the end of their own gravy trains as nobody, not even Uncle Sam, will want to dole out huge amounts of money to students which they now know will never come back?

IMHO, this is just a campaign gambit like Occupy Wall Street. There's no free lunch. This could backfire big time.

[Utmost Certainty]

The schools will love the idea. They don’t care as long as they get their money. And government money is as close to free money as one can get.

[Basil Fremp]

Last year I took (and passed) the FL bar exam at the tender age of 53. To take the exam you have to stand like cattle in line at the Tampa Convention Center along with ~3,000+ fellow exam takers. While crowded together to pass through security and enter the testing room, it was impossible not to notice that the median age was about 1/2 that of my own. It was also impossible to avoid overhearing these young, recent law school graduates playing a game of "I can top that!" by comparing the amount of student loan debt they had. The numbers I heard ranged between $110,000 and $145,000. In other word the mortgage balance for the purchase of a modest house - with no house. When I attended law school I worked full-time and attended class part-time, and had exceptionally generous employers who paid for books, tuition and even gave me paid leave time which I could accumulate for exam week. Thus my student loan debt on completing my JD was $0.00.

Now, I can imagine how difficult it would be to enter a profession with that financial piano strapped on your back, but at the same time these are supposedly the smartest folks in the room, and you want to tell me they couldn't anticipate the debt burden three years hence, at the time they were entering law school? Are you kidding me?

[HiTech RedNeck]

But they WON’T be getting money. Not from former lenders who say fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Oh, they knew, but there’s always room for more lawyers, especially in Florida. Many will be rid of the “piano” in less than a decade.

The really pitiful ones are the majors in art and other touchy feely things that do okay only in up economies.

[Utmost Certainty]

But IIRC, Obama basically nationalized student loans w/ the passage of the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act back in 2010 (http://cnsnews.com/node/60074).

I haven’t looked into this very deeply yet, so if I’m wrong, do correct me.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Well unless Uncle Sam is going to take the audacious step of subsidizing everybody with a grant that is given out as freely as the loans were (good luck with that against the GOP House) the schools will be pulled up short as there will be no sequel that makes sense.

[Oldexpat]

I live next door to the Jones’s. They remodeled their house and drive a BMW and a big SUV along with their motor home. They have been complaining that due to the down turn in home prices they are underwater..what with their first and a heloc.
Their two kids just finished college and are living at home..both driving late model cars and are working at restaurants. They are complaining about their 100k student loans,,but today they were all celebrating. Obama promised to get them a new mortgage at a lower rate and the kids won't need to pay for their student loans for years. We must be fools..we saved and didn't remodel..our kids worked in school and were in the Army. We don't have much of a mortgage and our kids are working without any debt. We must have done something wrong.

[Soul of the South]

It is still possible in this country for a prospective student to fund a four year college education, or even graduate school without accumulating a mountain of debt. ROTC scholarships exist and the military has programs to help soldiers obtain degrees. One can work and attend a two year community college and then go on to finish the last 2 years at a state university.

A recent grad I know made it through 4 years of college and 1 1/2 years of graduate school by working part time while in school, aggressively going after academic scholarships, taking on some student loans, living at home and reluctantly accepting some financial support from the family. Upon leaving school she secured a full time job in her profession and a part time job on weekends. Two years out of school she is debt free, has some savings in the bank and continues to work two jobs. She also highly values her education.

Having observed her experience first hand I cannot muster any compassion for recent graduates who accumulated hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt and now want a bailout from those who took care of themselves. They are not unlike the wealthy middle aged Wall Street executives who begged for government cash after destroying their firms in 2008 and then turned around and paid themselves millions of dollars in bonuses a year later. By demanding forgiveness of student loans these young debtors are just getting an early start on the path many of their liberal indulgent parents took to enriching themselves at the public trough. Had their parents demonstrated or taught them anything about personal accountability they would be embarrassed to be asking society to take on the obligations they freely assumed. Shame on the pandering politicians who support this wasteful redistribution scheme.

[newzjunkey]

We must have done something wrong.

I think that myself. And that's why Obama's "fairness" talk ... well I'll keep those thoughts to myself.

[lentulusgracchus]

I can imagine how difficult it would be to enter a profession with that financial piano strapped on your back

Wonder what it does for those attorneys' ethics and motives after they graduate?

[the invisib1e hand]

youth vote can be bought for a little t&a, booze or hash.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Frugality still profits in the long run. Your Joneses are enjoying an unsustainable bubble and if they refuse to plan for even worse days they will be cursing Obama for having coaxed them out on this limb rather than thanking him for a few more years of opportunity.