His rationalization is not that it subsidizes the liberal colleges.
READ HIS REASONS BeLOW:
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Let’s dispense with the two most common objections to student-debt forgiveness. The first is that canceling existing debt would be unfair to the millions of borrowers who met their obligations and now would have to sit by and watch deadbeats receive a windfall.
As I’ve observed in the past, it’s hard to imagine a weaker objection or a more crass formula for governmental paralysis. By its logic, we wouldn’t have Social Security or Medicare today. The argument would be: “My great-grandparents starved in old age and died in the street because they couldn’t get healthcare, so why should yours get a break?”
In truth, the sacrifices some families made to shoulder their debt burden underscores the folly of forcing families to impoverish themselves to attain higher education. Why should we want to ignore the lesson?
The second often-heard objection is that debt cancellation would be a gift to relatively affluent households and to graduates of law, business and medical schools, who complete their education with large debt balances but are entering high-paying fields.
That’s true, but not especially relevant to the problem. Graduates of professional schools account for nearly 12% of the total debt outstanding but only about 4% of borrowers. What’s important is the debt burden on the majority of borrowers, who are working-class and lower-income.
According to an analysis by the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, a progressive think tank, the debt-to-income ratio among households in the lower 50% of the income ladder that hold any student debt is about 1-to-1 — that is, their loan balances are about the same as their annual income.
What’s especially worrisome is that the ratio has more than doubled only since 2001. The ratios for higher-income households also have increased, but remain below 0.25. (in other words, their balances are less than 25% of annual income.)
Black borrowers come off as especially disadvantaged in this calculation — about 30% of them have debt-to-income ratios of more than 0.5. Fewer than 20% of white borrowers have the same burden.
Let’s dispense with the two most common objections to student-debt forgiveness. The first is that canceling existing debt would be unfair to the millions of borrowers who met their obligations and now would have to sit by and watch deadbeats receive a windfall.
As I’ve observed in the past, it’s hard to imagine a weaker objection or a more crass formula for governmental paralysis. By its logic, we wouldn’t have Social Security or Medicare today. The argument would be: “My great-grandparents starved in old age and died in the street because they couldn’t get healthcare, so why should yours get a break?”
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I hate to break it to this guy, but the “crass formula” he derides forms the very basis of credit integrity. If you can be bailed out for political reasons, then who cares what the interest rate is? Who even cares about credit limits?
It’s amazing to me that people on the political Left are so deficient at looking at issues from a responsibility perspective.
His main argument: Paying off the debt would be a boon to the economy.
This is true of any kind of debt. By definition.
Why would student debt be special? Why should it be special?
Any discussion of student debt forgiveness should start with the question: Did the students receive a benefit? Yes or no?