You do realize that arguing economics with a libertarian is like arguing pot laws with someone for decriminalization.
So let me cut to the chase -- the debate centers around the problem of what should the government fund for the good of the people and the nation?
On the far left of that debate we have folks yelling everything, anything! And on the far right there are people shouting, Nothing! It's my money! The market is always right!
I like to believe that I'm somewhere in the middle. And that we should use reason and compassion to make those choices. That puts me in a difficult position, since it's hideously hard to muster a passionate argument for moderation. You don't see people marching for moderation or carrying placards that proclaim: Moderation Now!
I just happen to think that those people who have a talent and a desire for a thing, should be encouraged to pursue that field. I also believe that the market is amoral (not immoral) and it's up to us to put that powerful machinery to good use. And, that it doesn't benefit us as a country to have an underclass of desperately poor.
So, let the flaming begin.
I'm for all things in moderation, too. Especially taxes and government spending. Government should spend lots of money on constitutional provisions, and none on unconstitutional crap like student loans.
That you think that those people who have a talent and a desire for a thing, should be encouraged to pursue that field is fine. But student loans don't. They fund people who DON'T have a commercially sanctioned talent but do have a desire.
That you believe the market is amoral (not immoral) and it's up to us to put that powerful machinery to good use is directly contrary to the market doing its own work! The market IS us, as a mass, and what people want the market should provide. Government intervening prevents that from happening.
Yes, you're right, it doesn't benefit us as a country to have an underclass of desperately poor. What federal student loans have to do with that I do not know, unless you mean that government should not incentivize colleges to raise their tuitions to the level that most students do have to go into debt to attend, and then come out desperately poor and unable to actually do what they enjoyed learning about in school. Or maybe you mean that we should end federal student loans because having the government tax that money out of people's pockets makes the average person poorer. You could elucidate there as to the relation of your statement to the topic at hand.