I really appreciated the purity of Katie's rant about Biden's student-loan forgiveness plan. While I'm not personally upset about the fact that the plan doesn't benefit me, here are a few things about the plan that have been making me see red:
1. Biden wants to deny that the Democratic Party is a party of the elites WHILE handing out a re…
I really appreciated the purity of Katie's rant about Biden's student-loan forgiveness plan. While I'm not personally upset about the fact that the plan doesn't benefit me, here are a few things about the plan that have been making me see red:
1. Biden wants to deny that the Democratic Party is a party of the elites WHILE handing out a regressive gift to his many college-educated voters right before the midterms AND insisting that, if you're one of the many people who don't vote for Democratic candidates because you don't think they do anything for you, you're just bigoted. Very few of the roughly 2/3 of American adults who don't hold a college degree are going to find this argument persuasive. Cue another nauseating round of the Democrats wondering why the supposedly bigoted working classes aren't enlightened enough to vote for them in greater numbers.
2. Despite the outrageous increases in college tuition relative to wages in the last several decades, college graduates still reap significant financial benefits from their degrees:
"In July, the unemployment rate for recent college graduates was a paltry 2.9 percent. The total lifetime wage premium for a college education is $900,000 for men and $630,000 for women—an amount that’s many multiples of average college debt.
"And while lifetime earnings vary by major, the stereotype of the impoverished art history graduate just isn’t true. A 2020 Brookings study showed that there was a significant lifetime wage gap 'for all 98 majors studied.'" (https://frenchpress.thedispatch.com/p/is-there-a-christian-case-for-bidens)
There's no excuse for making a high-school-educated childcare giver pay for the education of the radiologist who sends his kids to her daycare. He'll be fine. So will his little brother who majored in art history and is now "settling" for an office job unrelated to his major that inexplicably requires a BA.
3. If you'll permit me a peevish addition about how this sort of policy may hurt me, as someone who pays my bills thanks to college students' tuition: Republicans, already inclined to see professors and higher-ed admin as liberal fat cats, are looking for more ways to retaliate against institutions of higher ed. The most powerful politician in my state was already campaigning on an anti-higher-ed plank before Biden announced his plan. The escalation of this particularly stupid culture war is likely to affect everyone who works at or attends public universities in states with red state legislatures. That's a lot of time and money we'll continue to spend fighting about funding, tenure, and First-Amendment rights.
He is motivating his base. If you want the moolah, get yourself to the polls to safeguard its delivery. It is not admirable but it is basic non-mysterious politics.
I'm aware! I just think it's a crass, classist way to buy votes. And I'm disgusted by Democratic rhetoric about being for "the poor and marginalized" when the party is in this and many other ways washing its hands of the working and lower middle classes.
Not everyone who has students loans has a college degree, however. Katie is right that those with the most education have the most debt, but it's also true that those who didn't finish college often have the least debt. These people really did get a bad deal, and small student loan forgiveness will help them out greatly. I don't understand how it's elitist to try and help this population.
Injecting moral hazard into college financing without doing anything about costs at the front end is likely to make college more expensive, not less, thus hurting less financially stable students the most. This plan is not the way to make college degrees attainable for those who would most benefit from them.
Personally, if we're throwing taxpayer dollars around, I would favor a massive infusion of cash into programs like the Pell Grants if it were contingent on tuition control by recipient colleges. I'm also intrigued by the idea of discharging student-loan debt through bankruptcy, although since Josh Barro says that would make interest rates skyrocket, I'd want to learn more before I'd endorse such a plan.
There are lots of ways to try to deal with college costs without buying off voters by means of a plan that will almost certainly inflate tuition.
Why do you think those with student debt who didn't finish college "really did get a bad deal"? I agree that they're stuck in a situation that's less than desirable but nobody forced them to take out student loans. How do you know they aren't just irresponsible? I'm not saying they are, but I honestly don't get your logic. I believe the colleges, which did (and still do) prey on young and sometimes foolish applicants while wildly inflating their tuition bills, should be forced to take the loss, not taxpayers.
It's both true that there's some predatory recruitment AND that professors can't make their students pass their classes. I've never personally wanted to flunk a student, but some of them have left me no choice. There's a new move in my state to help more students complete their degrees, and while I'm very much for that goal, I'm worried that it might put pressure on professors at certain institutions to pass everybody and thereby turn grades into a meaningless step toward a paper credential.
I really appreciated the purity of Katie's rant about Biden's student-loan forgiveness plan. While I'm not personally upset about the fact that the plan doesn't benefit me, here are a few things about the plan that have been making me see red:
1. Biden wants to deny that the Democratic Party is a party of the elites WHILE handing out a regressive gift to his many college-educated voters right before the midterms AND insisting that, if you're one of the many people who don't vote for Democratic candidates because you don't think they do anything for you, you're just bigoted. Very few of the roughly 2/3 of American adults who don't hold a college degree are going to find this argument persuasive. Cue another nauseating round of the Democrats wondering why the supposedly bigoted working classes aren't enlightened enough to vote for them in greater numbers.
2. Despite the outrageous increases in college tuition relative to wages in the last several decades, college graduates still reap significant financial benefits from their degrees:
"In July, the unemployment rate for recent college graduates was a paltry 2.9 percent. The total lifetime wage premium for a college education is $900,000 for men and $630,000 for women—an amount that’s many multiples of average college debt.
"And while lifetime earnings vary by major, the stereotype of the impoverished art history graduate just isn’t true. A 2020 Brookings study showed that there was a significant lifetime wage gap 'for all 98 majors studied.'" (https://frenchpress.thedispatch.com/p/is-there-a-christian-case-for-bidens)
There's no excuse for making a high-school-educated childcare giver pay for the education of the radiologist who sends his kids to her daycare. He'll be fine. So will his little brother who majored in art history and is now "settling" for an office job unrelated to his major that inexplicably requires a BA.
3. If you'll permit me a peevish addition about how this sort of policy may hurt me, as someone who pays my bills thanks to college students' tuition: Republicans, already inclined to see professors and higher-ed admin as liberal fat cats, are looking for more ways to retaliate against institutions of higher ed. The most powerful politician in my state was already campaigning on an anti-higher-ed plank before Biden announced his plan. The escalation of this particularly stupid culture war is likely to affect everyone who works at or attends public universities in states with red state legislatures. That's a lot of time and money we'll continue to spend fighting about funding, tenure, and First-Amendment rights.
He is motivating his base. If you want the moolah, get yourself to the polls to safeguard its delivery. It is not admirable but it is basic non-mysterious politics.
I'm aware! I just think it's a crass, classist way to buy votes. And I'm disgusted by Democratic rhetoric about being for "the poor and marginalized" when the party is in this and many other ways washing its hands of the working and lower middle classes.
Not everyone who has students loans has a college degree, however. Katie is right that those with the most education have the most debt, but it's also true that those who didn't finish college often have the least debt. These people really did get a bad deal, and small student loan forgiveness will help them out greatly. I don't understand how it's elitist to try and help this population.
Injecting moral hazard into college financing without doing anything about costs at the front end is likely to make college more expensive, not less, thus hurting less financially stable students the most. This plan is not the way to make college degrees attainable for those who would most benefit from them.
Personally, if we're throwing taxpayer dollars around, I would favor a massive infusion of cash into programs like the Pell Grants if it were contingent on tuition control by recipient colleges. I'm also intrigued by the idea of discharging student-loan debt through bankruptcy, although since Josh Barro says that would make interest rates skyrocket, I'd want to learn more before I'd endorse such a plan.
There are lots of ways to try to deal with college costs without buying off voters by means of a plan that will almost certainly inflate tuition.
That said, I think the current moment is one in which we should be very cautious about inflationary spending.
Why do you think those with student debt who didn't finish college "really did get a bad deal"? I agree that they're stuck in a situation that's less than desirable but nobody forced them to take out student loans. How do you know they aren't just irresponsible? I'm not saying they are, but I honestly don't get your logic. I believe the colleges, which did (and still do) prey on young and sometimes foolish applicants while wildly inflating their tuition bills, should be forced to take the loss, not taxpayers.
It's both true that there's some predatory recruitment AND that professors can't make their students pass their classes. I've never personally wanted to flunk a student, but some of them have left me no choice. There's a new move in my state to help more students complete their degrees, and while I'm very much for that goal, I'm worried that it might put pressure on professors at certain institutions to pass everybody and thereby turn grades into a meaningless step toward a paper credential.