Loading...
 

From The Fields

Student Loan Forgiveness Ruled Unconstitutional

FromTheFields Wednesday July 12, 2023

College just got a lot less fun.

Both the Trump administration and the Biden administration in response to the COVID panic, decided it would be a good thing (that is they might be able to get more votes from people with college debts) if they put a moratorium on or canceled student college debt. It didn' work for Trump. But, arguably, it helped Biden avert disaster in the 2022 midterms when he proposed to cancel the debt permanently. As he undoubtedly knew at the time and as the Supreme Court just ruled in Biden v. Nebraska, he had no authority to cancel over $400 billion in student debt through executive order. But the ruling came after the vote was in so too bad suckers, I mean students. Your degree isn't free after all.

The primary reason college costs have been inflating at roughly twice the rate of the overall inflation rate is due to college loans readily available to anyone who can fog a mirror. It's elementary supply and demand. The number of college seats is relatively fixed. The number of students to fill those seats has gone up rapidly because of the easy availability of federal college loans.

The marketing myth for colleges is that a college degree is necessary and sufficient for a comfortable middle or even upper class career. Imagine the disappointment of a graduate in civilization studies learning that the best job to be had is in the civilized art of brewing coffee. And trying to pay off many thousands of dollars of student debt on a minimum wage job. College may or may not be necessary for a good job but it sure is not sufficient.

Oh, and student debt, by law, cannot be discharged like most every other kind of debt, in bankruptcy.

Libertarians know that when the government tries to go into business, it usually messes things up big time. Lending to students is a prime example of that. Thousands of young people have been lured into lifetimes of non dischargeable debt.

It will cause social and cultural discord for decades.