Thursday, May 16, 2024

A response to the question of "Why are Republicans opposed to the forgiveness of student loans?"

I was cruising Quora Digest the other day, when I came across the following.

Now, the basis for Quora is as something of a discussion board where people ask questions seeking information.

The difficulty is that many questions are moronic. Many are trolls. Many can be answered by using a search engine google is one, but if one is searching for information with at least a modicum of non-bias, others exist.

Even the question I am about to paste here is rather stupid, considering how it's been debated to death in other forums, newspaper/magazine pieces and blogs.

But I've got to admit the first line of the response to the question intrigued me.

And I was impressed enough to copy and paste this particular exchange for your edification

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Q: Why are Republicans opposed to the forgiveness of student loans?

A: May I answer as a Democrat? I think many good reasons are stated here regarding the morality of essentially forcing people who already paid for their college and people who didn’t go to college to pay for those who went and have yet to pay for it.

But I have another reason. If you happen to support student loans, forgiving them now will eventually kill them altogether.

Once loans devolve into the government simply paying for college, which is what the progressive wing of the party is really after, then the debate is on about whether college should be “free” or not.

Since that is the real objective of the people pushing for loan forgiveness we should just have that debate instead of trying to slip a major policy change through the back door.

I believe that Progressives don’t want to have that debate because they know they will lose it. The Federal government simply has no money for another expensive entitlement, and the things they would need to do to make it somewhat affordable for the government will not appeal to the “free college” crowd, like tracking kids from a young age via entrance exams as they do in European and Asian countries to ensure that only the “best and the brightest” get to pursue baccalaureate degrees while the rest get funneled into vocational training. [Edit: there is nothing wrong with vocational training. I think it is way underrated in our society today. The question is who gets to choose.]

“Free college” would look nothing like today’s sprawling verdant campuses with carpeted dorms and climbing walls at the gym.

Anyone who knows that and still pushes for loan forgiveness for people that have experienced these things cannot accuse those opposed to their special pleading as being “selfish.”

The objection to pandering and vote-buying is not only from Republicans.

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I caught this and am blogging it because it is, to me, as succinct and accurate assessment of the issue... and response to why it's insane to engage in this practice... as any I've ever read.

I wish I could claim credit for these words but they come from a responder by the name of "Marc H," who believably claims an MBA from the Wharton School and that he "gives advice for a living."

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