‘Tis the season for giving — or, for some legislators, a good time to demand that the government force taxpayers to give others a large gift.
A few weeks ago, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez took to the house floor to issue another plea for the federal government to cancel nearly $1.7 trillion in student-loan debt.
That is, she is demanding that taxpayers who didn’t go to college, or who didn’t take on large loans to go to college, pay off the often massive loans of those who did.
AOC argues that the student-loan system is ridiculous because at age 32 she still owes $17,000.
But then she unwittingly puts her finger on the crux of the student-debt problem:
“It’s teenagers signing up for what is often hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt…” she says. “We give 17-year-olds the ability to sign on and sign up for $100,000 worth of debt and we think that’s responsible policy.”
Of course it’s not responsible policy.
Of course borrowing 100,000 smackers before you’re even old enough to vote is not sound decision-making.
Of course it is a problem created and long enabled by lax federal student-borrowing policies.
A 2015 study by the National Bureau of Economic Research found the increase in student loan availability correlates to nearly all of the increases in college tuition since 1987.
It’s not complicated:
The more you allow young people to borrow, the more colleges jack up their costs — because colleges have known the borrowers will borrow more.
To compete for students — and to “justify” their ever-climbing tuitions — colleges have been on massive spending sprees the last 20 years, borrowing billions to build five-star dorm rooms and other lavish amenities.
A massive increase in non-academic administrators — people who do not teach or conduct research, but who earn fat salaries nonetheless — also has exploded the cost of running a college, according to the Huffington Post.
How to fund all these spiking costs? Raise tuitions.
A report by myelearningworld.com finds that in the last 50 years college tuition costs have risen five times the inflation rate.
If tuitions had kept pace with inflation, today’s students at private and public universities would be paying $10,000 or $20,000 a year – HALF of what they are today.
The entire tuition-funding scheme has been a sweet racket for the higher- education industrial complex for a long time.
But more and more young people (and their parents) are seeing through it.
Instead of borrowing tens of thousands of dollars to get a college degree, more high school grads are choosing good-paying, no-debt opportunities in the trades.
And with a record number of open jobs and a dearth of willing job candidates, more companies are hiring young people without college degrees.
This decreasing demand has forced colleges to suddenly begin cutting their “sticker prices,” according to Forbes.
So if more young people are becoming more sensible about taking on massive debt, would it be too much to ask our lawmakers to come to their senses, too?
Their well-meaning but wrong-headed student-lending policies have helped to create a massive $1.7 trillion debt bubble.
Demanding that the rest of us pay off the college debts that millions of others so willingly took on is not just ridiculous, it’s patently unfair.
Case in point: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez makes $174,000 a year.
Rather than force taxpayers to pay off her $17,000 college loan, maybe she should trade in her Tesla for a used Hyundai.
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Copyright 2021 Tom Purcell, distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate.
Federal subsidies of these colleges and as a result the colleges raise tuition through the roof. Then there is the communist AOC who wants handouts for everyone, except for those that work for a living.
Exactly. When my father got his degree, in mechanics, it cost him, iirc 11k TOTAL (back in 1960’s money). EVER since the govt got involved, IN Student loans, the prices have KEPT GOING UP, and up and up, WHILE THE QUALITY of education, has kept going DOWN AND DOWN..
AOC must have written Joes policy to control inflation, as it is the same old “Throw more money at a problem of fixed amount of goods and expect the price to go down.” Thanks to government education interference the cost of higher American education is twice what it would be if THE PEOPLE had to earn rather than borrow their way through College. It may have enriched inept socialist college professors into unearned 6 figure salaries, but more importantly it has wasted finite American taxpayer dollars on vain attempts to educate people way beyond their ability to comprehend and usefully use the information. In fact the misuse of confused social education has caused more harm than good.
People and governments must be careful in their giving lest they get in the way of God’s distribution of honest wealth and knowledge to people of evil intent.. Individual gift giving usually goes straight to the target with a 100% Bulls Eye. Cumulative government sponsored gift giving get dispersed in so many directions like a shotgun spray with only a few pellets hitting the target with the rest going to waste or getting skimmed off the top by government party thieves. This is why government needs to get out the gift giving business and let the people do individually what they do best. Same applies to education lest American meritocracy be even more replaced with idoiocracy.
Watching Gutfelt tuesday evening, one of the BEST quips i have ever heard, RE education and debt came up.
Someone said “I FIND IT screwy that a teen, or even very young 20 something, who wants to make his own buisiness, WHICH IF IT GETS off the ground, can make money, OFTEN CANNOT get a 10-20k loan.
BUT THAT same teen, KNOWINGLY GOING for a college degree that has little to NO Societal value, due to there not being jobs FOR THAT degree, can easily get a 70k or even 100k student loan.. Something is off!”
TO ME, that is totally backASSWARDS…
“‘Tis the season for giving — or, for some legislators, a good time to demand that the government force taxpayers to give others a large gift.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez took to the house floor to issue another plea for the federal government to cancel nearly $1.7 trillion in student-loan debt.”
“AOC argues that the student-loan system is ridiculous because at age 32 she still owes $17,000.”
Case in point: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez makes $174,000 a year.
Rather than force taxpayers to pay off her $17,000 college loan, maybe she should trade in her Tesla for a used Hyundai.
Make colleges more affordable. Instead of making government loans to students make more affordable colleges.
IF SHE makes 170k + a year??
ltuser:
As a member of Congress, U.S. Rep. Ocasio-Cortez earns $174,000 annually.
Plus she is a corrupt politician so she also makes deals under the table for $$$$.
SO WHAT the hell has prevented her, PAYING OFF that 17 thousand debt? OTHER THAN she’s just UNWILLING TO PAY IT??
BINGO!!!
If it’s teenagers without a credit history shouldn’t there be a cosigner for the loan? In the past people who wanted a college education understood the value and importance of that desire and sacrificed to attain it, working to pay back what they needed to borrow and not taking it for granted. The opposite is now true, it’s taken for granted that higher education is now a right rather than a personal choice worth the effort! If thehy want to forgive the debt put a ceiling on it such as those making over, say, $75,000.00 a year are not eligible for forgiveness. Maybe AOC should learn how to budget her money, oh, I forgot, she’s a Democrat, they are very poor at budgeting and worse at adhering to one!
Perhaps as much interest should be shown in reducing the national debt. HELLO CONGRESS !!!!
You are 100% correct about that. So tired of Congress kicking all the problems that need to be corrected NOW, down the road for another day !
Reducing it? HELL< we have a hard enough time, getting them to BALANCE The budget..
If “they” want the government to pay their tuition, tell “them” to join the military and take advantage of the GI Bill. I mentioned this to a student awhile back and was told, “I don’t want to prostitute myself”.
THEN that’s their bloody problem!
I paid for my college education. I paid for my children’s college education. I still pay for your children’s public education through taxes. Why should I be required to pay for your college education, or your children’s college education?
Go to college and get a worthless degree, and expect me to pay for it? I don’t think so.