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Mike Rowe Makes Case For Opposing Student Loan Forgiveness

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Ubiquitous

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Dec 18, 2020, 5:38:11 PM12/18/20
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Conservative icon Mike Rowe explained in a social media post this week
why he does not support student loan forgiveness, noting that it is
profoundly unfair to those who worked hard and paid off their debts and
that it is welfare for the wealthy.

In writing the post, Rowe highlighted a National Review article on the
subject that noted that “Democrats have become the party of moneyed
urban and suburban professionals, and, on the matter of college loans,
progressives are happy to see the rich get richer as Americans of more
modest means subsidize relatively high-income Democratic households.”

“Lots of people on this page have asked me to comment on the various
proposals to forgive hundreds of billions of dollars in student debt,”
Rowe wrote. “Many it seems, suspect that I’ll be supportive of these
efforts, since I’ve written at length about the outrageous rise of
college tuition, and the scandalous ways in which hundreds of thousands
of students have been conned into borrowing ridiculous sums of money to
purchase degrees that never lead to an actual job. Well, for the
record, I do not support student loan forgiveness.”

“My reasons for opposing student loan forgiveness are not a secret,”
Rowe continued. “I’ve written at length on this page about the
fundamental unfairness of doing such a thing – especially to the
millions of Americans who have paid their college debts, and sacrificed
much to do so. I’ve also said that forgiving student debt would send a
terrible message to the very same universities that already gouge their
customers with sky-high tuition. Tuition will never come back to earth,
if we bail out those who borrowed more than they could repay.”

Rowe highlighted the following paragraph from the National Review
article:

The majority of student debt is held by relatively high-income
people, poor people mostly are not college graduates, and
those who attended college but did not graduate hold relatively
little college-loan debt, etc. As the New York Times puts it,
“Debt relief overall would disproportionately benefit middle-
to upper-class college graduates.” Which ones? “Especially
those who attended elite and expensive institutions, and people
with lucrative professional credentials like law and medical
degrees.”

“Finally, it should go without saying that I pity every young man and
woman who is struggling today under the yoke of a crushing student
loan. I sincerely do,” Rowe continued. “You were quite possibly sold a
bill of goods. You were very likely pressured by your friends, your
parents, or your guidance counselor, to attend the ‘right’ school. You
were perhaps a victim of this persistent, pernicious, and preposterous
push to peddle a four-year degree to every person with a pulse, and for
that, you have my sympathy. But that’s not my fault. Nor is it the
fault of the American people. The fault belongs to you, and so does the
debt.”

--
Joe Biden went from stealing someone's wife, to stealing speeches, to
stealing money, to stealing an election.
He has really grown as a politician.
-- Michael Moore

Siri Cruise

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Dec 18, 2020, 6:15:39 PM12/18/20
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In article <2aKdncE9nN_RskDC...@giganews.com>,
Ubiquitous <web...@polaris.net> wrote:

> Conservative icon Mike Rowe explained in a social media post this week
> why he does not support student loan forgiveness, noting that it is
> profoundly unfair to those who worked hard and paid off their debts and
> that it is welfare for the wealthy.

And a similar argument can be made to deny disaster relief.

The non-assholian argument is individual debt impedes that
individual participation in buying and selling, becoming a micro
economic depression. When debt is widespread the microdepressions
join into depression large enough to impede everyone's
participation even when they are debt free. To prevent a society
wide depression it's cheaper to reduce widespread debt to keep
enough people participating in the marketplace that the
marketplace remains open.

(Foodstamps are nice for poor people, but they create consumers
for food to keep the farms, food processors, food movers, and
markets in business. That's why USDA does foodstamps, for
farmers.)

The non-assholian argument should therefore be to collect enough
information to decide whether student debt is sufficient to
affect society as a whole, and then proceed in what is the best
interests of society and debtors. Your greed is not sufficient
excuse to ruin innocent non-debtor lives.

The democratic answer is if elections are won based on voters who
want debt relief, then the elected are obligated to figure out
debt relief. Vox populi, vox dei.

And you're still greedy asshole.

--
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