If you’re in insurmountable student loan debt, it’s probably your own fault
As Congress’s resident socialists tell it, the Americans who hold a collective $1.6 trillion in student loan debt are victims of an exploitative higher education system, robbed of their financial future through no fault of their own.
That’s why Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and their cohorts introduced a bill this week to cancel all student loan debt and make college free.
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Critics were quick to make the usual arguments against the socialization of higher education and massive loan bailouts, citing the regressive nature of government handouts to the well-off educated class and the negative unintended consequences free college would certainly have.
Of course they’re all right, but I’d like to make a different point — debt holders just don’t deserve a bailout. College is way too expensive, but nonetheless, most young people who are buried in student loans or struggling to pay off their debt only have themselves to blame.
The average student is now graduating with $30,000 in debt, no small sum. But frankly, a college degree is worth it, as it increases lifetime earnings by millions. And the median monthly payment is just $222. If you can’t afford that, as a college graduate, it’s probably your own fault.
The starting salary for an accounting major is nearly $54,000, while many engineering students bring in north of $55,000 after graduation. This is more than enough to cover a $220 a month payment. If you chose to major in gender studies, French, or anything similarly impractical, it’s your own fault that you’re stuck with a lower starting salary and might struggle to make payments. That’s unfortunate, but it’s no justification for shirking your responsibility to pay back what you owe or asking taxpayers to bear the burden of your mistakes.
Yet when Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders are selling their socialist bailout, they’re quick to use sympathetic examples of young people buried in $100,000 in debt or even more. But while there are unique situations and exceptions for sure, most people who find themselves buried in hundreds of thousands in student loan debt have their own decisions to blame. Racking up that much debt is almost always a choice. They chose expensive dream schools, knowing the cost well ahead of time. To bail them out at taxpayer expense is to punish people who made responsible decisions and encourage recklessness from future generations.
We must remember that while the cost of college has soared to outrageous levels and must be addressed, an affordable path to a college degree still exists. Almost anyone can go to a community college for two years to obtain an associate degree, with the average annual cost just $3,300, a sum easily payable through part-time work. After two years, one can transfer to a flagship state university and even if you have to borrow every dime for the final two years of your undergraduate education (which is unlikely), you’d still graduate with a manageable amount of debt. Major in something like business or STEM and you’ll likely have no trouble meeting student loan payments.
It’s absolutely fine for students to choose to forgo this path and instead attend their dream school. But it’s outrageous to imply that you shouldn’t be responsible for your debts after making that decision.
Of course, I have sympathy for the young people out there who truly are struggling to afford their education through no fault of their own. But to the millions of borrowers who’ve made terrible decisions, don’t ask for a bailout — it’s your own damn fault.
