President Joe Biden on Wednesday announced a plan to write off $10,000 in student loan debt for borrowers making less than $125,000 a year. The plan will also include another four-month payment freeze for those with any amount of student loans.
Many hailed the move as a compassionate step to alleviate the pain and suffering caused by our nation’s $1.7 trillion student loan catastrophe.
But paying off student loans is immoral and unfair.
I graduated from college with over $20,000 in student loan debt, a price I was willing to pay to earn my degree.
Taking my first full-time job, I didn’t go shopping for a new car. I didn’t take a good vacation, or travel to Europe, or put down a down payment on a house. I attacked my loans with ferocity.
Every extra dollar I could find, I threw into my loans until, in November 2021, I paid off my debt in full, seven years early.
Instead of rewarding me (and others like me) who choose to do the right thing and repay the loans we agree to take, student loan discharge punishes us for making wise and prudent financial decisions.
Former President Ronald Reagan joked, “The nine scariest words in English are ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.'”
That is exactly the case here.
Student loan cancellation unfairly redistributes wealth from the poor to the rich.
According to the Brookings Institution, a plan to pay off $10,000 of student debt per borrower would cost taxpayers about $373 billion.
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Brookings found that “recipients of student loan forgiveness would be higher income, better educated, and whiter” compared to recipients of other entitlements.
“The median income of households with student loans is $76,400 and 7 percent are below the poverty line,” Brookings observed.
The left claims that canceling student loans would benefit the poorest families struggling to make ends meet. But this is simply false.
Poorer Americans who didn’t go to college, and therefore didn’t get any student loans, will be left footing the bill through their taxes. Truck drivers, plumbers, and mail carriers will be forced to pay the debt of Ivy-educated lawyers, doctors, and engineers.
That is deeply unfair.
There are many other reasons why paying off student loans is a bad idea.
Why should the federal government pay off student loans but not other types of debt? Why isn’t there a discussion about mortgage forgiveness, car loan forgiveness, or credit card debt cancellation?
Also, most student loans are guaranteed by the federal government as part of the US Department of Education’s federal student loan program. Why would the government forgive loans that it apparently believed were essential enough to issue them first and then follow issue more loans even after cancellation?
Student loan cancellation discourages good financial decisions, pits Americans against each other, and benefits the rich at the expense of the poor.
While campaigning for the White House, President Biden promised to unify America. But there is nothing more divisive than forcing poor Americans to pay off rich Americans’ debt.
Zachary Mettler is a staff writer for Focus on the Family’s daily citizen. Mettler earned his bachelor’s degree from William Jessup University and is an alumnus of the Heritage Foundation’s Young Leaders Program.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author.