Reading The Quest for Cosmic Justice, Sowell points out repeatedly how policies focused on helping a target demographic may not only hinder them, but those around them too. Policies are for politicians to pursue power, to win the next vote.
What good does relieving 130bn in university debt do?
the argument is that our system is broken. So we’ll fix it with money.
The more flawed thinking is that “education is a right.” Should this be true, then food is a right. Then social media is a right. Our phones are a right.
Life is a right. Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, too.
But my decision to go 200k in debt for an investment that didn’t return dividends (hence my inability to pay), is not a right. It’s a poor investment choice.
Sending out money signals a poor precedence, apart from the blatant desire to buy votes. The economics aren’t aligned. The incentives are bad.
“Go learn about something, investing 4 years, and discover it’s not capable of helping you earn wages” is nothing more than a sabbatical.
We need to spend that money incentivizing innovation. Entrepreneurs. People who create value.
The “educated” masses (3.6m) who cannot afford to pay their debt, when they scoffed at tradespeople who were employable the moment they finished their 3 week training, and then asked those tradespeople to pay for their schooling, is disappointing.
We need to think about incentives, both long and short term.
The solution: student loan officers should be on the hook to ask “what is your potential income return?” The loan must be payable within 8 years at a 10% additional tax on their wages. They need to be able to survive with this 10% tax, and the 10% tax over 8 years should be sufficient to pay the bills.
So if you have a $100k job, that’s $80k education. 10% tax for 8 years is 10k per year to pay the debt.
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Bryan lives somewhere at the intersection of faith, fatherhood, and futurism and writes about tech, books, Christianity, gratitude, and whatever’s on his mind. If you liked reading, perhaps you’ll also like subscribing: