YOU PAID TO SEND YOUR KID TO COLLEGE? THANKS FOR THE LEXUS, CHUMP

5/19/17

Regular readers know that it doesn’t take much to get yours truly hot under the collar, but the growing movement to reduce, and ultimately forgive, student loans is a particular sore point.   This sorry movement to punish the responsible and reward the irresponsible, while perfectly consonant with the trend in our society, will surely prove to be a vital artery on the road that leads to our society’s financial, ethical, and moral downfall.

Here is a letter I sent to the Wall Street Journal on this topic in response to a page 1 article of nearly a month ago.  It was not published but my readers should enjoy it:

4/25/17

The Wall Street Journal’s 4/25/17 page A1 article “Parents Are Drowning in College-Loan Debt” is only the latest in a constant drumbeat of articles the end of which is obvious—the forgiveness of all student loans, perhaps starting with those granted under the Parent Plus program.   The Journal does its part to sustain the incessant pounding by citing as its examples of Parent Plus loan recipients the least blameworthy of those who took advantage of, or were victimized by, this program…elderly people with little or no income or assets who are dealing with other daunting problems, such as multiple sclerosis.  

The Journal did not cite those borrowers who are doing fine, in fact, who are living much better than those of us who pursued the clearly misguided course of sacrificing in order to put our kids through college without debt.   We were not like the “clever” ones who maintained their unsustainable lifestyles and passed the bill along to their kids and, ultimately, they hope, to the taxpayers when the endless parade of student loan hard luck stories leads Congress to demand that all college loans be forgiven in the interests of “creating an educated workforce,” not “burdening future generations,” or some such drivel.   The bill for this demonstration of compassion by our public servants will, of course, be presented to the fiscally responsible of us who somehow had the silly idea that we, not our fellow taxpayers, are responsible for financing our kids’ educations, the cost of which has been grossly inflated by the easy availability of student debt and other forms of aid to those who could afford their, or their kids’, education, if they were willing to give up a few of those things to which they feel somehow entitled.   But why should they make any kind of sacrifice when the “public servants” who inhabit the beltway always stand ready to subsidize their lifestyles…with their frugal neighbors’ money?

The wide availability, and ultimate forgiveness, in one way or another, of student loans is just a long line of government policies that punish the responsible and reward the irresponsible.   And people wonder why so few choose to be responsible.  

Given the developments, or the degeneration, in our society over the last generation or so, none of this is surprising.   One wouldn’t have guessed, however, that the Journal would be party to advancing this “What the hell?   Let the chumps who insist on being responsible pay for the lifestyle to which I feel entitled.” mentality that is increasingly permeating our society.