Joe Biden doesn't support student debt cancellation...and he's right (Part 2)

As I mentioned before, if we had two political parties earnestly engaged in solving problems for the American people, we could have an extended principled discussion about whether to cancel student loans. Instead, we have one party that has completely abandoned any pretense of governing, and another party that is ideologically wed to the idea of canceling $50,000 student loan debt. 

Well let’s get into the details on canceling student loan debt. It has been calculated that forgiving $50,000 dollars would cost around $1 trillion, while canceling $10,000 would cost about $373 billion. In comparison, it will cost about 79 billion dollars a year to make all public colleges and universities free. At that rate it would be 10 or 11 years before it costs as much as a one-time payment to forgive all student loan debt. 

In addition, forgiving all student loan debt solves the problem of loan debt for most people who are carrying that debt today, but it does little to address the issue of rising education cost or the situation that causes students to have to take on debt in first place. Those issues will still be in place for the next generation to deal with. On the other hand, free college free for everyone would entice more people in the lower income classes to attend college and make student loans completely unnecessary. This would do much more to widen economic opportunities for all classes, which is what Progressives allegedly support.  

Forgiving $50,000 of student loan debt would be a huge benefit for higher income classes which would actually have the effect of increasing income inequality. Even worse, forgiving student loans is a one-shot deal. In comparison making public colleges and universities free is forever. It is something all future generations would enjoy, and it has the benefit of giving more of the population access to higher education. It is also much cheaper at least for the next ten years. 

It is disappointing that no one in the political sphere except President Biden and his team seem to grasp that the issues of free college and forgiving student loan debt are linked in a way that prompts comparison. In any case, Progressives are likely to only get one chance to do either of these. With a trillion-dollar stimulus bill stalling in Congress, I don’t have much hope for another trillion dollars to forgive student debt. However, paying 79 billion a year to make public universities and colleges free could get enough support to pass.

 As much as anyone, I would like to take advantage of $50,000 less of student loan debt, but I can’t overlook how it favors people who are in higher income brackets. For anyone truly interested in reducing income inequality and increasing equal opportunity for all people, making all public college and universities free is definitely the better proposal.