According to the U.S. Department of Education, American student loan debt in 2019 has surpassed $1.5 trillion distributed across 45 million individual borrowers. For the class of 2017, the average debt $28,560. Student loan debt is now the second largest type of debt in the nation, only behind mortgage debt. These numbers are clearly staggering, but it is difficult to truly understand the impact of this issue without exploring the effect that this massive debt has on millennials and those now graduating, as more than half of that debt is owed by individuals under the age of 50.
Arguably, the main point of going to college is to make more money. You are more likely to get hired into a high-paying job if you possess a degree. So, many people take the calculated risk of accumulating debt now, to make money in four years. However, this risk vs. reward calculation has been backfiring on college graduates. Oftentimes, these graduates will be forced to take low-skill, low-wage jobs so that they may begin to pay back their debt as quickly as possible. This means they cannot focus on getting the job that their schooling trained them for. This situation would be analogous to training your whole life to be an NBA star, and then, as soon as you become eligible, going to work at McDonald’s because you couldn’t afford to go without pay through the preseason. According to ProgressNow, this situation is so bad that college graduates are 36% less likely to buy a house than the generations that came before them. They are more likely to live at home with their parents, and more likely to become “severely delinquent,” missing multiple payments.
It is clear that student loan debt is a dangerous risk that leaves the student with less economic freedom. These problems, however, apply almost exclusively to the American middle class. Families at the top of the economic system either don’t have to take out loans in the first place or can pay off what little they owe very quickly. Below the middle class has the opposite result, where they can’t even take the risk to go to college in the first place. Their families are already in debt or are making so little that the children must contribute as soon as they are able, thus forgoing higher education. The demographic in between these two situations, the middle class, feels that they can greatly benefit from college, but do not have the wealth to escape debt-free. From the statistics above, the potential problems are clear. I am sure most college students have heard of Senator Bernie Sanders’ plan to relieve Americans of this problem: College For All.
Sanders’ plan would result in the cancellation of all student loan debt in America. Immediately, those millennials who are unable to move out of their parents’ house gain the economic freedom required to seek the job that they spent at least four years training for. The $1.5 trillion that was only owed to the government could be put into the economy in a more productive manner, while 45 million Americans have a massive weight lifted from their shoulders.
Still, the most amazing part of the plan is often left out of mainstream discussions. It is true that erasing debt will boost the economy and create a more productive group of college graduates — which is especially important given that the U.S. is experiencing a shortage of highly-educated workers in many fields — but it will also allow a massive amount of first generation students to consider college as a viable option. Lower-class families will be more able to invest in their futures by seeking degrees. It will give Americans the tools they need to escape poverty, and, by drastically increasing the number of Americans with degrees, it will satisfy the job market’s need for expertise.
A common critique of College For All is that it will cost too much to be viable. The Sanders campaign clearly explains that this cost can be almost entirely erased when the wealthiest Americans are taxed fairly. This column is only regarding student loan debt and College For All, so I will not delve too deeply into this. However, even if the massive amount of revenue created through marginal taxes and taxes on capital gains is not enough, it could be argued that the cost would be offset by the amount of productivity added to the private sector. More available workers means that work can be done faster and value can be added to society at a higher rate.
In order for a society to provide economic freedom, as America claims to, individuals must have the opportunity to seek education. Liberty is not fully attained unless one is able to seek higher education as a means for social and economic advancement. Therefore, if you believe that liberty is a human right, then education must be a human right. From this stance, even if one refuses to acknowledge the grotesque opportunity gap caused by the current college system and the economic problems that are derived from this, on a purely human rights centered argument, College For All is ethically required and must be enacted.
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