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For people who are opposed to making college free, what are the downsides of being the best-educated nation in the world?
When we solve problems, it’s not done as an insult to the people whose lives were impacted by those problems in the past. The inventors of eyeglasses didn’t say, “Fuck you, people with low visual acuity who died from it in the past. We’re going to make it so that your experience was pointless by making it easier for everyone to see.” We do it out of respect for the people who experienced those problems. We do it because we saw what happened and it’s worth fixing.
So when people say, “it’s a slap in the face to people who struggled to pay off student debt to forgive college debt and make college free to attend,” They may be missing something huge. Just because you experienced something doesn’t mean everyone else HAS TO. Sometimes the world does just get better.
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Here are ten benefits of creating access to college for everyone and eliminating the $1.5+ trillion in outstanding loan debt for the 44+ million Americans who carry it:
10. Boost GDP by between $86 billion and $108 billion per year, on average for the 10 years following the debt cancellation. This is not insubstantial. And it benefits everyone, not just people who sit through crappy History Lectures.
9. Dramatically increase consumer spending on things like homes and cars. When people don’t have to spend to pay back loans, they will be more active participants in the economy, buying the things that will make their lives better. Many of the things on that “what would you rather spend that on” list are not alcoholic. Probably.
8. Lower the average unemployment rate by 0.22 to 0.36 percentage points over 10 years. This is without even factoring in the benefits of number 5. Please do not read ahead to number 5.
7. Add between 1.2 million and 1.5 million jobs per year. Again, even before the effects of 5. I know I keep referring to number 5 here, and I promise you it’s coming.
6. Elevate specific states with low economic activity like Alabama where 50% of the residents have outstanding student loan debt averaging $31,899. Remember that many college degrees are agricultural. Your’s probably felt that way, with all the manure.
5. Number 5. Finally. Allow many seniors to retire more comfortably- in the last 13 years, the amount of loan debt held by people over 60 has gone up from $6.3 billion to $85.4 billion. More people retiring comfortably, willingly, means more open jobs, means more families with stability and fewer families supporting elders. It also means less people over 60 who are so miserable they just can’t wait to start a war. Looking at you, Congress.
4. Create better opportunities for women of color in the workplace. Student loan debt balances for African-American women take up 111% of their first-year income. I read that a few times, too. I’m pretty sure that is OVER 100% which is “EVERYTHING YOU MAKE. I might not be the right person to explain numbers.
3. Increase labor productivity by up to 30% overall, a dramatic number. A productivity jump this size could be used to fuel labor abatement, making for shorter work weeks for everyone at the same pay. Even people without student loan debt.
2. Increase the value of the American workforce by trillions of dollars. What Nobel Laureate Robert Solow called technical progress- carefully noting that increasing levels of education were one of the factors that contributed to its growth. Much of what people trust when they trust the American dollar is the American ability to grow and produce. If the value of our workforce increases, the value of our dollar may as well. That means more buying power overseas. We could get more of those MAGA hats made in China.
1. Lower crime appreciably. Many studies have linked increases in education levels for the general population to lower crime. Add to that the reduced pressure of loans and freedom to take technical classes to retool after bouts of unemployment. Sure, the meth industry might suffer a little, but this is the cost of progress.
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The thing that was shocking to me, when researching this was the massive number of people 60+ who are prevented from retiring by student loan debt they have held and serviced their entire lives. These are people who have mostly paid off the principle of their loans and have been working for years, slaves to the interest and fees of the loans that they took out at the beginning of their careers. This just seems like the cruelest joke Late stage capitalism has to offer.
One day, everything will be free. We will live in a post-scarcity world and will, hopefully, have figured out by then how to value something if everyone can have it. Until then, education is a unique condition within the universe of human needs. For those of us who consider access to information and the means to interpret it a human right it has a unique place. Mostly because it has a number of measurable community advantages that exist above and beyond individual advantages. We will eventually start to think of people as resources, benefits to a community, and not drains. And the world will change.
Sources:
http://www.levyinstitute.org/pubs/rpr_2_6.pdf
https://www.valuepenguin.com/average-student-loan-debt
https://www.brookings.edu/…/the-effects-of-investing-in-ea…/
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