Mitigate student debt? We should NOT.

 

I bought a car last year for $40,000 and now have a $700 a month payment. My house 20-plus years ago cost hundreds of thousands of dollars with many more payments over $2,000 a month still due. There are sundry other obligations that run for periods of time that I’d like to be gone or at least reduced. Who will do that for me? Answer: No one.

The way debt works is that you identify a purchase you want to make, determine what the object or service is worth, the outlay. You agree to pay the asked-for amount, you sign the requisite paperwork which is your promissory note for repayment. Therefore, you have willingly accepted the responsibility to pay according to a predetermined schedule. It was in black and white and you signed for it.

Once you have closed the purchase, you go on your way to use or consume the product or service, for our purpose today, you attend colleges and universities to achieve a degree of your choosing. For various reasons the cost of higher education has skyrocketed over the years. However, the costs are not secret and are clearly outlined at the onset of your education. Again, you have agreed to the cost.

Upon graduation you are given a very generous period before you need to start making payments. It’s like getting the car of your dreams and not having to pay for it until you have driven it for thousands of miles. The used car still has value, just not what you signed for. Your student debt is very similar.

You graduated, eventually got a job and lived out the grace period. Your job however does not seem to generate enough income that makes the student debt easy to pay. It is a burden and limits your buying decisions. 

That is the reality of everyone who ever had debts. First and foremost, your obligations must be met. Your new purchases will be limited by how much is left over after those obligations  have been paid. That is the way of the world.

Why is the difficulty of you paying for your college education my worry? I have paid for everything I have ever signed for; Mortgages, car loans, credit cards, etc. all of which came with an obligation to pay. Who should I ask to pay my bills? Answer: No one. 

My neighbor’s son attended college with the help of a student loan totaling low six figures. He has a job and has paid his obligation in full. He asks, “Can I get some of those payments back?” the answer, of course is no. Quite a quandary. Hundreds of thousands, if not millions have paid their student loan debts by the sweat of their brow. Leaving these upright citizens out of the latest government largess is pretty lopsided. 

I wonder who conjured up this scheme? Why was it rolled out within weeks of the election? Did anyone even bother to calculate the billions that would be doled out? Isn’t Congress responsible for spending? Yet, I don’t recall them passing such legislation. By the administration’s own utterance, the pandemic is over, which negates the manner and justification for this giveaway.

American virtues, a sense of fair play and simply doing the right thing is being egregiously disregarded for what purpose? Buying votes, appeasing the far left who are pushing us further and further to real socialism? 

You can make your opinion known in this election.

My position on your debt is it is yours, and only your responsibility. Just one man’s opinion.