I remember hearing about the American dream when I was a kid. The yarn went something like this. “Work hard, make good grades, get a good job and take a vacation every year.” There were slightly different versions for boys and girls. The version for girls was shorter. It left out the part about getting the good job.
Well, believe it or not, I have come to know that there are actually people who are living the American dream today. Yes, right here in America and in the middle of a recession. Very few of those people, however, are recent college graduates.
Living the American dream requires money. Lots of it. Boat loads, in fact.
For starters, it requires enough money to buy the house in which the dream will be lived. Other immediate expenses include the exorbitant cost of some cheesy health insurance coverage, food, clothing, utilities and gasoline, not to mention the price of the foreign-built car and auto insurance. That first annual vacation is gonna cost a pretty penny too! In practical terms, if you’re going to live the American dream you’ve got to be born rich, have a smash hit record or a high paying job.
That leaves out most recent college grads, especially the part about high paying jobs. More of them are likely to have hit records than high paying jobs.
What they do have, though, are student loans of biblical proportion. Loans so big that you can’t see over them, so wide you can’t see around them. Loans that are stopping their lives cold in their tracks.
It’s great for the country when young people fall in love, get married and start a family. It’s great for the economy when they buy houses, cars, refrigerators, washing machines and diapers. It’s lousy for the country when young people move back in with mom and dad, stifle the mating and nesting instincts, and hovel together in shared housing arrangements while competing for minimum wage jobs. It’s worse for the country when kids stop pursuing careers in medicine, law, physics, business and foreign languages, as well as dozens of other disciplines, because they’re afraid of indentured servitude to Sallie Mae and Nelnet.
We’ve got a bad situation here, but there’s a simple way out. We can jump start our economy, revitalize the marketplace and put college grads back inside the American dream machine with a single bold and far reaching stroke—forgive all outstanding student loans.
The cost of forgiving student loan debt would be small compared to what we spent bailing out Wall Street. Less than half as much. Around $500 billion. That’s about a quarter of the moola we gave big business altogether, and spare change compared to our expenditures for useless wars over the past decade.
Sure, I know… the Tea Party People will say I’m a “tax and spend” liberal who wants to bankrupt the country. Blue Dog Dems will say the same thing, but it won’t be true. I’m just tired of bankrupting John and Jane, yet still requiring them to pay back those student loans!
Forgive student loan debt and watch the housing market boom again. Look on in wonder as cars roll off dealership lots, truckloads of furniture leave the showroom destined for living rooms and dining rooms throughout Metropolis, and refrigerators, washing machines and baby carriages are sold out all over town. Watch tax revenues skyrocket, and rest comfortably in the knowledge that America’s universities are continuing to turn out the highly skilled workforce of professionals we need. Viva La Stimulus!
Maybe you’re thinking this is goofy. Good idea, but Congress will never go for it. Maybe you’re right, but maybe you’re wrong. Join the movement at ForgiveStudentLoanDebt.com and StudentLoanJustice.org and see what we can accomplish. It’s worth a try, right? After all, it’s the American dream.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I wish I had paid a little more attention in class (LOL!), but we actually talked about this in my business courses. Basically, all student loans have done for most is either create an express lane to financial turmoil or a life-long student. Really, it’s not a thurst for knowledge that’s keeping John & Jane in school; it’s the automatic forebearance on their student loan. I personally love this idea – and not just because it would free up a chunk of my income.
This makes perfect sense, and the jolt it would give the economy would pay for it in increased tax revenue. There can’t be any congressional support for this idea though because it makes sense. Congress had rather fund unnecessary military boondoggles and support Goldman Sachs.