Why should student loan debt and not credit card debt be forgiven?
Choices have to be made. In a perfect world, I’d love for everyone to be debt free so that they can go on to have completely prosperous lives. But that’s simply not feasible. Accepting the premise that there is only a finite amount of debt forgiveness that could be implemented, as a public policy choice, I believe that student loan debt is more deserving of forgiveness than other types of debt for several reasons. First, practically all students who have ever borrowed money to pay for school were encouraged to do so under the assumption that student loan debt was “good debt” – an investment in one’s future. That promise is significantly less true today than it used to be, considering today’s job market and declining wages. Second, unlike all other types of debtors, student loan borrowers have suffered inequitable hardships such as the stripping away of nearly all consumer protections, including bankruptcy, statutes of limitations, truth in lending requirements, etc. Further, as many st
