The Student Loan Crisis-REAL Solutions- Not Demagoguery!

By: Thaddeus S. Kaczor, Jr.

Anything in the private sector the Government Subsidizes, guarantees, bails out, or takes over (either outright or de facto) inevitably increases in cost beyond what it would be in a free and fair market. Subsidizing student loans has allowed the Education Establishment to raise tuition rates outrageously for years and years, because they know that students would always have 'Uncle Sugar' to 'guarantee' those loans. This subsidy of the education market by government has allowed colleges and universities to inevitably increase costs to the point where NO ONE (except the VERY wealthy) could afford a college education without taking on a massive amount of (government-guaranteed) debt! Since the loans are guaranteed, the lenders have had no qualms about the ever rising costs, since they would be 'bailed out' by the government on an individual basis when students defaulted. The educational institutions also had no qualms about continually raising tuition, since the students (who because of their age and inexperience) generally didn't think about the consequences of amassing a debt big enough to make them 'wage slaves' for much of their ensuing careers! Thus, educrats encouraged generations of students to 'not worry' about the eventual costs that they would eventually be required to repay, since that was 'far in the future', and college would get you 'a good job with high pay'. This is similar to how drug dealers 'hook' young impressionable kids, by only pushing the 'upside'- and hiding the risks, REAL costs and negative effects of the products they are selling.

Moreover, the educational finance system, in the form of the economic monster it ha now devolved into, is an unfair 'redistribution of wealth'- which forces the average American- whether they are college educated or not- be obligated through taxpayer support to take on the massive burden of those who cannot (usually through no fault of their own) sustain the crushing burden of Student Loan Debt. Those who are NOT college educated are unfairly asked to subsidize those who CHOSE to pursue a higher education, and those who are ALREADY college educated are asked to subsidize and absolve of responsibility those who cannot repay- even as they themselves are required to pay back THEIR Student Loan Debt load- WITHOUT a government subsidy or bail-out! Talk about creating class divisions between Americans! What is NOT needed to remedy this untenable situation is MORE of the same behavior and failed economic policy that got us into this mess in the first place. That is EXACTLY what President Obama is proposing, as he seems to do on just about every other economic problem- doubling down on failed policy with an even BIGGER failure!

What Ron Paul proposes is a drastic change- but it is a REALISTIC and workable solution. It will NOT throw those currently in the system 'out on the street', as the fear-mongering demagogues from the left and right are suggesting (the 'throw grandma off the cliff' propaganda tactic). Dr. Paul is clear that those in the present system will have the promises made to them honored, but is also adamant that what is needed to fix this massive problem- PERMANENTLY- is a structural change away from Government policies that distort, inflate and ultimately destroy whatever market they intend to 'help'- be it Student Loans, the Housing Market, 'Green Energy' and on and on ad-nauseum. Students deserve to have access to a quality higher education, but the present system is progressively and exponentially making that impossible by artificially inflating the costs, so much so that the ultimate College Education price tag is beyond the reasonable capability for even a higher-income career path to repay in a reasonable amount of time. Whatever the quality of the job you get after receiving your degree, if too much of your income during your employment life is going to be sucked up by the repayment of debt, the quality of your life that your receive from having that degree is profoundly diminished, as your income is stolen by the usurers in league with the government and the educational establishment that have conspired to steal your money, your future, and any hope of having a productive life beyond college.