Probably, but I paid my loans back within 2 years of graduating. I had studied hard and got a good job. So the subsidy I received wasn't much. Even so, I'm against it. The government should not subsidize loans of any kind. It's exactly the reason we have Universities jacking up prices to the stratosphere and putting the bill on students today....because they know the gov't will bail them out if they default.
Back when I went to school, there wasn't widespread gov't subsidies of loans. Remember that those subsidies started in the early 70s if my memory serves me right. Costs of attending University were extremely low back then. But costs have risen almost in direct proportion to gov't subsidies and expansion of their loan programs.
Here's on example of why this is a bad idea. Why should school loan rates for a student studying art be the same as for the student studying computer science? The art student is highly likely to end up unemployed or employed at a job that makes repaying their loans very difficult. The computer science student has a very high probability of getting a job earning enough to pay back all of their loans quickly. In the free market, the art student either wouldn't get a loan or would have usurious interest rates to compensate the lending company for taking the high risk of default. The computer science student will get a preferential rate commensurate with his future prospects and ability to repay. This is the free market at work, accurately pricing interest rates based on risk, reward, and demand.
The gov't destroys that pricing mechanism with their loan subsidies, which means we get far too many people getting degrees that are worthless in the marketplace and far too few people with degrees that are in high demand. Socialism destroys free markets and wealth along with it.
It's always easy for Socialists to talk about the anecdotal case of the underprivileged, black, girl who's a parapalegic, who's life would have been horrible had it not been for the opportunity to go to university with a gov't loan. But what Socialists never talk about is the aggregate impact of destroying wealth on a mass scale, which impacts millions of people negatively, just so we can feel good for the handful of otherwise hopeless cases that were positively impacted.
Socialism is an economic model that sacrifices the greater good for the sake of the individual. Capitalism is an economic model that maximizes the greater good and leaves the individual to his/her own destiny based on their circumstances and willingness to fight for what they want.
Today, America has clearly chosen Socialism in very important areas of our economy. In return, we are getting subpar growth, stagnation, decreasing labor participation rates, and an economy that lurches from one crisis to the next. Welcome to Socialism. It will only get worse over the long run, unless we reverse the tide and re-embrace Capitalism. |
