Photo: SHAWN THEW/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock “That’s it,” tweeted Robby Soave, an editor at Reason magazine. “I’m moving to Finland.” Any reasonable person would prefer Nordic social democracy to America’s withered social-safety net, but Soave did not speak out of concern for the poor. He was outraged by the news that President Biden would cancel some student-loan debt. Nor was he alone.
Think of the veterans, said Andrew Lewis, a Republican state representative in Pennsylvania. “For generations, the only path in America for a taxpayer-funded college degree was the #gibill. A distinct gesture of gratitude to those who put their lives on the line for our country,” he complained. “Today, the Biden administration invalidated that distinction — slap in the face to every vet.
As a matter of political clarity, it is important to acknowledge who owes forgiveness to whom. The student-debt regime should not exist. In other countries, it doesn’t. American policy-makers made deliberate choices that entrapped debtors in an inhumane and intolerable scheme. The very working class that commentators say they’re defending bore the brunt of this scheme on their backs.