‘But I Want It’

By Charles C. W. Cooke

Thursday, March 02, 2023

 

In his post, “There Is No Civic Justification for Forgiving Student Debt,” Jason Richwine notes that:

 

Indeed, the White House fact sheet cites no public benefits of its new policy. It settles instead for explaining how people with student-loan debt would appreciate having it forgiven.

 

This cannot be repeated enough. That is the entire argument: “I want this, so give it to me.” There is nothing noble about this enterprise: it’s corruption. Because I have written so much about this, I sometimes receive emails from people explaining why they disagree with my view. Invariably, those emails follow the pattern that Richwine has identified. Invariably, I could replace the words “student loan debt” in the missive with the words “mortgage debt,” and apply it to myself with equal dudgeon. Invariably, the argument stops at the author’s nose.

 

I am a big fan of a meme that I’ve seen going around Twitter, which attempts to explain to the people who are demanding that others pay off their debts why their opponents exist: “Of course I don’t want to pay off your student loans,” it reads. “You don’t want to, either.”