Student Loan Arson

"Alderman, I have an uncomplicated job: To determine if a fire is arson or not, and, if so, to catch the son of a bitch doing it. And if my investigative methods happen to muck up the campaign of certain mayor wannabes, I gotta tell you...I'm not gonna lose any sleep over it."
--Donald Rimgale (Backdraft)

With presidential election campaigns underway, candidates are, as always, dangling various proposals for free stuff in order to capture a goodly share of prospective voters. One such proposal is 'forgiving' college student loan debt.

Bailing out student debtors is an idea that has been under development since the Obama administration. It is certain to appeal to a sizable block of students or former students (read: voters) lugging what amounts to a collective $1.5 trillion in college loans.

Naturally, some will shun the proposal out of a sense of self-responsiblity...

I chose to go to a private university.
I chose to go to grad school.
I chose to go to law school.

They were all my choices. I made them freely. The debt that has come with those choices is MY responsibility. Not the responsibility of the taxpayers.#CancelStudentDebt

— Autumn Johnson (@AutumnDPJohnson) June 24, 2019

...or in the spirit of honoring contracts.

#StudentLoanCrisis pic.twitter.com/HikZnyQ3Qs

— Larry Elder (@larryelder) June 26, 2019

But the central issue that demands attention is how student loans reached 'crisis' proportions to begin with.

Of course, most politicians currently proposing student loan forgiveness don't want to go there, because they know that it was their (or their party's) previous promises of free stuff that suppressed interest rates for student loans far below market and resulted in students borrowing far more than they should to go to school.

And so it goes. The fires created by politicians in old election cycles open opportunities for riding to the political rescue on fire trucks in new election cycles.

Seems like a case of student loan arson to me.