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by zimpenfish 1296 days ago
> the concern about things like student loan forgiveness [...] the extreme cost of the program contributing to an ever increasing list of expenditures.

SLF is a one-off cost (of between $400Bi and 1Ti depending on which plan you subscribe to) though. It's not like, say, the DOD which is currently burning $800Bi a year and rising - I would venture that the people happy to shoot down SLF are equally happy to keep that budget going up.

> People are nervous about the amount of government spending

...going to people they deem undeserving. They're perfectly happy with the amount spend on the DOD, DHS, etc.
3 comments
scythe 1296 days ago
Student loan forgiveness is not a one-off cost unless it's bundled with a reform that prevents the same debt from being accumulated again. I support the measure, but I wouldn't have supported it if it hadn't included the income-based repayment modifications that should limit the accumulation of unmanageable student debt in the future — I don't believe this goes far enough either, but that's a different topic. My point is that it's not possible for me to countenance supporting a reform that helps some people and "pulls up the ladder" not making it available to others in the future — generally derided as "borrowing against our children's futures".
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abeppu 1296 days ago
I think there's also a generational aspect to it. Student loan forgiveness is being painted as a cash transfer to younger generations who are somehow lazy, whereas moving cash from younger generations to older (e.g. social security) is sacrosanct.
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josephcsible 1296 days ago
> ...going to people they deem undeserving. They're perfectly happy with the amount spend on the DOD, DHS, etc.

Defense is what the government is supposed to be spending money on. It's a textbook example of a public good.

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zimpenfish 1296 days ago
> It's a textbook example of a public good.

https://www.brown.edu/news/2021-09-01/costsofwar would disagree, for example.

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josephcsible 1295 days ago
I don't see anything in that article that disagrees. Note that by "public good", I mean <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_good_(economics)>, not the "opposite of bad" good.
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