this post was submitted on 15 Aug 2024
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The marijuana comparison is not even close to the same thing.
In terms of harm done, no. Principle? Yeah? It's best to stop further harm, but undoing past harms as well is even better.
It's also important for dumb choices to have consequences. The systemic racism that brought the majority of the marijuana convictions is not even close in comparison to someone who borrowed money to get a degree that was never going to make a decent income.
So free University only for majors you deem worthy? Or only for profit minded disciplines? MBAs yes, but art history no?
Besides, economic desperation makes people make poor choices, and I'd wager that most people taking on debt for education don't consider it a poor choice. Often higher education is key to economic success, but given tumultuous economic conditions in the past decades....things haven't panned out for everyone, which makes those decisions look worse in hindsight.
You can't claim everyone with student loan debt has it because they're a worthless hippie art student. The increase in the number of bachelor's degrees made it more competitive to get jobs requiring those degrees, meaning people need to get them just to compete...so people wind up shackled with debt.
It's free to be sympathetic to people who are in a tough situation, even if they bear some responsibility for it. We all do.
No, free university for whatever. It's simply a better investment than fixing people's past mistakes.
You're not explaining why you think that, beyond wanting to punish people for taking out loans.
Your position is inconsistent, because you're arguing they shouldn't have needed to take out those loans.
Again: you're saying people made mistakes, but I don't think that's precisely the case. The majority of student debt isn't because of people going to incredibly expensive schools for useless majors, you know.
I don't want to punish anyone, I just think free university is a better investment for the future. Debt relief only removes the consequences for the choices some people made, while free university is for everyone.
Making it free for everyone is excellent, specifically because it removes the potential of "the consequences for the choice" of taking out loans.
If you're operating under the assumption that we can only do one or the other, sure: free going forward is better. I just think that we need to make it retroactively free, too.
We can't afford either. Clearly you should run for office so you can divert money from national defense to education so we can trade our safety for your bills, you won't get elected though.
For my bills? I do have student debt, but have a job that pays well enough I don't have to stress about it. I do worry about others that aren't as fortunate.
And if we can't afford either, why are you arguing it should be free? If you're saying you want something that you're also saying is impossible, why not champion two impossible things?
Good luck trying to articulate your thoughts and positions in the future, because you've failed to do so thus far, and I've exhausted my patience...so I'm gonna bounce
Please do.