Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Anya Kamenetz's Generation Debt nonsense just keeps popping up (hat tip: Eric). If you follow the last link, you'll notice that there isn't any serious attempt to show that student debt is financially crushing, even for the two medical students that are the article's focus. It's all about how the debt is emotionally crushing.

Why isn't either of these students complaining that high taxation "makes me upset that I have to maybe not do what I want to do because I won't be able to pay my bills at the end of the month"? Perhaps it's because they don't have nasty pieces of paper telling them they should expect to pay several million dollars to the federal government over their lifetimes. There's also the fear of defaulting on their loans. I suspect some students would prefer a scheme like those used in Britain, Australia, or New Zealand, where student "loans" can be repaid by having a fixed percentage of wages automatically withheld, just like income tax. Given an appropriate tweaking of bankruptcy law, private financial institutions could offer something similar in the U.S.

P.S. Anya Kamenetz, as a member of my age group, you're making us look like Generation Whine. Please stop.

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