The cheap pandering of student loan forgiveness

Struggling for relevancy, Joe Biden just announced he is going to forgive some student loan debt. This is an insult to anyone who paid off his or her college debt,   or did not take on any, and got a real job.

And if these freeloaders learned anything in college, they would know there is no such thing as a free lunch. Your debt did not go away; you just put it on someone else. That cannot be a source of pride for you. 

The age-old gimmick, “borrowing from Peter to pay Paul,” guarantees that you will always have Paul’s vote.  When Jesus fed the multitudes with a fish and a loaf of bread, He was the first to provoke the ire of those who thought ahead and packed a lunch. 

I would be happy if Uncle Joe would just pay off my bar tabs from college in Memphis. 

My fear is that this will create a stripper shortage. Since now they do not have to dance at nudie clubs to pay their way through college, they will be left with just their academics. And that’s no good for anybody, Joe!

Nancy Pelosi was caught off guard by Biden’s decision, but her reaction was swift. She instructed her husband, Paul, to load up on student loans as quickly he could.

Why should taxpayers further support a costly, government-run education system that has failed us? To paraphrase P.J. O’Rourke: If you think college is expensive now, just wait till it’s free.

Having been on the Tennessee State Board of Regents and sitting on two college boards, I have some sense of what is going on here. Colleges are essentially government-funded monopolies and are not responsible for their product(s). But when student loan money is flowing, few borrowers stop and ask the obvious question: What am I getting for my money?

Because government is involved, the cost of college has gone up at twice the rate of inflation — for no real reason. I could teach math in the dirt with a stick. Not much has changed there. Today’s college kids think Sharia Law is a daytime TV show about a no-nonsense black lady judge.

The government is like a loan shark. When kids go to college at 17, they will finance a tattoo if you give them money. They study inane majors, are indoctrinated with all this left-wing garbage, and are ill-prepared to make a living. 

At the mercy of liberals, education has been a disaster. A study by a Dr. Stotshky for Renaissance Learning concluded that our young college students read at about an 8th grade level. Or, as the Biden spokesperson and MSNBC would report it, “8th graders now read at the college level!”

Fortunately, folks are wising up. In a Pew study, 57 percent of parents say higher education no longer provides value for the money spent. Parents must start considering outrageous college costs within the framework of the basic tenets of economics. That way, their kids do not become tenants in their parents’ basements.

Get an apprenticeship, go to trade school, learn cyber security, and read Chaucer or Beowulf on your own time. You do not need some hairy-legged, Birkenstock-wearing, leftie “professor” with ferns in her office to interpret a novel for you. 

The left, represented by perpetually enraged leaders including Elizabeth “Pocahontas” Warren, owns the education system. This is a woman who got a job at Harvard by pretending to be Native American. She made $429,981 per year and taught one class — and then blamed others for the excessive cost of college.

With federal money and student loan handouts to any knucklehead who applies, college costs have skyrocketed. Colleges like the University of Michigan have 53 percent more administrators than faculty. Forty college presidents make over $1 million per year. 

Biden and most Democrats are elected with the support of college kids because these entitled youngsters are used to being given things. These are the same kids who elected Budweiser the “King of Beers,” and for the same reason. Biden and Bud both provide a temporary, drunken, feel-good shield from reality – until they sober up and the tab comes due.

Colleges are cesspools of “woke” values. They want us to study history but attempt to rewrite it by tearing down statues of Confederate generals and Founding Fathers. At colleges today, the past changes so often that you start to wonder what’s going to happen yesterday. 

Ron Hart is a syndicated op-ed humorist, award-winning author, and TV/radio commentator; you can reach him at Ron@RonaldHart.com or Twitter @RonaldHart