Sunday, December 07, 2008

Bailout

I have a great idea. Instead of bailing out these banks and corporations, why not bail out those who are so buried in student loans that they cannot even think of buying a house, car, or any big purchase for many years. My three kids are all still paying for their student loans. I still owe a few thousand on my student loans. Young people are coming out of college owing thousands upon thousands of dollars and monthly payments are the size of a small mortgage payment in many cases. If student loans were forgiven, that would allow college graduates to buy those homes, new cars and put money back into circulation which would stimulate the economy and no need for corporate bail-outs. Give some money to those who are responsible for running the economy.

4 comments:

jhbowden said...

Handouts to anyone only increases the incentive to be financially irresponsible. Anyone who is responsible becomes a chump under this philosophy. Handouts destroy the spirit of initiative, innovation, and individualism.

If we're going to tax and regulate the crap out of people who make smart decisions, and bailout people who make bad decisions, we don't have to look at the socialist blunders of the 1900s to predict the outcome. If we're going to punish Awesome, and reward Suck, we're going to get a lot more Suck.

Of course, this reasoning never works with progressives. After all, if the government did give me free money, it would be rational for me to take it. Even if the government was perfectly honest about it, and said "we stole this money from Oprah Winfrey or whoever just to give to you" -- I'd still take it. Progressives live in this imaginary dream-world where all people are angels, and only hypocrites would sin against the Common Good^tm. But if you get beyond range-of-the-moment thinking and look at the incentive structure we're putting in place, good intentions do not make handouts immune from destructive consequences.

For the record, I have no problem paying my student loans. Though in a rational world, the federal government shouldn't even subsidize these so the real social cost of getting an education is transparent.

Anonymous said...

Another rant from our resident repug Jason eh? I'm with you on this one, Stardust. Its amazing that we are going to help these big banks with an enormous amount of money. Will these banks and corporations use the money more wisely next time? Somehow I doubt it.

I'm not sure I'm in favor of a complete forgiveness of debts of student loans, but I am in favor of a reduction.

Tommykey said...

Greg, evidently you don't know about the countless hours Jason has devoted to tutoring at-risk minority youth and serving on the boards of various local philanthropic organizations in Chicago.

Anonymous said...

lol Tommy.
Guess that makes Jason my hero?