Linking student loan forgiveness to jobs and skills training would have been politically savvy, writes Andrew J. Rotherham on Eduwonk. Otherwise, it's just "a straight-up wealth transfer from Americans who didn’t attend higher education, or did and paid off their debts, onto others."
Americans think people should pay their debts, and resent those who don't.
Some Democratic politicians are criticizing the debt-relief plan, writes Allahpundit.
Tim Ryan, a Democratic congressman running for Senate in Ohio, tweeted:
The policy "benefits the educated at the expense of the uneducated by making the latter responsible for debts incurred by the former," writes Allahpundit. "It benefits the irresponsible at the expense of the responsible, those who either declined to take on debt or paid off the debt they owed only to find now that they have to share the costs generated by those who weren’t as wise."
Colleges will raise prices, as they always do, in response to the belief that borrowers won't have to repay their loans in the future, he predicts. Future students will take on more debt. "If they eventually get bailed out too, the cycle will repeat, creating a sort of death spiral in education costs."
Charles Stallworth, a railroad worker and union member, writes in Newsweek that blue-collar workers say "Hell no!" to forgiving student loans. "This isn't because we're anti-college. Most of the folks I work with and talk to have kids in college or have kids that graduated college. But if you ask if college students' loans should be paid off by taxpayers, the answer is always the same: No way."
The Babylon Bee (satire) was on this in 2020: Hard-working plumber Looking Forward to Paying for his Neighbor's Gender-studies Degree.