Someone Winning Doesn’t Mean You’re Losing
Missing the Point on Student Debt Forgiveness
I had an epiphany of sorts when I was last hearing about student debt forgiveness. Much of the complaint seems to be that “the taxpayer” is footing the bill, that ordinary people will take on the cost to bail out people who went to school when it wasn’t their problem in the first place.
My moment was when I realized that I had the image of “the taxpayer” as myself or really kind of just “anyone” but definitely not Jeff Bezos, even though he technically is. In no version of understanding who would feel ignored and taken advantage of do I picture “the wealthy.” I offer a simple question, why is that?
I think it’s appropriate to be angry and guarded about where our collective resources go as a society.
And I hate to make things worse for those of you who are angry about student debt forgiveness, but wait until you hear about the massive food waste happening in our country while millions don’t know where they’ll next get food or about the estimated money burned in the healthcare system.
I mean, not only did we plan to graduate into The Great Recession, we also knew our spending power would erode, giving us less economic opportunities than generations before. Luckily, we knew we’d only have to wait for COVID-19 to really catch a break.
We live in an age of excess.
There have never been more resources or ~things~ on this planet than there is today. If we’re really getting mad at each other for (partially) bailing out a generation of still ordinary people, and not at the power that made it so we’re fighting over crumbs, we’re missing the point entirely.
More soon,
Trevor