Blue collar degenerates and white collar proletarians: a case in student loan forgiveness and business ethics
Student loan forgiveness has become a hot topic lately. Students eagerly take out thousands of dollars and upon graduation cannot pay back. Debts are piled up paying over the next twenty years. Student loan debt is not new but the absurd numbers and members is crazy. My father has student loan debt. His parents were against university education so he paid for himself. He has paid it over twenty years. While I have not asked my dad what he thinks about it, I could see him going both ways. Erasing the yoke off his shoulder and principle of paying back what is owed. While this has been a contentious case it recently hit centerstage when the Supreme Court ruled against Biden’s bill. Was this warranted? Does this reinforce a stereotype?
There are two main points against beyond the political polarization: ethical and economical. While these two are intertwined the latter delves into the historical development of student loans and university tuition. It is important first to reject the right wing agenda that conservatives are out to hurt minorities or are against liberal efforts. While this may be true, the bias does not overrule the insidious immorality of student loan forgiveness. The media will have a frenzy that republicans are hurting young people. They are destroying their future. Yet it fails to actually debate the inherent issues of student loans. If anything it is a political attempt to whitewash the issues with a discriminatory agenda. Predatory disgust to demand all dissenters. A strategy of ad hominem attacks to devalue their credentials.
Student loan forgiveness means the government pays for it. How does the government make that money? From taxes. Once some people are doing it everyone will do it because why would anyone pay for university. This cost will be incredibly high forcing taxes to increase dramatically. Who covers the burden? Anyone who is not a student. This includes adults and non-students alike. Is it fair to force other people to pay for your schooling, especially when this is a choice? Seemingly not. Not only does it teach irresponsibility but it also lacks the transitional mature notion of attentiveness to one's decisions. Though the biggest issue isn't so much the adults paying but the other teenagers. Those who paid off their debt by going to community college or trade school or no school. Why should the dropout working at 7/11 pay the exuberant amount for someone else?
What forgiveness does is fail to reward students who responsibly financed as well as prefers university over trade schools and community colleges. Trade schools are notoriously cheaper but just as valuable. Everyone needs an electrician. Should the electrician graduate suffer for not attending a normal university? Even if their loans were forgiven it is proportionally unfair. For dumber students who weren't able to get into big universities they are punished by paying a high tax for smarter people. Is our society discriminating against dumb people? The electrician worked hard to get to where she is and is now forced to pay for someone else to enjoy a big campus and get a bigger degree. It is immoral to demand people pay for another's schooling at the price it is right now. The electrician should not be punished for choosing a noble path.
University students also spent four years out of the workforce. Is it fair for a dropout to fill the void for their learning? School isn't for everyone, and this is only forcing people in that situation for a free ride. People who need to work to help their families are placed in a starling disposition. They have toiled in the workforce to gain a mediocre salary but work they do. The university student is living off of other people's money. Enjoying the highs of college at another's lively expense. The university student graduates and makes a higher salary than the dropout. Where is the dropout's compensation? The student gets a free ride and gives nothing back. The dropout who has worked very hard is punished and never compensated but the student is given handouts and never has to compensate anyone else. If only university graduates were taxed that would change the metric, but it would also then discriminate against those who worked during the school year. The government is advocating for universities with other people's pennies.
Ethically, it is problematic because the government is using other people's money for the student's university enjoyment. While university is free in other countries it is not in the US. Globally, college is public, not private. The imbalance generated by the blue-collar efforts versus the white-collar efforts already highlights a damaging oppressive precedent but what is even worse is that it is all the government's fault. All this does is scapegoat conservatives for a liberal mistake. Why is university so expensive? Why has it risen ten folds in the last twenty years? Maybe it is not greed but idiocy. University loans started small in the 80s but then the government started giving them out like candy which alerted the universities that the government could cover. Since they are private establishments, they raised their tuition given that the government was helping students out. On the other hand, community college is cheap because it is public. Even state schools raised their tuition because of this but not too much given the public inflexibility. State schools are registered to the state laws but if out of staters want in, they can charge whatever they want because the reduced tuition only applies to local citizens.
Already, the rise in tuition was a governmental failure and not the fault of the people. So, the government is trying to cover its tracks by forcing the citizenry to pay for something they screwed up. If those politicians pay, then that is cool, but they won't. If they were public universities like in Germany or Israel then it would be different. It would be cheaper already and less taxable. This bill also does not stop universities from lowering their prices. If the universities are already raised because the government would pay in loans without these handouts, they for sure will charge more. Harvard may be 100k if this went through. There is little evidence they will lower prices but much evidence they will raise them. They are private universities and they can do what they want. Create public universities and then there won't be a problem. At least then, people can choose for a normative affordable caliber school. Until then, do not force people to clean up your mess. Stop giving handouts. Force colleges to reduce their tuition. Do not incentivize raising tuition and screwing over everyone else. As jobs begin to look beyond degrees, university should not be advocated but an option. This is not the way to go.
This option only furthers the middle class into demurring blue-collar workers. It creates new segregation and a new supremacy focus. Only exposing the governmental/societal viewpoint that college is a necessity. Anyone who does not attend college is somehow inferior. Not only does this contradict the growing trend of companies overlooking degrees but it demeans those who do not have time for college. The issue is not so much the price insofar as other variables plauging struggling families. Some individauls may have to aid the family due to a sick parent or single parent. Saving money for university does not change the equation, they were not going because basic necessities needed to be covered. Yet these are extreme cases and society could aid these individuals. College is not for everyone. A degree that covers sometimes absolutely nothing but a piece of paper acknowledging classes completed. The focus on college retention muddles educational excellence. Many leave university to pursue their own careers since university is the problematic choice stifling their progress. Should they be punished for entering the workforce early and contributing to society?
University degrees topple trade school degrees. The former pay more for university but are also rewarded with higher salaries. University is supposed to be a gateway to a prestigious profession. The university hype has deformed this prospect but it is not in vain. Companies maintain a strong belief in a degree. Given this inherent advantage, a trade school graduate is unlikely to receive a job that requires a bachelors in business or science. Yet, the divide is apparent even without debt forgiveness. Academic universities struggle with high graduation rates. For many, its another four years of school and chilling. Learning theoretical layers over practical skills. Nevertheless, the prestige given in its expense and the white collar professions subsequently pave a desired path to a higher part of the food chain. Debt forgiveness intends to permit lower class individauls into the elite corner but this only broadens the divide between the white and blue collar workers. Blue collar workers are not all poor suckers who could not pay for university. Many have a passion for machinary, uncle worked on cars or grew up on a farm. This hands-on effort is pitted with scorn. It is low level dubious labour that anyone can do better to make the bigger bucks as a clerk or administrative assistant.
Logic also applies to diversifying the governmental system. While it is good to have more diversity in the government to account for all people it does not mean that such individuals are ethical. Promoting diversity quotas may increase perceived reprensentation but may not actually represent. The same goes for this debt forgiveness that attempts to permit more impoverished into white collar sectors. Good move but at the expense of blue collar workers. There is a certain ethos to white collar professions. Less manuel labour and a slightly bigger salary speaks to a varied appearence in style. Yet, their educational value and necessity to society diminishes in the face of an individual who tirelessly harnessed their craft to a single purpose. Maybe they are only good at fixing lightbulbs and air condition units but they are more efficient and consistent than an accountant who has a little polysei knowledge on the side. In the productive realm there is a nice living for a tradesman. It does not always add up monetarily to the white collar individual but it does reflect a skilled need in society. Debt forgiveness only allows the already percevied social elites to get an easy ride to a higher paying job with little compensation to the tradesmen.
Tradesmen are an critical asset to a society, building homes repairing roads troubleshooting power grids. The reality is that these jobs may not be worth a four year college degree but they do require mentoring. Knowledge must be known. There is a bike guy on the street over that fixes the broken knots in the bicycle. It is an outrage to demean their character by what the market value of their work is. Yet the demand is there. The lack of salary and hourly service creates a continuum that leaves their profits in the dust. They are paid per hour not per project. This obviously hurts their profit numbers even if their performance is adequate. There is a supply and demand axis to take into account but there is also the hourly dissent. Nonetheless paid per project may be the optimal move whereby whether it be five minutes of five hours the nature of work is tailored to price instead of a fixed price for limited time. Right now this is not in the books across the board so the blue collar inferiority is real in price as well as in manuel application. While someone may not need a handyman for everything, there are aspects that require skilled knowledge that the average joe is unaware of. It is this apparent reality that society must review. Blue collar workers may work more physically demanding jobs and may not sit in air conditioend offices but the work is skilled and essential.
Society's goal is to remain cohesive. Giving one group a way out due to a governmental failure and apparent agenda is ruthlessly obnoxious. The ethical and procedural issues precede the issue with a lack of accountibility for their failures. Still, this also further divides the academic university from the skilled trade schools. The suits from the overalls. This decision enriches the former folk as well as displaces the latter. Forcing their depleted hourly wages to censored higher taxes for someone else's kick-back vacation. University is a place to grow but stealing money from hard working americans for the dubious nature these days is ridiculous. There must be more thought into this deal than simply wiping the debt clean. Congress should pay out of their pockets not the working class. Stop diminishing their worth from the ivory towers and be elected officials amongst the blue collar folk.
No comments:
Post a Comment