People are really angry about student loan forgiveness. I understand why they're angry, but I don't think they do.
Debt-free college degree holders think they're angry because they worked hard to pay off their piece of magic paper while others are getting off scot-free.
"It's not fair that Karen's degree in Feminist Social Media Marketing Theory is paid for but my degree in Early Childhood Brainwashing took me 10 years of propagandizing the youth to get out from under! I want a refund!" *angry boomer noises*
The reality is that both degrees are worthless. All college degrees are worthless. The US Government is now in the process of showing you how worthless they are by defaulting on them.
Default is simply what happens when people or institutions make bad investments.
This is Econ 101, folks. Simple supply and demand at work. After the passage of the Higher Education Act of 1965, the Federal Government decided that every High School graduate was college-bound and they were willing to subsidize that narrative. Now it's created a marketplace full of degree holders, to the point where degrees are so commonplace that they no longer signal value to potential employers.
The timing of Lyndon Johnson's (Not So) Great Society "reforms" aren't coincidental. When the Nixon regime eliminated the Gold Standard in '71 and decided to offshore American industry, the Feds knew they'd be in trouble if the already-discontented youth had no job prospects or shot at a fulfilling life. So they decided to create the illusion of prosperity with mountains of debt and credentialism.
A long time ago, America had something called industry. If Johnny McKansas didn't have the grades, money, or desire to attend Corn State University, it wasn't the end of the world. He could take over the family farm, get a job in manufacturing, start his own enterprise - the world was Johnny's oyster, degree or no.
Johnny's world was also not encumbered by credentialism. There were no artificial barriers to entry for Johnny's budding career - the Bar Exam was not an exclusive right of Law School graduates, nor could the American Medical Association stop Johnny from becoming an apprentice under the town doctor. The FDA did not require Johnny to prostrate himself in order to sell a steak to his neighbors, or acquire a Journeyman's license to fix a leaky pipe.
Fast-forward 50+ years and America is a post-Industrial society. Johnny sold the family farm in '06 to buy a Winnebago, so Johnny Jr. never even considered agriculture as an option. And while Junior is smart and ambitious, he sees no opportunity in the local economy of Small Town, USA aside from working at the local vape shop. Junior's friend makes a decent living as an HVAC tech, but even that now requires special certification and a five figure loan. Junior hears there's an Amazon Fulfillment Center being built in Topeka next year - maybe he could finally save up enough to move out.
Or, Junior could get cut a blank check from the Department of Education to screw around for 4+ years and deal with the steady erosion of the American Empire later. He'll probably earn the adulation of Mr. and Mrs. McKansas in the process, too. Easy decision.
Until it's not.
Because whether or not Johnny McKansas the Second or Karen "The Business Bitch" paid Uncle Sam back, their bank accounts remain curiously empty, as the managerial "service based" economy created by credentialism is full up on paper pushers.
The Federal Government does not care about your money. They can literally print money at will. They care about your subservience and your participation in a Potemkin economy.
Collegiates already gave the Establishment more than they could dream of: They wasted a minimum of four years of their lives getting their heads pumped full of propaganda, deferred learning any valuable skills, slaved away at Big Corp, Inc. for 40 years, and if they have children, probably pressured them to do the same.
Creating yet another debt serf is just the icing on the cake. And now that the Empire of Debt has maxed out its credit limit, it could care less about individual indebtedness, because the notion of an "economy" itself is being re-engineered as a perfect slave society.
Sadly, most of the Old Guard complaining about student loan forgiveness don't understand that the debt-fueled American Empire is in a state of collapse, let alone acknowledge that America was a debt-based Empire to begin with. You see, the Treasury can't default on Bonds or T-Bills. Foreign holders of them might get angry and start a war. They can't default on Social Security. People might starve or freeze to death and make rash decisions.
But student loan debt? Unfunded liabilities that will never, ever be paid back by a caste of largely incompetent malcontents who live solely within your borders? You can default on that.
Student loan forgiveness is just another step on the road to fiscal insolvitude, as both the State and its vassals cease being productive. Someday soon, those who ignore the credentialist, debt-based economy will inherit the Earth. Until then, enjoy the ride.
-FF
Addendum: Before people blow up my inbox with autistic screeching about becoming a doctor, lawyer, teacher, etc. in today's economy, please understand that any "career" that requires credentialism to succeed inevitably means jumping through economic and social hoops to prove your status as a bootlicker.
Doctors (with the exception of trauma surgeons, God bless 'em) are legalized murderers who moonlight as pharmaceutical sales reps. Lawyers are welfare queens operating off of legalized graft. Teachers are "educating" your children on how to perform safe oral sex in the 3rd Grade. So please spare me your platitudes.