dump the debt (Photo credit: Friends of the Earth International)
Student debt is now so great that much of it may never be paid. I suspect that the enormity of student debt will make the younger generation only that much more sensitive to the issue of unpayable debts, and predispose them to refuse to pay the National Debt.
Education is important, even crucial. Over the past 40 years, Americans have shopped (on credit) until we have just about dropped–into a national or even global depression. Through it all, we’ve neglected to continue to educate ourselves and we’ve certainly failed to provide adequately for our children’s educations. There will be a national price to be paid for our educational failure.
I don’t believe the young people will ever be able to repay the national debt that’s been foisted on them by their irresponsible politicians and parents. In fact, when it comes to making good on the government’s National Debt, I believe the kids ought to tell the gov-co and senior citizens, “Screw you–you made the debt; you enjoyed the “free lunches” purchased with that debt; and now you want us, your children and grandchildren, to spend our lives in debt bondage in order to pay your debts?! To hell with that!“
Even if the younger generations remain willing to repay the National Debt, their ability to do so will largely depend on their educations. The average student who dropped out at the end of 8th grade is unlikely to ever produce or earn enough to generate sufficient taxes to pay for his parent’s and grandparent’s Social Security, Medicare, ObamaCare, welfare and subsidies. The National Debt is so great that even those who graduate from college may not earn enough to allow them to repay their parents’/grand-parents’ debt. But with a good education, they might be able to.
In a recent “Educational Olympics” that compared American educations to that of foreign students, American students ranked 25th in math, 17th in science and 14th in reading. By supplying children with a public school education that we should be ashamed of, and then charging exorbitant fees for high school graduates to attend college, America is dumbed down and rendered less productive, more dependent, and ever more certain to default (soon) on the National Debt.
The graphic below illustrates opinion and insight on the subject of charging college students for their education.
This graphic makes sense. No one likes the idea of higher taxes, but you will either pay higher taxes to provide better educations for our children, or you will pay higher taxes to keep our kids in prisons. Take your pick.