I support Bernie Sanders, because I think his heart is in the right place. However, I have issues with many of his policies or attitudes. Here is a tweet he posted today:
I remember talking to a young woman in Vermont who left medical school with $300,000 in debt.
Her crime? She wanted to become a doctor and work with low-income people.
She shouldn’t be punished with a debt of $300,000. College indebtedness is a horror.
— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) March 4, 2020
First of all, I don’t think anyone is saying she is committing a crime by being in debt. Her debt is not punishment.
She is now a medical doctor. In that profession, she is at the very top of the income scale, both for entry-level positions, as well as for long-term employment opportunities. We are short of medical professionals in this country, which means she is not likely to ever be unemployed. Her job won’t ever be outsourced and it won’t very soon be taken over by automation. In addition, her profession is highly esteemed by the public and she will enjoy the prestige that comes with it.
When she entered medical school, she knew exactly what was going to happen. Eight to ten years of college, during which he had to live, eat, pay rent, buy books, and – yes – pay tuition. She knew it was going to take many years and she was going to take on much debt to finance that investment in her future.
She didn’t all of a sudden fall prey to a loan shark who gave her $300,000 at high interest rate. She had to apply and qualify for those student loans over and over again, every semester anew. She picked up $15,000 to $20,000 every semester at a reasonably low interest rate, interest deferred, one grab at a time. Nobody forced her, nobody twisted her arm, nobody made her do that. She didn’t make an impulse buy of a medical degree. She worked at it for a decade, and she took loans out to finance her life for that decade.
She also didn’t decide for a lower-cost option. For instance, she could have joined the United States Marines via the ROTC program. She would have been a cadet in the undergraduate years and drawn a salary. She would have been a commissioned officer during her medical studies, and the military would have paid for all her education. She would now be debt-free, she would be a captain in the Marines, and she would be a medical doctor. The only thing the country would now ask of her is to serve as a medical officer for six years or so. She didn’t choose that option.
She chose to finance her education and be saddled with $300,000 of debt when she got out.
We, the country, owe her nothing. We don’t think she committed any crime, we don’t think she is being punished by her debt, and we don’t think her indebtedness is a horror.
Let’s compare this to a young family who bought their first house in California in 2005, right about the same time our young doctor finished her high school. 2005 was at a peak in the housing market. They found a nice place for $330,000. They had saved $30,000 for a down payment and took on a mortgage of $300,000. However, when the housing crisis hit in 2007, the value of the property they paid $330,000 for dropped to $140,000. They were hugely upside down. It would take more than 12 years before the value came back up to a reasonable level. They were saddled with punishing debt and there was no way they could sell their house.
Should the tax payer now bail out that family that made a perfectly reasonable decision in 2005 to buy their first house? Of course not! They had bad luck with timing of their real estate deal. Millions of Americans, tens of millions actually, experienced exactly that. We don’t think we should bail them out. They took risks, there were potential gains, but they ended up with severe losses.
The tax payer is not responsible for that young family’s mortgage.
The tax payer is not responsible for the medical doctor’s student loans.
Bernie Sanders is flat out wrong when he tries to pin student debt on the public. I know many bright young people who chose not to get a medical degree because they didn’t want to be burdened with crushing debt when they were done.
If the young doctor is not happy with her investment today, she needs to deal with it.
And that’s why I think Bernie will have trouble. Some of his ideas don’t even make sense to his own supporters – like me.