President Biden has decided against the most radical Democratic demands regarding student college debt (canceling it all, or nearly all of it), but apparently loan forgiveness of $10,000 is still an option. Is it a good idea?
Writing here for AIER, economics professor Art Carden says that it isn’t.
What I particularly enjoyed in Carden’s article is his reference to that fabulously iconoclastic book by Professor Bryan Caplan, The Case Against Education. Carden writes, “If Bryan Caplan is right and the return to schooling is something like 80% a reward for acquiring a costly signal, the dollars we are spending on higher education are wasted on an arms race between people trying to display their beautiful plumage in the labor market.”
Yes. We need to stop fueling the degree mania that drives many people deep into debt and feeds the enormously bloated higher-ed establishment. Sticking taxpayers with the costs of student debt is a big step in the wrong direction.