Joe Biden likes to pretend that his illegal student-loan forgiveness order, delivered by presidential fiat, is a necessary lifeline to “working- and middle-class Americans,” not a bailout to people privileged to have college and graduate-school educations, paid for on the backs of people with dimmer career prospects because they didn’t go to college. He also likes to avoid the question of whether printing a whole bunch more money and injecting it into the economy will create inflationary pressures. A recent poll suggests what might actually happen if the courts let Biden go through with his raid on the Treasury:
In October, Intelligent.com surveyed 1,250 individuals who have applied or plan to apply for Biden’s student loan forgiveness program. . . . 73% of applicants say they are likely to spend their extra money on non-essential items. Men are more likely than women to say they will use the additional money this way (84% vs 65%). The plurality (52%) of applicants say they are ‘very likely’ or ‘likely’ to buy new clothing and accessories with the extra funds they’ll have. Using the money for a vacation (46%) or eating out at restaurants (46%) were also popular answer choices. Additionally, applicants say they are likely [to] spend the extra money on:
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Smartphone (44%)
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Investing in the stock market (43%)
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Gifts (42%)
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Gaming system (36%)
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Wedding (30%)
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Drugs/Alcohol (28%)
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Gambling (27%)
I would hesitate to criticize anybody for spending the money on a wedding, but the fact that so many likely recipients are immediately thinking of a vacation or a gaming system instead of “I need this money to pay the rent and buy gas and groceries” rather undermines the whole publicly stated theory of the loan amnesty. But then, the real point was always to buy votes anyway.