Free-Higher-Ed Airbag

Former college professor and American Indian, Senator Elizabeth Warren, one of the gaggle of current 2020 Democrat presidential candidates, and one without a ghost of a chance, is now out on the campaign trail (or, ‘warpath,’ to be more culturally appropriate) promising still more ‘free’ stuff from government (sorry, make that, from YOU), centered largely around higher education.

Senator Warren (tribally aka: ‘Bellowing Flower’), in an obvious move to out-pander her fellow grab-bag-give-away-everything opponents, has announced that, were she to plop down in the White House (saints preserve us), she will see to it that most college loans will be forgiven, public college and university tuition will henceforth be at no-charge to students, as will child-care for kids 5 and younger, and no-charge pre-kindergarten for all (including, of course, illegals). As you can readily see, we’ve now gone far beyond Depression days promises of a chicken in every pot, stopping today, it would seem, just short of a free BMW in every driveway.

So, then, who pays for all this free stuff.  Simple.  As we’ve all been led to believe in this modern, affluent time, money grows on trees. Conveniently, there are now money trees growing in the homes of all those with jobs in this record-setting era of employment.  So then, they all simply pull off all of the wallet-shaped fruit from each tree, mail those stuffed-with-your-money folded leather yummies in to the U.S. Treasury, and the solution to ‘free’ is at hand.  Individual standard of living will be reduced dramatically, but so what.  Through the magic of income redistribution, the free stuff problem is solved.  And for velvet-robed left-wing leaders and their strap-hangers, that’s all that really matters, since none of the bad stuff ever affects them.  Only the little people.

Mrs. Warren is promising $50,000 in student loan forgiveness for all those earning $100,000 or less in annual income. Incomes above that level will qualify, but at a lesser pay-off figure.  Tearing all the holiday wrapping off of this proposed Christmas gift to student debt-holders, the resulting cost to ‘government’ is estimated at $640-billion.  It’s amazing how quickly ‘free’ gets so darned expensive.

And besides tax-payers wondering why they should have to foot the bill for students who made unrealistic, unaffordable college cost choices, there’s another group not thrilled by her proposal: those thousands of former students now in the workforce who have already paid off their loans!  What about us, they understandably say.  Well, it’s your own darn fault for choosing college cost-efficiently, and doing the right thing, by working hard to pay that debt off.

And, back to the billions of dollars in that potential student debt forgiveness plan (reportedly, one out of every six adult Americans has student debt), the Senator has a much simpler solution to paying for that debt forgiveness, than planting and harvesting still more wallet-bearing money trees.  Again, it’s quite simple.  Her plan is called the “Ultra Millionaire Tax.” Taxing the be-jeepers out of those 75,000 Americans who have amassed $50-million or more in personal wealth!

Senator Warren explains the simplicity and logic of it all to the extremely wealthy, this way: “We say good for you that you have now gotten this great fortune.  But you gotta pay something back so everybody else gets a chance.” She’s conveniently and politically overlooking the reality that the nation’s wealthiest have for years been paying high taxes, and in all likelihood, have already spent years providing those sought-after chances for others. That great wealth magnifier. It’s called creating jobs. And lots of them.

But that little bit of inconvenient reality aside, for youth wondering exactly how you “get a chance.” Here it is. You work for it!!  From elementary, to middle, to high school, then on to an affordable state college/university, or area trade school, or trades apprenticeship, or our great military (with education benefits post-service). You learn to think. Become intelligent. Learn marketable skills or abilities (avoid limited-or-no-realistic job-producing college majors, especially any ending in the word “Studies”!).   Learn to express yourself like an adult.  Learn responsibility and respect. And then you go to work (re-locate if neeeded), work your butt off, continue to do so, and prove to your supervisor(s) that you’re worth more than what they’re paying you, and move up the ladder.

That’s the success formula in a nut-shell. That’s how you “get a chance.”  Not by blowing-off your tax-payer provided, free-to-you, K-12 education, then whining because you can’t get or hold a job (or the ones you can get are “beneath you”). Which then, too often, results in either just sitting in your parent’s home existing on their dime, or waiting for free government support, or even all too often, turning to crime as your “job.”  Now, while that latter “occupation” can earn you free room, board, and medical care, inconveniently, it’ll be in prison.  Don’t wait to be given a chance.  Go out and get it.  Make good things happen.

Getting back to Senator Warren’s economically unrealistic, pie-in-the-sky, free-just-about-everything, vote pandering, Betsey McCaughey (former lieutenant-governor of New York) concluded her excellent New York Post article with this dose of blunt clarity:  “Warren warns that under her free college plan, all public institutions must admit students, regardless of their immigration status or criminal record.  Democrats are redefining themselves as the party of ex-cons, illegal immigrants, and voters who want free stuff.”  Quite clearly, loons are found not only in Minnesota.

(“Ultra Millionaire” and basic plan date via foxbusiness.com, James DeRosa, 4-23-19; “one in six adult Americans,” via nypost.com, Betsy McCaughey, 4-23-19; “everybody else gets a chance” via dailymail.com, AP/Daily Mail reporter, 4-22-19).