> until you realize the people who where smart and careful have to foot the bill for those who weren’t.
> Why should I have to foot the bill for someone who just partied and got a useless degree?
Because you're a human being and recognise that while here you made no mistakes and had no bad luck, perhaps someone could have done that or had that. It's called decency, and you have it not because it benefits you. You have it because it benefits everyone.
Forgiving student loans doesn't benefit everyone, it benefits the people in proportion to their student loan debt, which is to say it disproportionately benefits the upper classes including a lot of people (like me) who could pay off their debt but instead they invest it in the stock market where the returns outpace the interest.
Student loan forgiveness is both unfair and regressive.
I have had plenty of bad luck, and made plenty of stupid decisions. Some of them financial. Nobody bailed them out. I'd be in a better place today if someone had. That's for sure. But do I think that makes for sound macroeconomic policy? No.
> Why should I have to foot the bill for someone who just partied and got a useless degree?
Because you're a human being and recognise that while here you made no mistakes and had no bad luck, perhaps someone could have done that or had that. It's called decency, and you have it not because it benefits you. You have it because it benefits everyone.