HomeUploadUpload DirectHotlinkRandomAbouttheme toggle

Elizabeth Warren's Plan To Cancel Student Debt Helps the Well-Off

Views: 239
Elizabeth Warren likes to say she's a champion of the little guy. But she recently announced a major policy proposal to provide more than a trillion dollars in aid. Much of that money would disproportionately benefit the relatively well off and well connected.


Subscribe to our YouTube channel: http://youtube.com/reasontv

Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Reason.Magaz...
Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/reason
Subscribe to our podcast at Apple Podcasts: https://goo.gl/az3a7a

Reason is the planet's leading source of news, politics, and culture from a libertarian perspective. Go to reason.com for a point of view you won't get from legacy media and old left-right opinion magazines.


The idea is to eliminate student debt up to $50,000 for people with households incomes under $100,000, and more limited debt cancellation for households between $100,000 and $250,000 a year. By her own estimates, the full plan, which also includes funds for Pell Grants and historically black colleges, would cost about $1.25 trillion.

But the nature of college attendance and student loans means that Warren's loan forgiveness plan is actually a massive giveaway to the relatively well-off.

Only about a third of people over 25 have a college degree, making them a comparatively elite group, whose elite status is reinforced by, among other things, the connections they make while at college.

College graduates earn about $1 million more during their lifetimes than non-college graduates, according to a Georgetown University study. A separate study from Pew found college graduates typically earn about $17,500 more annually than people who only had high school degrees.

College graduates aren't, for the most part, super rich. But generally speaking, they are far more comfortable than the majority who lack such degrees. And while many of the people who would benefit from the plan currently have modest incomes, that's partly because many of them are young people with relatively high future earnings potential. This is a plan that would spend taxpayer money to benefit them.

Warren's defenders might respond that it's still a downward transfer, since the whole thing will be paid for by a new tax on the super wealthy.

There are, however, a few problems with using a wealth tax as a financing mechanism.

The first is that the tax might not be constitutional. Even if it is, another problem is that it's likely to raise far less money than projected. That's why most countries that have tried wealth taxes over the last two decades have abandoned them.

The third, as the The Washington Examiner's Philip Klein points out that, is that Warren has also suggested that this same revenue tax could be used to help pay for a whole slew of other progressive policy ideas. Those include Medicare for All, the Green New Deal, and subsidized child care, which, all together, would cost tens of trillions of dollars—far more than even the most generous wealth tax would raise.

Ultimately, what Warren wants to do is tax the wealthy to help the merely well off, rather than prioritize programs that help the truly needy. Warren isn't helping the little guy—she's helping the folks already on top stay that way.

Music: Pomp and Circumstance, by Edward Elgar. Performed by Eastern Wind Symphony. Path to Follow - Jingle Punks https://youtu.be/CEek1N4wSHA


Produced by Todd Krainin. Written and narrated by Peter Suderman.
@ReasonVidsfollow
Thumbnail for Judge Andrew Napolitano: President Trump Obstructed15:29
Judge Andrew Napolitano: President Trump Obstructed
ReasonVids
220 views
Thumbnail for A Joe Biden (War On) Christmas1:37
A Joe Biden (War On) Christmas
ReasonVids
204 views
Thumbnail for What We Saw at the Atlas Shrugged Part III Film Premiere3:31
What We Saw at the Atlas Shrugged Part III Film Premiere
ReasonVids
239 views
Thumbnail for Story time village the simpsons1:26
Story time village the simpsons
clips
173 views
Thumbnail for Jared Taylor: 'Building a World Brotherhood of Europeans'29:45
Jared Taylor: 'Building a World Brotherhood of Europeans'
AmericanRenaissance
971 views
Thumbnail for Joe Biden's $11 Trillion Plan to Bankrupt America4:17
Joe Biden's $11 Trillion Plan to Bankrupt America
ReasonVids
249 views
Thumbnail for 14 year old White girl shoots black man who called her “cracker”0:47
14 year old White girl shoots black man who called her “cracker”
bestofpoal
828 views
Thumbnail for Why Liberals Are Winning the Culture Wars17:59
Why Liberals Are Winning the Culture Wars
ReasonVids
280 views
Thumbnail for Adherents of Junk Campus Rape Science Are Retaliating Against Critics4:29
Adherents of Junk Campus Rape Science Are Retaliating Against Critics
ReasonVids
200 views
Thumbnail for Working Mother of 3 Faces $100,000 Parking Violation3:06
Working Mother of 3 Faces $100,000 Parking Violation
IJvids
272 views
Thumbnail for Aaron Swartz: Copyrights are a sign of a "permission-seeking" society8:26
Aaron Swartz: Copyrights are a sign of a "permission-seeking" society
bestofsaidit
165 views
Thumbnail for The Tragedy of Detroit: "It Didn't Have to Be This Way"5:37
The Tragedy of Detroit: "It Didn't Have to Be This Way"
ReasonVids
207 views
Thumbnail for Drug Policy Alliance's Ethan Nadelmann on the Future of Legalization6:36
Drug Policy Alliance's Ethan Nadelmann on the Future of Legalization
ReasonVids
248 views
Thumbnail for Remy Shows Cardi B Where Her Taxes Go (Bodak Yellow Parody)1:40
Remy Shows Cardi B Where Her Taxes Go (Bodak Yellow Parody)
ReasonVids
236 views
Thumbnail for Old ABC report about the dancing Israelis2:20
Old ABC report about the dancing Israelis
bestofvoatxyz
174 views
Thumbnail for Most realistic Biden robot at Disney Hall of Presidents0:57
Most realistic Biden robot at Disney Hall of Presidents
AOU
772 views
Thumbnail for The Truth About Mental Illness and Guns7:48
The Truth About Mental Illness and Guns
ReasonVids
200 views
Thumbnail for Open Borders vs. COVID-19: A Soho Forum Debate1:25:37
Open Borders vs. COVID-19: A Soho Forum Debate
ReasonVids
237 views
Thumbnail for Texas School: Better to Burn Kids Than Allow "Toxic" Sunscreen! (Nanny of the Month, 6-14)1:52
Texas School: Better to Burn Kids Than Allow "Toxic" Sunscreen! (Nanny of the Month, 6-14)
ReasonVids
203 views
Thumbnail for Creepy Joe ends up in Skyrim0:20
Creepy Joe ends up in Skyrim
bestofpoal
155 views
Thumbnail for Ziria vs Freeman - M.U.G.E.N.1:44
Ziria vs Freeman - M.U.G.E.N.
memology101
762 views
Thumbnail for The Inevitable Death of Gun Control: Cody Wilson and the Future of Untraceable Homemade Firearms8:36
The Inevitable Death of Gun Control: Cody Wilson and the Future of Untraceable Homemade Firearms
ReasonVids
256 views
Thumbnail for The "Lunkhead Alarm" at Planet Fitness | Grunt Speak Highlights4:27
The "Lunkhead Alarm" at Planet Fitness | Grunt Speak Highlights
Terrence Popp
641 views
Thumbnail for Dumb clips0:08
Dumb clips
x0x7
379 views
Thumbnail for What a lovely poem0:47
What a lovely poem
bestofvoatxyz
793 views

points

Permalink
Reply
libertarian, reason magazine, reason.com, reason.tv, reasontv, higher education, taxation, peter suderman
TOS  •  Add Keywords  •  Donate  •   Analytics  •   DMCA  •   Puzzle