Proverbs 11:15 tells us:

One who is a guarantor for a stranger will certainly suffer for it, But one who hates being a guarantor is secure.

While I don’t think the Bible precludes going into debt, there is no doubt that the Bible warns against it. Debt should be thought of as something akin to a chain saw–a tool that may serve valuable purposes but one that should be handled with extreme care and prudence. Generally I suggest debt should be for legitimate capital investment only. Even with respect to college loans, not all college degrees are prudent capital investments–some are in reality consumption expenditures. A good rule of thumb is any degree that has a major that ends in “studies” is one that you should carefully scrutinize as to whether it will lead to employment prospects that generate a premium sufficient to cover the repayment of the loan. But the Bible is even more clear on assuming someone else’s debt–you “will certainly suffer for it.”

One of the central marks of economic efficiency (to say nothing of justice!) is that whoever gets the benefit should pay the cost. If someone gets benefits while someone else pays the cost, you get an overconsumption of that good or service. We all know that if someone else is paying, we are not quite as careful. And in our current pillage moment, there are whole hosts of people clamoring for someone to give them money from the public treasury. We are still waiting on how much President Biden wants to steal* from the U.S. Treasury for college loans to placate his regressive** base for general college debt (with the widely reported number being $10,000), but today the Biden Administration is reporting a discharge of debt for those that attended Corinthian Colleges, who were allegedly defrauded for purchasing bogus degrees. In this case, the U.S. taxpayer is expected to be on the hook for billions:

The schools have been accused of predatory and unlawful practices, and faced lawsuits from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as well as Vice President Kamala Harris when she was attorney general of California. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2015. Around 560,000 borrowers stand to benefit from the debt cancellation, which will come out to around $5.8 billion. That’s the largest single debt forgiveness*** action taken by the government to date. 

I certainly can feel sympathy for people that are trying to make a better life for themselves and bought the lie that college is the only way to succeed. But that doesn’t mean you and I should be forced to be part of a bailout. That will only encourage more poor decisions in the future. We have a legal system that puts people in jail who commit fraud. If these for-profit colleges really did defraud people, take them to court. You and I didn’t co-sign the loan, so we shouldn’t be paying for it.

* Yes my language is harsh. You should know I don’t like using it. But this is nothing less than theft from the treasury and these politicians are bankrupting our country. Those that tolerate this should be ashamed, those that encourage it should be challenged on their immorality, and those that oppose it should make their elected officials feel the heat.

** How forcing taxpayers who did not go to college (or those who did but paid their debts off) and usually make salaries well less than $100k should be paying off college debt for those that obtained advance degrees making $150k is progressive is beyond me. Will someone explain this to me?

*** Remember, there is no such thing as debt forgiveness–there is only someone else paying the price. Our debts to God were only forgiven because Jesus paid the cost at the cross. You and I certainly can in measures of mercy choose to help pay off someone’s debt. But forced “mercy” is simply theft.