Once again, President Biden pushed back student loan payments due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this time until May 2022. As Omicron surges, the White House reversed course on its assurances that payments would not be deferred any longer. However, pressure from those who want all student debt cancelled appears to have won the day, so now we need to have this conversation again.

So far, the deferment has cost the US Government $95 Billion. This effort attempts to soften the blow from lost wages and expenses due to COVID, and it seems that Omicron is spreading like wildfire regardless of vaccination, so I understand the sentiment. However, it seems that the real enemy here is not the lost opportunity. The real enemy is the existence of student loans debt. You cannot throw a rock without hitting someone parroting the proposal to cancel student debt. Over the last couple of months, both Rep. Ocasio-Cortez and Rep. Talib stood before the House to air their grievances about their persistent debt despite the promise that college solves one’s personal financial and career woes. The basic argument is that students have not been given what they were promised: the ability to repay loans with the jobs they earned as a result of their degree. For the sake of argument, assume that these representatives and other student loan holders truly cannot pay off their loans and make ends meet under the current system. If that is true, the question we need to ask ourselves is if the taxpayers should take that burden, or if we should force these individuals to fend for themselves.

Who owes all of this debt? Well, our aforementioned friends from Congress provide great examples. Most outstanding student loan debt comes from individuals with graduate degrees. Believe it or not, the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that individuals with Masters degrees tend to make more than everyone else. Of course, as we have assumed, these individuals still cannot pay their debts! To bail out these broke brainiacs, we need to tax the lesser educated, debtless degree holders, and the rich at higher rates.

Unfortunately for those of us with student loans, our choices have consequences. The system for student loans may be imperfect, but undoing individual mistakes will not fix the broken system. Don’t hear me saying that we should shove the unfortunate under the bus. There are already systems in place to protect those who are bringing in very little income. I am suggesting that individuals making $174,000 (Congress people) a year should not be allowed to abuse their power to bail themselves and their rich friends out at the expense of normal Americans. I don’t want to just say no; I do have a few ideas that could prevent a massive accumulation of unpayable debt moving forward.

1. We should make it harder to qualify for student loans. Any college graduate or student knows how easy it is to apply for and receive loans, especially from the Federal Government. You should not qualify for loans just because you are in college. Tie loan qualification to grades, accumulated credits, average earnings for an individual’s degree, the repayment rate for a particular school, etc. There are many factors we can use to weed out individuals who will not be able to repay loans.
2. We should stop asking high schoolers where they are going to college and start asking what they plan to do after graduation. College is not the only way, and they should know that.
3. We need to encourage students to be personally responsible. If they do not think they’ll be able to pay off their loans, they should change their plans.
4. Lenders should determine what loan you qualify for independent of how much your degree will likely cost.
5. The Federal Government should leave the student loan business.
6. Payments on student loans should not be entirely deferred until after graduation. People need to realize that they have skin in the game.
7. Loan providers ought to hesitate to write loans for individuals going to grad school who have yet to take a step back to actually work.
8. Federal grants unrelated to academic performance must go away.

Following those steps won’t “fix” everything; however, I think they are all better ideas than cancelling student debt and waiting for another large pile to stock back up. People should take responsibility for their actions, and governments should not try to insulate people from said consequences. Of course, the assumption we made that Ms. Ocasio-Cortez and Ms. Talib, and those like them, CANNOT pay off their debt is incorrect. Through hard work and sacrifice, highly educated individuals, as a rule, should have no problem repaying their obligations. If it is impossible to repay one’s debt after obtaining a degree, the fault should not lie with the system, it should lie with those who took on debts they could never repay. After all, by the time someone takes on debt for a master’s degree, they are not a clueless 18 year olds who haven’t thought their college plans through to the end.