Written by Anna Claire Williams
Joe Biden’s presidency has been marked by the radical idea of debt relief to help American families recover from the strains of a world rocked by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Forgiving student loans, in theory, would alleviate financial stress on young people who are practically bullied by the baby boomer generation for not being able to afford buying a house or having kids. While unprecedented, more people have student loans right now than ever before. Hopefully, the 45 million Americans with student loans would then be able to give a boost to the economy if unburdened by the average $28,400 debt from college. Here, they would also be able to invest more in their financial future. Since social security is projected to become exhausted by 2037, this would be a helpful tool in securing a financial future.
Society tells people to get educated and get a stable job to climb the socioeconomic ladder and get out of poverty, but this starts the perpetual cycle of accruing more debt through student loans. After accounting for inflation, the cost of college has tripled since 1980. There is an imbalance in logic between the necessity for higher education increasing while the price for this education is ever-increasing as well, making it impossible for people to afford getting a college degree to be able to get a well-paying job — or if they have a college degree, it is impossible to pay off the piles of student loans that are accruing interest.
Alleviating student debt would also help address racial inequality of income, helping advance racial equity. The average White family has about 10 times more wealth than the average Black family, and White college graduates have over seven times more wealth than Black college graduates. What’s more, Black college graduates have lower homeownership rates than White high school dropouts. Cleaning the slate of student loans would give people of color a fighting chance to narrow the racial wealth gap.
My faith is built on a man that took all my debt that I could never afford and paid it before I could even ask. I try to be like Jesus. I hope that the selfless nature of paying someone else’s debt never poses a problem for me. I hope I can look beyond political parties, economics and statistics to see the hearts of people burdened with debt. I think that’s what Jesus would do.
