Maybe about a month ago, I mentioned in a group chat that I’m in that thanks to our latest tax return, my wife was finally able to pay off her student loans, which had been dogging her for decades… It was a nice victory to celebrate, as it’s been an albatross, a millstone around her neck for the past quarter century (!!!) we’ve been together.

Something someone said really hit close to home. Namely, “you mean now that you’ve got yours, you’re not going to tell others ‘fuck you?'”

No, absolutely not. I, myself, have never had student loans or any kind of educational debt. My wife paying hers off is absolutely fantastic. I still, never having had that debt myself, and my wife paying off hers, am absolutely and firmly in the camp that this type of debt should be forgiven, and that there are multitudinous reforms that need to be enacted.

Of course, every single cent had to be extracted. After paying off the listed amount, the next month there was, quite literally, a $0.01 charge left to the the account. We couldn’t just pay more than that, and expect a refund, just what was owed, and hope it somehow didn’t magically increment another penny in an never-ending escalation. Thankfully, it didn’t. We were DONE.

Most (well, really, all) student loans seem to be given to people (stupid kids, really, with no financial intelligence [and I consider myself in that group at that particular point in my life]) with a lot of hope, but nearly no idea how to turn that into a job that can easily repay things easily. Even when parents are involved, I’ve come to recognize that there is a lot more aspirational than financial intelligence or expectations. It’s actually hard for me to admit that my father (for reasons) was much wiser than me at the time I was looking at college, convincing me to go some place where I wouldn’t actually incur any debt at all (also, my parents wouldn’t). I’d probably be in a much different place had I ignored that advice (again, that.. somewhat pains me, for reasons, though I’m adult enough to recognize it for the sound advice it was in the mid-1990s).

So… my wife paid off her student loans, given to a dumb kid (as nearly everyone taking on student loans are, not a knock at her), with no real idea of how it will affect her financial future. Paying it off was great. Having the decades of debt, not so much. The financial freedom is great!

But… Student loans seem to be rather predatory, preying on those looking to better themselves, encumbering them with decades of (or, worse, if you go for more advanced degrees, lifelong) debt that will likely never be repaid, due to terms, interest, and compounding interest that may never be possible to get away from. When businesses can skirt out from similar loans by declaring bankruptcy, but students can’t, I have to ask who we value more? Our own population, the people we’re educating to advance our populace, or businesses?

I’d rather a much more financially stable, educated, populace than a bunch of people mired in what seems to be unending and constant debt.

That being said, I also support people going into the trades that don’t require 4 year degrees or advanced degrees. I’ll gladly pay for the expertise of a plumber or electrician, because I know fuck-all about those trades… They know a ton of things that I, in my own ivory tower, will never know. (And I definitely have gladly engaged and paid these folks, knowing I don’t know what they do, to do what, yeah, I can fuck around and find out and come up with an inferior solution, but there folk literally do day in and day out, and keep basically all of us afloat… Never, ever, denigrate anyone going to a trade school instead of getting a degree! They’re also more likely to be financially secure, as we’ll always need them!)

But no one should deserve to go into life-long debt to earn a living. Indentured servitude has never really ever worked out.