Why is Mike Rowe shilling for the colleges and big-government?
In opposing student loan cancellation, Rowe wags his finger at the44 million people- including trade school and community college attendees- being crushed by the worst big-government college-enriching lending scam in U.S. History.
Mike Rowe has never had much to say about the student loan system in this country. For years he has advised people to not go to college, and pointed to the hyper-inflationary, predatory student loan system as a good reason why, and that has been the extent of it. In recent months, however, Rowe has strongly opposed student loan cancellation as a stimulus measure. Rowe paints student loan borrowers as being soft, entitled, unwilling to do hard work, and uses outdated stereotypes to make his argument. Ultimately, his advice to people being crushed under the weight of these loans- from which constitutionally enshrined bankruptcy protections, and also statutes of limitations have been removed, is to suck it up. Their problems are not his- or the taxpayers.
Mike Rowe apparently doesn’t realize the people being wrecked by these loans tend to share his values. More than 40% never graduated. A majority identify as being politically independent or republican. People who live in “red states” are being hurt significantly worse than those in “blue states”. Ironically, many of the borrowers being ruined by these loans went to trade schools to learn to do “Dirty Jobs” that Rowe would approve of, like plumbing, welding, truck-driving etc.
There are 44 million federal student loan borrowers in the country carrying about $1.5 Trillion in federal student loan debt. A year ago, more than 75% of these people were either unable to make payments on their loans, or were paying, but their balances were going up. The class of 2004 are defaulting on their loans 40% of the time, but they were only borrowing a third of what is being borrowed today. It is no stretch to say that the default rate for current borrowers will be in excess of 75%. This is four times higher than the subprime home mortgage default rate. Even Mike Rowe, if he bothered to learn these facts, would be compelled to agree this is now a catastrophically failed lending system.
Mike Rowe completely ignores these facts, and instead plays to the basest instincts of his audience. He wags his finger at the victims of this higher-education lending scam instead of confronting it. Whether he admits it or not, he is marching to the drum of his corporate, elitist media masters, who would prefer to have an uneducated citizenry, and from whom Mr. Rowe extracts $10 million per year for re-inforcing outdated media stereotypes that pit the working class against the educated, who are increasingly the same people.
If there were a “Useful Idiot” medal, Rowe would deserve it. The Department of Education, the colleges and corporate media love guys like him who deflect criticism of the worst big-government lending scam in the history of this country away from the colleges big-government agencies, and banks who benefit, and put it instead onto the backs of the people being wrecked.
Rowe apparently also is happy to ignore the fact that while President Lyndon Johnson declaring that these loans would be “free of interest” when he signed the Higher Education Act into law in 1965, $100 billion in interest alone is now sucked out of the economy every year, and fed into the federal government, which was booking over $50 billion in annual profits as far back as 2012. Some of these government profits are used to subsidize Obamacare. Even President Trump was decrying this fact even before he decided to run for public office.
What is most disturbing: White House Budget data going back decades show that the government has- astonishingly- managed to make a profit, even, on defaulted loans- a claim that no other lender can make. This is precisely what the Founders wished to avoid when they called for bankruptcy protections ahead of the power to raise an army and declare war in the U.S. Constitution. But Mike Rowe is happy to ignore all of this as he works overtime scoring cheap points at the expense of the citizens being wrecked.
The colleges, who take in about $100 billion annually in student loan revenue, have been the chief beneficiaries of this lending scam. These loans have allowed them to hyper-inflate their price of attendance, spoil the students with extravagant, unnecessary excesses like lazy rivers, 4-star dining, climbing rock walls, and the like. Not to mention the exploding administrative salaries and never-ending capital projects on campuses everywhere (notice all the construction cranes at the college in your town?). I would guess that Mike Rowe doesn’t mind this one bit.
By wagging his finger at the people being crushed by this lending scam. Mike Rowe is actually helping the very colleges he claims to despise and the big-government lending monstrosity behind it all. What is most dangerous is that he is duping his audience by preying upon- and reinforcing- their false preconceptions about student loan borrowers. This is starting, and stoking culture wars at its most shameless.
The President can, without needing congressional approval or appropriation, cancel these federal loans with the stroke of his pen. This could be done without spending one dime of tax money, or adding even one penny to the national debt. During this pandemic where we are throwing trillions at the economy- much of it in the form of loans that don’t have to be repaid- there simply is no cheaper, more expedient, or a better-targeted way to stimulate the economy.
This lending system has got to be taken to the bath, and drown in the tub. Far better to kill it now, call it stimulus, and move on. Apparently, Mike Rowe disagrees.
Mike Rowe’s claims that loan cancellation would unfairly benefit people who don’t need it, and even increase the wealth gap are nonsensical. All federal student loan borrowers are determined to be financially needy as a prerequisite for receiving the loans, and the likely 80% default rate (or higher) that we can expect from the current borrowing pool speaks for itself.
The most financially successful borrowers tend to refinance their loans out of the federal program at lower interest rates in the private market, and would not benefit from loan cancellation. These absurd claims are shameful, frankly, and tend to be written by critics with histories of fighting for the perpetuation of the lending system rather than the good of the borrowers or the country.
A quick glance at the membership of groups like StudentLoanJustice.Org or the most recent data from the Department of Education will reveal that the overwhelming number of high-balance borrowers aren’t successful doctors and lawyers, but rather older people (usually in their 50’s or older) who borrowed moderately, but have seen their loan balances explode to obscene proportions with penalties, fees, and compounded interest- often despite their having continued making payments throughout those years.
Mike Rowe can rest assured, the taxpayers will be fine. While no one- not even the Department of Education- can say with certainty how much of the outstanding $1.6 Trillion in federal loans is original principal, it is likely a small fraction of the balance- probably less than a third. So on balance, the true cost to the taxpayer when the loans are canceled will be minimal and could be covered (at least in part) by funds stashed away by the colleges over the past decade.
So-called conservatives like Mike Rowe making false statements that canceling the loans isn’t fair or needed, or that the borrowers should “suck it up and pay” should be ashamed and embarassed. Their outrageous claims and divisive, inflammatory rhetoric only serves to perpetuate the worst big-government lending scam in U.S. history, and enrich the very colleges that they claim to oppose.
Mike Rowe has become a multi-millionaire as self-appointed champion of the working class. He should stick with that, rather than selling out to- and shilling for- the very colleges and lending system he claims to oppose, and recklessly creating cultural conflict where there should be none.
