Comments by "Louis Rossmann" (@rossmanngroup) on "Fox Makes Terrible Arguments Against Student Debt Relief" video.

  1. I think people complain about fairness all the time. Fairness is a genuine concern - whether with the tax code, job opportunities, school quality being based on the income level of the neighborhood, the entire monetary system, the economy. Free college stems from the idea that it is unfair that only the wealthy can afford to give their children opportunities to climb the economic ladder. The idea of economic inequality being a problem stems from the belief that it is unfair. Inheritance taxes are based on the idea that it is unfair that someone be a billionaire by virtue of birth lottery. Whether or not one agrees, or disagrees is another discussion entirely, but grown adults complain about unfairness all the time, and it is most certainly worthy of a discussion.
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  2. I don't hear it that way. I hear someone who gave 40% of their income to taxes their entire life asking, why is it that my taxes now go to other people's college, but not that of my own offspring? I don't think they want it to be shitty for people going forward, so much as they wanted to be less shitty for them retroactively. If you refunded the tuition payments of all people who let's say, made under $400,000 a year, going back for the last 5 to 10 years, there would be little to no legitimate public protest. but the reality is that this is not doable because the government wasted the money they could have utilized on this policy elsewhere due to corruption and poor decisions. I don't understand what capital Elizabeth Warren from saying, sure. Why not rebate people for the last 5 or 10 years? These people are lashing out - but rather than focusing on their frustration at the unfairness, let's drill into why they are frustrated. This is a cold reminder to them that they give 40% of their salary away, then probably $5-$15k/year on top of that in property taxes, 8% everytime the buy something with sales taxes, and have nothing to show for it. That money doesn't ever help them: and they've repressed this aggravation. They realize they can do nothing about the fact that 40% of their tax revenue goes to corrupt politicians, useless wars, inefficient nonsense. But when that money goes to help other people who you don't know, after you sacrificed for your own family, it hits you like a ton of bricks. "I get to keep less than 60% of what I earn, and the 40% I give away does nothing for me but blow people up in the middle east and subsidize corruption." That hurts. People begin to mourn all over again - that they piss away 40% of their earnings and have crumbling infrastructure, expensive healthcare, high housing prices & a horrible education system to show for it. The argument regarding immigrants who want a better life for their children, not a worse life - I hear that. I too want a better life for my kids than my childhood. I wouldn't tell my kids +"ah, my childhood sucked - so should yours!"_ At the same time - those immigrants were killing themselves for their own kids - not someone else's. People wouldn't be as opposed to it if it were generalized relief, but it isn't - those who did pay $100k for their kid's education did so and suffered to do it, and will not see a dime of relief.
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