Neo-Victims

Among the many ways that Democratic candidates for president are attempting to convince young people to vote their way is the notion that all college debt should be forgiven. That is, they contend that the burden for paying off the debt should be shifted from the person who voluntarily took on the debt to U.S. taxpayers. I do realize that educational benefit of a degree in, say, Gender Studies, is flimsy at best, but the person who took on debt selected that course of study voluntarily. I also realize that in one's early years, money is tight. I know it was for me.

Joy Pullman comments:

This week, the nation’s most prominent socialists told sob stories about how much college debt my generation maintains to justify sticking their tab to more responsible people. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez made the insane claim that she “had to” run for Congress to be able to pay her basic adult bills.

“A year ago, I was waiting tables in a restaurant and it was literally easier for me to become the youngest woman in American history elected to Congress than it is to pay off my student loan debt,” she said. “In order for me to get a chance to have health care, in order for me to get a chance to pay off my student loans, I had to do something that was nearly impossible.”

It’s unclear what she means by doing “something that was nearly impossible.” Getting a job? Deciding not to live in one of the most expensive cities on earth? Choosing not to attend a college that cost her so much she still has between $15,000 and $50,000 in loans?

Unfortunately, the call for college debt relief is part of the new Democrat strategy that defines new classes of victims, I'll call them neo-victims. Neo-victims are usually victimized by their own actions, entered into voluntarily. In what can only be called a supreme case of irony, college graduates now become a neo-victim class. We're told that they are beset by crushing debt and that it's only right for the "government" (a.k.a. working taxpayers, many of whom didn't have an opportunity to got to college) to pay off that debt.

Pullman discusses these neo-victims:

If she’s [Ocasio-Cortez] like other millennials, however, then the problem is not her loans so much as her spending. In 2016, “A survey from Citizens Bank found that fewer than half (47 percent) of millennials, those in the 18-35 age group, who are college graduates, would be willing to limit their online food delivery in return for reducing their student loans.” The majority were also not willing to cut their spending on concerts, sporting events, lattes, vacations, or internet in exchange for smaller student loans.

This is me, in full eyeroll mode. If you want your lattes more than you want your loans paid off, that’s your choice. But then don’t tell me government should force other people to make hard choices when you won’t.

I have an idea for two more neo-victim classes:

Let's begin with homeowners across the country. Many are burdened by large mortgage payments and aren't able to pay them down rapidly enough. Using the same logic (well, actually illogic) that the Dems have applied for college debt, why not have the "government" (a.k.a. taxpayers) step in and forgive all mortgage debt, all to allow homeowners a better life.

But why stop there? Tens of millions of people need transportation every day, to get to work, to school, to the doctor, even to buy groceries. To get the transportation they need, many of those people buy cars and take out car loans that are burdensome each month. Why not apply the ideas that the Dems have applied for college debt, and have the "government" step in and forgive car loans, all to allow drivers a better life.

Sound crazy? No crazier that the college debt proposal, supported by a dangerously large number of Democrat politicians.

After all, the notion of personal responsibility is sooo 20th century. The notion that one should prioritize personal spending and often forgo nice things because other boring things (like loan payments) must take precedence is soooo conservative it must be racist, or anti-woman, or exhibit white privilege, or something.