From Mike Rowe:
I work hard on this page, (not as hard as I could, perhaps, but pretty hard), to avoid the politics of the moment, and comment only on topics that impact the foundation I’m proud to run – a foundation that awards work-ethic scholarships to individuals who choose to forego an expensive, four-year education in favor of a skilled trade.
This is bullshit. I'm getting a heat pump installed next week. Solidly into 5 figures, all in. A lot of the dirty work will be done by a kid who is foregoing an expensive four year education in favor of a skilled trade. That kid will be paid at minimum $30/hr to do so. By the end of four years, he'll have earned a decent amount of money and also be well up the ladder at the HVAC company. By the end of four years - during which I paid for training instead of being paid to be trained - I earned the right to go to school for 2 more years, but at least I could teach and no longer pay tuition. That tuition waiver made me so happy, but all in it was like $7/hr.
A few moments before I sat down to write this piece, I opened the door to six guys in blue shirts who had come to my house to replace our air-conditioning units. The Florida weather being what it is, I’ve seen some of these guys work on our air conditioners before, and they’re as skilled and knowledgeable and conscientious and hard-working as you might expect. The company they work for, which is local to North Florida, was started by a guy who chose to forgo college in favor of taking out a small-business loan to strike out on his own. Most of the technicians who work for him didn’t go to college, either. They took a different path. And, well . . . what absolute chumps the president has just made of them for that!
How about that. HVAC. The small business loan that guy took out? The interest on it was a tax deduction. All the stuff he bought with that money? Tax deduction. I did not get to deduct EE 250 off my taxes.
Squirm if you like, but that’s the truth of the matter: As of today, the six air-conditioning technicians in my house are on the hook for college loans that were signed for, spent, and enjoyed by other people. Confirming the measure today, President Biden announced that any American who has both college debt they vowed to repay and an individual yearly income under $125,000 (or a family yearly income under $250,000) will be given up to $20,000 by the Treasury — which means by you, and by me, and by everyone else who pays taxes in America.
These guys installing an expensive HVAC system were on the hook for college loans. I see. Let's take a look at our author.
"In 1985, he graduated from Towson University[8][1]: 28 with a degree in communication studies."
Those chumps aren't installing a freaking top of the line HVAC system for some dude who went to wood shop. They are installing it for a guy who went to Towson, in state tuition $10,198. Some how there is this magical theory that those blue collar workers who are pounding in nails to make an honest living are building mansions and putting in $30k heat pumps for the lower middle class. Ain't so. My A/C was on the fritz, I called a guy, he came over, and 2 hours later, voila, I cut a big ass check. With my filthy UIUC Masters in EE lucre.
Another answer that won’t fly is, “To lower the cost of education.” As President Biden made clear today, this is a one-time deal, a lottery, a lightning strike. People who paid off their loans last week aren’t covered. People who will take out new loans after the policy has run its course aren’t covered. The problems in the system aren’t addressed. The colleges, and their endowments, are left unmolested.
I agree. Tuition should be zero.
It seems so arbitrary. Why does Biden not want to do the same thing for loans on trucks owned by plumbers? Why not for mortgages — which, given how heavily it subsidizes them, the federal government clearly thinks are worthwhile? Why not for credit cards or auto payments or mom-and-pop credit lines? The answer, I’m afraid to say, is disgustingly classist: Because Joe Biden and his party believe that college students are better than everyone else. Because Joe Biden and his party believe that college students are of a finer cut. Because Joe Biden and his party prefer college students to you, and they think that those students ought to be rewarded for that by being handed enormous gobs of your money.
Bullshit. For decades, the plumber who buys that truck has been able to deduct the interest on that loan, and depreciate the truck to zero and deduct the truck off his taxes. Then sell the truck and not claim the income against his depreciation, which is tax fraud, but I'll fade that. Mortgage interest is tax deductible. And mortgages are taken out on houses, which in the long term has always been an appreciating asset. A college education is a depreciating asset. My CS-101 class was taught in rudimentary C on a Macintosh. PERL did not exist. I would not be able to land a job today with my college education. And when I retire, my college degree basically becomes worthless, but a house will continue to appreciate forever.
Electricians, store managers, deli workers, landscapers, waitresses, mechanics, entrepreneurs? Screw ’em. Sure, college graduates make more money than non-graduates, and their unemployment rate is lower, too. But non-graduates don’t have access to the president, so they don’t matter. They’re tradesmen, the riff-raff, the great unwashed. They’re background noise, dirty-handed types, second-classers. They don’t deserve $10,000 in debt reduction. What would they even do with it? Go hunting? Give it to their church? Their role is to subsidize the superior people, and the superior people go to college.
This is the same dumbass logic that leads morons to believe that the people of West Virginia - median income 26,187 - are subsidizing the people of Santa Clara County Califiornia, median income 50,000.
Why did Joe Biden do all this? That’s why. Why was this what Joe Biden chose to break his oath to achieve? That’s why. When it came down to it, good ol’ Scranton Joe sent cash from the sort of people he cynically pretends to care about to the sort of people he actually cares about: the privileged, accredited, self-dealing clerisy that his ever-dwindling political party now calls its base.
I'm cynical. I don't know for a fact that Biden understands what I just wrote. But Mike Rowe sure as hell doesn't.
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