Thread by @Johngcole

Hi- it took me twenty years to pay off my student loans and it was not easy but I did it last spring. Between putting away money for retirement and paying off those loans, there were a lot of lean years. But I did it.

And I completely support eliminating student loan debt.

Why? Because I am not a fucking sociopath. And because I realize that even in the 20 years since I incurred my debt, things have changed dramatically for current students. Public support for education has dipped, and students are taking on more and more debt.

The other reason I support this is the same reason I support every education levy, increase in the education budget, and increase in teacher salaries. Because I don’t want to be surrounded by fucking stupid uneducated people. And if higher ed costs make college prohibitive

I will be surrounded by a bunch of dumb uneducated motherfuckers. As an introvert, the only thing worse than being forced to talk to and listen to people in public is being forced to talk to and listen to stupid people in public.

I also am at the age when many of my doctors and my lawyer and my dentist and a whole host of other highly specialized people are… younger than me. I would like that trend to continue.

In addition to that, it is not just highly specialized folks like doctors and pharmacists and accountants who go to college. Virtually everyone can benefit in one way or another from a college education.

While I can understand a desire to treat college as a job training pool, in one sense it is, but in another, it is also a place where people can learn, experience new things, and become better people.

Simply being exposed to new things can make you a better person. For example, every bigoted right winger who suddenly discovers their son or daughter is gay and then decided maybe gay people should have gay rights.

Most of the music I listen to, books I read, games I play, movies I watch, art I enjoy, has been greatly benefited by the contributions of a number of people who have received some level of college education.

But eliminating student loan debt is just the first step, and we need to also look at making college more affordable in general, and taking it back from the loan industry.

But it is a step we need to take, and one we need to take now.

Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk and check out my Top 10000 blog, balloon-juice.com

PS every single Democrat still running for President will be better than Trump with the exception of Gabbard who is nuts but she still can’t be as bad as him. Maybe.