Here’s the piece of the student debt forgiveness discourse that I want to say something about. The assertion that we can’t do it because not all Americans have student debt and the ones who don’t will get big mad about others getting such relief.
But not all Americans are farmers, and we extend farm relief. Not all Americans are elderly, and we extend elderly relief. Not all Americans are defense contractors, and we extend a *staggering* amount of defense contractor relief.
My point is not to deny the existence of people who have concerns about any of those programs, or to deny that policymaking is always about managing a complicated set of tradeoffs. Obviously both things are true.
My point is that hardly anything we do has a universal base of users or beneficiaries and we rarely center the feelings and opinions of the non-recipients in those other cases. So maybe let’s stop doing that here.
Also if you’re tired of talking about student debt forgiveness you could talk about this idea instead. You should sit down first though.
Sixteen years ago today I ran in the Olympic trials finals. I didn’t think it would be the only time, but it was. If you’ll indulge me a thread, I want to tell a story about being shaped by failing at the first thing I thought my life would be about. 1/
I came in fifth at the Trials in 2004 and missed the team, but I had just finished college and was mostly excited to have gotten that close. I went to Europe that summer and got my ass kicked in London, but ran a 1:46.16 PR in Sweden and figured the sky was the limit. 2/
I finished third at the next US championships, indoors that winter, and again just missed a spot on the national team. I didn’t know it then, but that would be the high-water mark of my career. 3/