Why #CancelStudentDebt Is the Right Thing to Do

Morality and pragmatism combine to present to us a clear choice.

Douglas Giles, PhD
GEN
Published in
7 min readFeb 4, 2022

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(Source: Lumen5)

I’ve taught university courses since 1998. Someone born that year could have just graduated from a university. Chances are good that such a person has graduated with a heavy load of student loan debt. That is more than unfortunate; that is morally wrong.

Joe Biden promised that when he became president, he would cancel at least some student loan debt for all former students. He has not. That is more than unfortunate; that is morally wrong.

The U.S. higher education system is broken. There are many good faculty and staff dedicated to educating students and helping them succeed in higher education and in life. The higher education system as a whole, however, is increasingly being corporatized. Some school Presidents and Boards of Trustees increasingly see their colleges and universities as businesses to generate money instead of as a school to educate students. That is more than unfortunate; that is morally wrong.

Students Are Unfairly Burdened

In the past 20 years, university tuition has increased 144% at private schools and 171% at public universities. (source) Those increases are multiple times higher than price increases in any other…

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Published in GEN

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Douglas Giles, PhD
Douglas Giles, PhD

Written by Douglas Giles, PhD

Philosopher by trade & temperament, professor for 21 years, bringing philosophy out of its ivory tower and into everyday life. https://dgilesauthor.com/