PRO says
PRO says Increasing Consumer Spending
People will spend that money on bad things (drugs, substance abuse, alcohol, fancy cars, speedboats, oversized houses).
Pro says Economic Boost/GDP
Turn: NO! If we forgive FSL, the national debt increases, taxes increase, interest rates increase, etc. The economy gets worse if we don’t collect the $1.7 Trillion we’re owed.
Defense: We don’t know what people will spend their money on. Some will buy drugs, some will buy alcohol, some will buy a house they cannot afford long term. Just because we give people money doesn’t mean they’re going to spend it in GDP-increasing ways (starting a business, going to new restaurants, etc.)
Con says Economy will get Worse
NO! We lift these people out of poverty and allow them to spend more money in the economy (consumer spending). Consumer spending drives roughly 70% of the economy in the US. This creates GDP growth!
Con says Opportunity Cost
There is opportunity cost EVERYWHERE.
Con says Increases National Debt
$1.7 Trillion is already apart of the $33 Trillion
National debt is inevitably going to increase
The increase is small (1.7 T is not that much compared to 33 T)
PRO says Entrepreneurship
1. Most entrepreneurships fail, so this is a short term bump.
2. Entrepreneurship doesn’t hire many people, they’re small by design.
PRO says Mental Health
If we forgive FSL, all of America’s mental health will decrease when the economy tanks. Forgiving FSL only relieves mental health issues for the 17% of people with FSL, but worsens mental health for the remaining 83% of people when their taxes increase and inflation increases as a result of the higher national debt.
Con says Increases Taxes
Tax increases are inevitable but even if taxes increase, people will be able to pay them because they’re no longer paying student loans.
Con says Increasing Racial Equality
Hansen 23 - Most people with student loans are white, so forgiving all student loans disproportionately favors white Americans.
Con says Recession
Non-unique: Recessions happen all the time. Whether we do this thing or not, we’re likely still going to have a recession.
Turn: Forgiving student debt will give people more money to spend and that increased consumer spending negates any likelihood of recession.
Pro says people have more freedom in which job they take
Inflation and taxes will increase if we forgive FSL, so people will still have to take high paying jobs regardless. It’s just whether their money goes towards your student loans or to taxes/the government.
Pro says Credit Scores Increase
Turn: The purpose of credit scores is to say how responsible someone is as a borrower. If we forgive FSL, all credit scores will become USELESS!
Credit scores only work if everyone is treated equally. Otherwise, people who got their FSL forgiven will have an artificially high credit score.
Con says Increase Inflation
Inflation is a result of changing interest rates, not national debt (Forgiving FSL doesn’t affect interest rates)
Con says People will spend the Money on Wrong Things/Drug Abuse
This is a generalization fallacy. Just because some people might do this doesn't mean that all people will do this. Most people will spend it on things that will benefit the economy (going to a restaurant, buying a new shirt, investing in a stock)
Con says Forgiving it is a Short Term Solution/Abuse of the Loan System
Something is better than nothing. If we forgive student loans even only once, it will increase innovation and allow people to come up with a long term solution.
Pro says Increasing College Attendance
Forgiving it once doesn’t mean it’ll happen again. The resolution only asks about a one-time forgiveness. People will be no more or less incentivized to go to college if we forgive the current FSLs. They’ll still have to take out FSLs when they attend.
Pro says Reducing Racial Inequality
Hansen 23 - Even if POC owe the most amount of money, 58% of all student loans are owed by white students. Forgiving student debt might help a small number of POC who carry a lot of debt, but the scarier impact is that it would be forgiving mostly loans held by white people thus widening the racial wealth gap.
Con says Fairness
When loans are forgiven, innovation increases and that increase helps the people who already paid off their loans.
Con says Personal Responsibility
We need to give them an opportunity to learn personal finance. College kids signed up for these loans when they were 18, they’ve never had an opportunity to learn finance as a result of these loans. Forgiving these loans will teach them personal responsibility better because it will give them money to finally be responsible with.
Con says Congressional Tradeoffs
The resolution asks “should we forgive FSL” not “can we forgive FSL.” I don’t need to give you an implementation, my only burden is to prove that at an abstract, public forum level that we should or should not do this thing (forgiving FSL).
This is not unique to the CON side, gridlock in Congress happens all the time!