Someone with a high school diploma will earn on average $1.3 million over their lifetime. Someone with a B.S. averages $2.3 million. The college degree is thus worth, on average, $1 million in lifetime earnings.
Source: https://cewgeorgetown.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads...
> The fact is, a huge number of people have staggering amounts of student loan debt, and very little ability to repay that debt—and a legal prohibition on discharging it.
I believe I acknowledged that. Making provisions for discharging student loans via bankruptcy would be a really good idea. Much better at targeting student loan relief to those who need it.
> What does this situation gain us that would be lost if we simply cancelled all that student loan debt?
Cancelling all student loan debt would lead to some combination of higher taxes and inflation. No matter how you slice it, that would be a redistribution of wealth from the uneducated to the educated. That redistribution of wealth therefore goes the wrong way -- the uneducated are more likely to be poor, and the educated more likely to be rich.