LETTER: Erasing student loan interest isn’t ‘free’

In response to Christopher Owens’ Wednesday letter to the editor on student loans:

Mr. Owen wants the government to retroactively remove the applicable interest rates on student loans and replace them with a 1 percent interest rate until the debt is cured. That 1 percent, he states, will pay for the loan administration fee, which is nonsensical in itself considering pay scales and benefit costs.

The student loan debt is part of the national debt because those funds have been borrowed by the government, for which interest accumulates daily. Retroactive rate forgiveness would in actuality transfer debt interest to the taxpayer, which is me. Not only would the past interest rates be charged to me, but so would all of the interest rates above the 1 percent until the debt is cured.

Perhaps Mr. Owens doesn’t understand this. We taxpayers are already paying for some of the consequences of macroeconomics by the reduction of value in our dollar, and the student debt is a part of the aggregate. I had to pay my debts with no help from the government, and student loan holders should pay their debts with no extra help from the taxpayers than they are already receiving. We are already paying for some of their debt as it is because of the compounded interest.

Nonetheless, I shall speak for numerous taxpayers with my personal tale. Not once, during the more than 2½ decades of employment — which consisted of pulling eight-, 10-, 12- and 16-hour shifts at hourly pay did I see Mr. Owens along side me earning the pay I brought home. I didn’t see any students there either. I earned my money, every penny of it, and I do not anyone sticking their hands in my pocketbook. We taxpayers paid for their education through the 12th grade. That’s enough.