"I chose life."

"I chose life.  I defaulted on my student loans."

Oh, if you want a dose of precious snowflake, try this guy's paean to his own highmindedness.

8 comments:

Eric Blair said...

He did that 40 years ago. Things have changed, and what's ironic is that he in all probability voted for those who instituted most of the changes.

Grim said...

The last few paragraphs are interesting, because he actually does run the categorical imperative trick: what if we universalized this behavior? And his conclusion is, actually, that would be a good thing because it would fix several social problems and force government to guarantee a free college education.

I don't know that I agree that it would, practically, do any such thing. It's interesting, though. Kant would not approve of the maxim, "I will not pay my debts," because universalizing it means that you cannot take on debts -- the whole system of credit would collapse if no one paid back their loans. He's making an argument that we should approve the maxim "I will not pay this particular debt," precisely because he thinks the consequence of systemic collapse will produce good for everyone.

E Hines said...

Years later, I found myself confronted with a choice.... I could give up what had become my vocation (in my case, being a writer) and take a job that I didn’t want in order to repay the huge debt I had accumulated in college and graduate school. Or I could take what I had been led to believe was both the morally and legally reprehensible step of defaulting on my student loans, which was the only way I could survive without wasting my life in a job that had nothing to do with my particular usefulness to society.

Because it's so useful to society to be a scofflaw and utterly unreliable in doing what you say you will do. Sure.

Eric Hines

Grim said...

Really, I was just looking at this the other day, and the new rules are not nearly the burden I thought they were. The Pay as you Earn plan means your payments are capped to a percentage of your income, and after 240 monthly payments the rest of the balance is forgiven. If you work for a charity or 501(c)3, it's only 120 payments. They don't even have to be consecutive payments: if you lose your job, you can get forbearance.

So it looks like at most ordinary American salaries, you'd end up paying back between $30-40,000 no matter how much you owe. Interest accrues during forbearance, but since the balance will be waived that is not a concern.

I'm beginning to think this student loan crisis is really a hidden redistribution program. :)

David Foster said...

I'd say that anybody that hires this guy...if their hiring is based in any part on his college degree...is in a moral sense a receiver of stolen goods.

Anonymous said...

I worked my a$$ off to get through law school, as a single mom, with a toddler in tow. I took out loans to pay my tuition, worked to pay my rent, lived cheap, (ate well- I can cook) and took a gift from my parents to pay for my little son's Montessori school.

I got my doctorate, deferred payment time as allowed under the law, and paid the whole thing off from savings in the single biggest check I had written to date. The interest rate was really cheap, and it would have been better financially to draw it out, but It was worth it, to pay it off in a lump sum.

Although I loved to write, there is no way in hell I would have taken a Masters in English or writing or whatever this special snowflake chose, because I intended to provide for myself and my son. I chose a practical application for my ability to write, because I had responsibility. My doctorate is in law.

I still love to write. I make my living, primarily by writing. And, I bless the good people of this country, every time I think of their kindness in making a doctorate available to me. The increase in my taxes alone, from about three years after the time I started graduate school, has repaid the loan, every year, starting with about the third year after I graduated.

Right now, I more than repay that loan, every time I pay my quarterly taxes.

God Bless America!

Valerie

Cass said...

. Kant would not approve of the maxim, "I will not pay my debts," because universalizing it means that you cannot take on debts -- the whole system of credit would collapse if no one paid back their loans.

Hey, he already got "his". Everyone should just universalize this jerk's position: "Hey, I'm gonna do what I want to do because in making myself happy, I'm doing the Cosmos a big favor."

Every day when I wake up, the first thing I do is thank Gaia that this guy is blessing the multiverse with the abundant fruits of his searing intellect.

He totes did it for us.

MikeD said...

Frankly, I'd love to see whatever federal agency is in charge of chasing down deadbeat loan-takers use this as evidence against him in a court of law on the charge of defrauding the American taxpayers he proudly proclaims he stole from.