America has thrived under the idea of personal freedom and personal responsibility. The effort to expand one's education and knowledge is noble, however, its main purpose is to develop the know-how and experience to earn a higher income and a better life. Under no circumstances should we forgive all of the student debt in this great country. Before explaining the value of college education and the hypocrisy of college debt forgiveness, let me first offer an alternative premise. Imagine if you would, an audacious attempt to reduce car debt. You see those monthly car payments are a major burden on many. We could forgive all car loans for about 1.2 trillion vs 1.5 for student debt. This would make those with high-priced cars and high loan amounts very happy for sure. How about those who don’t have cars? How about those that have cars that are paid off? How about those who bought expensive cars that depreciated quickly but still owe way more than the car is worth? How about those who own 5 trophy cars but had to borrow every penny to afford them? Perhaps by now, you start to see the picture. The idea to pay off student debt is really no better than the idea to pay off all car debt. The emotions and feelings people have about student debt are tied to the struggle to succeed. However, one of the main reasons to invest in higher education is to succeed. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, workers with college degrees earn an average of $468 per week more than those with just a high school education. Over the life of work that equates to more than one million more just for having a degree. College degrees don’t just open the door to earning more, unemployment constantly tracks much lower for college-educated workers too. If you look at one small piece of the financial market puzzle, bank accounts, you will find that people with college degrees are 9.4 times more likely to have a bank account. The same trend exists in payday loans where only 2.3% of loans are to college graduates vs 9.2% for high school graduates. If you follow the trend of home purchases you will find that over 75% of homeowners are college graduates. College educations are investments that we can all agree have value. Working hard and improving your odds of success have been the hallmark of higher education. Using the precious resources to reduce the debt of the most privileged people in our country would be a mistake. The person who struggled through night school while working shouldn’t need to subsidize someone who has 200k in student debt for 4 useless degrees. Doing so would violate the foundation of personal choice and personal responsibility. The hypocrisy of the college-educated elites is that they want to use their education to convince you that, on one hand, college is valuable and you need to have a degree, but that they are too expensive and should be free. Knowing that any worthy investment has a cost should be the first thing college students learn. Receiving the benefit of an investment without experiencing the cost would further separate those who don’t have a college degree and those who have the privilege of hypocrisy.