Student loan forgiveness gains traction

Someone else has hit upon my idea of the federal government covering student loans, according to the Baltimore Sun:

But as the economy still sputters along, Robert Applebaum thinks he has a better idea: Cancel all the outstanding student loan debt. The impact would be immediate, he says, as people paying hundreds of dollars a month on their student loans could instead spend that money elsewhere.

Applebaum estimates student loan debt about 12 times higher than I do. (Psst Rob! Use my math, and it looks even BETTER!) And he has a Facebook group with a zillion members, which means about as much as an online petition does.

Still, this is a really sane idea which frees up our best-educated, most motivated citizens to invest in other things, while returning liquidity to the responsible lending institutions that made these loans in the first place.

The arguments posted against it are pretty weak. I can't believe someone even bothered offering up the argument that it's unfair to some people. We left "fair" bleeding in a ditch 'round about October. Also note, I paid off my student loan aggressively after college, and I'm out. My wife has some student loan debt, but nothing debilitating. This doesn't benefit us really. It's not "fair" to us, but it's still a good idea.

See, I just want something that works, and playing chess with bankers? That's not working.