Elizabeth Warren just announced a plan for universally free college education accompanied by the cancellation of nearly all student debt, to be paid for by a tax on the ultra-rich. The Washington Examiner's Philip Klein believes this would be terribly unfair -- not to the rich (heavens, no!), but to other people who've struggled:
This pander will not only be incredibly costly, but it will be a slap in the face to those who have already struggled to pay off their student loans without government assistance.
... There are those who may have taken higher-paying jobs they didn't necessarily want to pay off loans. And there are those who have cut expenses to the bare bones to pay off loans while watching their friends with similar salaries eat out and travel and de-prioritize paying off loans. Those who were more responsible will feel justifiably enraged at the idea that those who may have been more profligate will now get a bailout from the government.
Let's apply this logic to other situations:
* Workplace safety laws were a slap in the face to all the people who died in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire.
* The Voting Rights Act was a slap in the face to every black Southerner who tried to register to vote but was rejected by white racists.
* Roe v. Wade was a slap in the face to every woman who ever self-administered a coathanger abortion.
* The defeat of Hitler was a slap in the face to everyone who suffered under the Third Reich.
* Modern anesthesia is a slap in the face to anyone who had surgery after drinking a slug of whiskey and biting on a bullet.
* Rural electrification was a slap in the face to the ghost of Abraham Lincoln, who read law books by candlelight.
* The invention of cooking was a slap in the face to our primate ancestors, who ate raw meat and plants.
Anyone else want to play? Post your own concern-trolling in comments.
