Editors’ Note:

Brought to America’s youth by unjust universities and an unjust government.

The Wall Street Journal recently ran a story about student loans. It was another story in a long list of stories over the years about the loan scams perpetrated by the bastions of social justice, universities, and by the main funder of social justice initiatives, the federal government, as enabled by both political parties.

Stories like this fuel the growing public sentiment to excuse student loan debt.

The story in question was about shenanigans at Baylor University, a private school with a religious founding but apparently without a moral compass. Like so many universities, it was consigning students to indebtedness while it was raising tuition way beyond the inflation rate and building swank facilities and a new football stadium.

Universities get the student loan money but taxpayers get the shaft if the borrowers default. In other words, the schools don’t have a monetary incentive to cut costs or be honest with parents and students about their expected return on investment. It’s a system designed by a madman.

At the same time, it’s difficult to be sympathetic with the parents and students featured in the Journal story, especially the main character. A public school administrator making $75,000 a year, she has a master’s degree from Baylor and $231,000 in federal loans for herself and her two kids. Apparently, a master’s degree from Baylor doesn’t teach someone enough to know how to conduct an internet search on student loans and the return on investment of different degrees—or how to use one of the scores of financial calculators on the internet that do the calculations for you in a matter of minutes.

Her reason for sending her kids to an expensive school like Baylor? In her words, she didn’t want to send her kids somewhere less expensive such as community college where they would overachieve. Huh?

Of course, the article said nothing about her lifestyle—whether she lives above or below her means. For all we know, she could be driving a $60,000 luxury car.

The article also mentioned nothing about the father of her children and why he isn’t helping with his kids’ college expenses. It’s become so normal for men to be missing from the household that such questions aren’t asked.

I’m typing this in my home in Tucson, where the University of Arizona is located—and where my son got a bachelor’s and master’s in engineering. His total cost over the five years for tuition, room, and board was about the same as the average price of a new car or a lifetime of expensive milkshakes, er, coffee, at Starbucks.

If the last point seems like hyperbole, consider this: If a 25-year-old were to begin investing $5 a day instead of spending the money at Starbucks, the investment would grow to over $200,000 by the age of 65, assuming an investment return of 5%, compounded monthly.

In addition to his scholarships and internships, my son worked for two years as a resident hall assistant in one of the oldest dorms on campus, one that had communal bathrooms and bare-boned facilities. The job subsidized his room and board, and he saved money by not eating on campus. Instead, he took the bus to a supermarket to buy groceries, which he kept in a refrigerator in the dorm’s kitchen.

No big deal. A little suffering in college makes for a better education and a better human being.

He graduated without any debt, and, given his current employment, the ROI on his degrees is very high.

The son takes after the dad, who worked through college and leveraged a degree from a no-name university into a rewarding career. But that was in an era in which colleges didn’t gouge students while indoctrinating them in social justice.

In any event, when the government ends up excusing college debt, as it definitely will, my son will be paying part of the student debt incurred by others. That’s called social justice, a misnomer if there ever was one.