Despite no promise of a return on the investment, we've all been conditioned to varying degrees to believe deeply that the only path toward a college education for many is to plummet into unfathomable debt. This unfortunate aspect of American life, of course, is a key component of the national discourse surrounding the student loan crisis that's clearly informing the issues being discussed by 2020 Democratic presidential candidates.
This week, Patriot Act host Hasan Minhaj stepped up with some support for those affected by this growing problem by testifying before Congress.
"We recently did an episode on the student loan crisis and it really hit home with our audience because 44 million Americans owe more than $1.6 trillion of student loan debt," he said. The issue, he added, is "sidelining" a huge amount of Americans.
"And we even tell kids today, look, if you don't go to college, you might as well get a face tattoo, and then they point to Post Malone and we're like, OK, that's one guy," he said.
From there, he noted that many Congress members paid much less for their respective educations.
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"People aren't making more money and college is objectively way more expensive," he added. "You see what's happened? We've put up a paywall to the middle class."
Hasan's suggestion, which speaks to the objectively wonky priorities of the government at large, is for them to "treat our student borrowers the way we treat our banks" by way of intervening on the crisis.
He also mentioned Lil Uzi Vert and Taylor Swift, both of whom have been known to help fans with their education debts in the past. As Hasan explained, no one should have to reach out to their favorite artist for assistance on such matters:
