Slow Action, Smart Loan

Former governor Eloit Spitzer believes: “The long-term economic strength of the United States depends on our ability to compete in the world of intellectual capital.” In his article, “Lone Ranger,” for the online magazine, Slate.com, (http://www.slate.com/id/2212534/,) Spitzer disavows the barriers hindering an individual’s pursuit of higher education and the long term consequences of diminishing “American intellectual capital.” Spitzer appeals to authority, logic, and reasoning to support his stance on a proven, internationally successful loan program which he dubs, “smart loans.” First proposed and subsequently supported by two Nobel laureates, a government funded and monitored “smart loan” permits students to fund their education with a loan payback model based on a fixed percentage of their subsequent income – regardless of what that may be. Students who received “smart loans” would free to pursue socially desirable jobs, such as teaching, in place of high paying jobs that simply qualify because of their astronomical monthly tuition/loan payments. I agree with Spitzer's assertion that “education is a social good that receives inadequate investment.” Furthermore, “[A smart loan] removes a significant barrier to education for the non-wealthy and it frees employment decisions from the yoke of pure income maximization.” The “smart loan” was tested at Yale University in the late 1970’s and ultimately scrubbed-but not before a law student named William Jefferson Clinton was able to take advantage of the loan model’s benefits. Bill Clinton invested his intellectual capital in to a successful run for president: evidence that “making higher education universally available is worth the attention of the Obama administration and congress.”