Doesn’t someone have to pay in the long run?
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The main financial concern behind canceling student debt is that it can contribute significantly to inflation. Recall that we have recently hit a 40-year high inflation rate, though it has cooled down to more reasonable levels in the last couple of months. If student loans were to be cancelled, the ideal time would be when the economy is slowing down and possibly recessionary – certainly not now.
As for whether someone has to pay, in the literal sense, not really. The loss in revenue from loan payments to the government (from Federal student debt) or private companies (from subsidizing the cancelation of debt) can be offset by budgetary cuts, or simply absorbed into the national debt. In the case of the latter, you may think of this as letting future economic growth “pay” for the loans.
In a looser interpretation of “someone having to pay”, another concern is that it may contribute to already rising tuition costs. If the student loans were cancelled today, future students may consider the possibility that their loans would also get cancelled, and thus be willing to take on more debt than they otherwise would have. This results in a decreased sensitivity to tuition rates, and possibly drives prices up higher.
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