Obama: not an American Promise

Michelle looked absolutely dynamite in her sapphire Barbara Tfank dress at Tuesday’s State of the Union address. But possibly the most remarkable thing about the speech was how tepid the audience was. There was much less ovation-ing compared to previous years—possibly because there wasn’t much to clap about.

Obama’s most frustrating misconceptions related to the housing crisis, home ownership, and education. President Obama defined the “American Promise” as “If you worked hard, you could do well enough to raise a family, own a home, send your kids away to college, and put a little away for retirement.” That is not the American Promise. Not everyone should own a home. Not everyone needs to go to college. And everyone—starting with you, my fellow Columbia students—should start a Roth IRA as soon as possible. In today’s America, where population is stagnant and the middle class is in decline, it is not at all clear that home ownership is a good investment. The notion that all Americans should own a home is neither economically feasible nor responsible, as it probably was what spawned the bubble of ludicrous loans and mortgages that drove our economy into crisis. Renting homes or apartments is often more economical than owning—as most of us students know, living in a city can prove less financially burdening than suburban dwelling.

The president pointed out that the largest portion of our national debt at this moment is the student loan bubble. Categorizing the problem as university degrees versus none is the wrong categorization. Everyone needs a way to develop the skills necessary to support themselves and their families, but many of those skills are not taught in colleges. Our country needs electricians, plumbers, mechanics, and pilots just as much as we need teachers, lawyers, and doctors. I wholeheartedly agreed with Obama when he said, “Community colleges need to become community career centers.” We need to incentivize education for skill sets that lead to jobs. The student loan system needs reform. Currently, regardless of the cost of their college, many students can take out Pell Grants and loans up to the point of the tuition cost of the most expensive colleges. And they can take out loans regardless of their major—so they go into debt regardless of whether they study sociology (for which there are few jobs) or engineering (for which there are many jobs). A rational policy would be for the government to use more financial aid to incentivize students who choose degrees that will result in more lucrative jobs like biology, accounting, or economics. By the government granting loans equally to all students at all colleges, there is no reason why colleges would have to compete on price. Rather, they compete for students by adding more comfort, more programs, more tuition, and more student debt. This model could cause a disproportionate number of financial aid students in SEAS versus Barnard, CC or GS, but these students would also be more likely to pay off their loans.

Obama also claimed that all students should stay in high school until they graduate or they turn 18. He essentially is saying that when a student passes one of these two goal lines, he can spike the ball and walk off the field in triumph. These are the wrong goals. The real goal line is for students to have a job that will enable them to support themselves and their family, or to go to a trade school or conventional college like Columbia, where they can pursue advanced skills and knowledge that will lead to attractive jobs.

I applaud Obama’s call to bring jobs back to America. It’s easy for management to outsource. What’s hard is to figure out how to make it in our country cost-competitively. But figuring that out is far from impossible—companies like BMW, Toyota, and Honda prove that you don’t have to go abroad to save money on manufacturing. Our workers are the most productive in the world.

Obama needs to continue to incentivize American businessmen who create American jobs. And most of all, he needs to stop thinking that he is helping the middle class by creating public sector jobs for them that only contribute to a bigger, more bureaucratic government. By instituting a policy that encourages irresponsible spending and poor educational and fiscal decisions, he will perpetuate a short-sighted future for college students that will set us up for financial and career degeneracy.

The author is a Barnard College sophomore majoring in political science and art history. She is the social director for the Columbia University College Republicans.