Feedback re Student Loans

Some of my correspondents do not comment on the blog; rather than signing up for a Google account, they instead respond by e-mail.  I tried to post a couple of those as comments, but apparently Blogspot does not allow me to comment on my own post.  So here are a couple of interesting responses:

From friend TW:
Fletch:

With a daughter getting near the end of residency, medical student debt is horrific. She will have borrowed approximately 250K. And - it is not just the debt, but the interest that accumulates on this debt.

I appreciate your thoughts - interesting dilemma for all medical, dental, legal folks, and graduate students who have to borrow funds for their higher education. Our graduate students at XXX borrow on average about $125/145k for their 5/6 year doctoral degree. 

And from DW, a committed Libertarian friend::
Why is This a Bad Idea?
Obviously, because it entails expropriating the property of some, not for the common good, but for the benefit of a select group, i.e., debtors.  That's theft and immoral.  I'm surprised you asked the question, Fletch.

The moral hazard argument is persuasive when it comes to bankers and speculators, but I don't think these ambitious, employed graduates would generalize relief from their debt burden to an expectation that society will step in and bail them out of any sort of future troubles.  This generation of young "debtors", unburdened, will become an engine of growth and the pool from which our future leaders will be drawn.