Frederic Bastiat, a 19th century French economist, wrote this in his book “The Law:” “See if the law takes from some persons what belongs to them and gives it to other persons to whom it does not belong. See if the law benefits one citizen at the expense of another by doing what the citizen himself cannot do without committing a crime.” Bastiat described this as “legal plunder.”

Consider the executive fiat from the Biden administration that declared up to $10,000 of college student loan debt can be forgiven and some exceptions could allow up to $20,000 to be forgiven.

Debts aren’t simply erased. The money was borrowed and must be paid back. To offload the debt from an individual, the student, to the collective, the taxpayer, by government edict satisfies Bastiat’s description of legal plunder.

A financial debt is money owed. A loan is a sum of money that’s expected to be paid back with interest. A lender lends funds with the expectation the funds will be repaid. A borrower is the person receiving money from a lender signing a legal contract to pay the money plus interest back to the lender by a specified time. The transaction is personal. The obligation agreed to in the loan agreement is between the lender and borrower. These conditions are the same whether one secures a loan for a car, house or education. Only one person, the borrower, is responsible for repaying the loan.

Idaho Gov. Brad Little was among 22 governors who sent a letter to President Joe Biden opposing the student loan cancellation plan. Little’s letter states: “Only 16 percent to 17 percent of Americans have federal student loan debt, yet your plan will require their debts be redistributed and paid by the vast majority of taxpayers.” The letter went on to explain how the plan shifts the burden of debt from the wealthiest Americans with a “regressive impact that harms lower income families.”

There are varied reasons individuals don’t attend college, ranging from cost to alternative employment or business options. College is not the only avenue for success in America. What about the young entrepreneurs who need loans to start their businesses? What about the individual costs for apprentice programs? What about the individual who bypassed college due to a lack of funding because they did NOT want to go into debt?

How ironic and unjust that with the stroke of an executive pen, indebted college students are relieved of the responsibility of their own choices and a portion of their indebtedness is now shifted to others who didn’t make that choice.

Since the individual borrower owns the debt, a quote by American economist Walter Williams seems appropriate. Williams said: “No matter how worthy the cause, it is robbery, theft and injustice to confiscate the property of one person and give it to another to whom it does not belong.” The same is true for debt. Debt taken from an individual and given to other individuals is morally wrong.

Hard work, perseverance and individual responsibility are characteristics upon which Americans have prospered. The American dream was never achieved by taking from one group and giving to another. Legal plunder has no place in a free society.