The New York Times’ Sinful Advice on Student Loans

The Seventh Commandment says, “Thou shall not steal” but what does that mean? While the Catechism of the Catholic Church does admit of extraordinary circumstances where it can be moral to take another’s property (e.g., it’s not wrong to take an apple from someone’s orchard in order to feed someone who is starving), the essence of the seventh commandment is this: “It’s wrong to make something yours if it belongs to someone else.”

This goes far beyond the classic example of walking into a bank and saying “Stick ’em up!” Paragraph 2409 of the Catechism references the following sins against the seventh commandment:

• Stealing from employees by paying them less than what they’re work is worth.
• Stealing from employers by making poor quality work or by wasting time at the office.
• Stealing from a consumer by using deception or an unfair advantage to sell goods for much more than they’re worth.
• Not paying one’s taxes.
• Cheating at games or unfair wagers (e.g., fixing boxing matches, operating carnival games that can’t be won, etc.).
• Not paying back money that you freely borrowed and justly owe.

Why pay?

It’s the last item on this list I’d like to expand on in light of a recent New York Times article by Lee Siegel headlined “Why I defaulted on my student loans.”

In the article, Siegel describes how he couldn’t afford to attend a “small private college” when he was younger (which, according to his bio, has to be Columbia University). Instead, he took out loans and, rather than find a job that could equip him to repay the loans, Siegel decided to pursue his dream of becoming a writer and just didn’t pay the loans back at all.

He advises students in similar situations to do the same and even gives helpful tips on how to survive with ruined credit. For example, Siegel says you could always just marry someone with good credit (though he neglects to mention how the government can garnish your wages and tax refunds in order to get its money back).

Siegel does opine on what he could have done instead of defaulting:

“Maybe I should have stayed at a store called The Wild Pair, where I once had a nice stable job selling shoes after dropping out of the state college because I thought I deserved better, and naïvely tried to turn myself into a professional reader and writer on my own, without a college degree. I’d probably be district manager by now. Or maybe, after going back to school, I should have gone into finance, or some other lucrative career. Self-disgust and lifelong unhappiness, destroying a precious young life—all this is a small price to pay for meeting your student loan obligations.”

Of course, if you’re like most people, you probably think that only something like a debilitating illness could cause “life-long unhappiness” or the “destruction of precious young life,” not working as a general manager in a shoe store.

But before you think I’m just griping about a New York Times author trying to make a living penning provocative articles, keep in mind my main concern. Siegel and his ilk are encouraging young people to have a sinful attitude toward student loans. Specifically, this one: “Life isn’t about hard work, or doing the right thing. It’s about ‘following my dreams.’ It’s not fair I should have to give up my dreams to pay the government back what I owe.”

But the Catechism says:

Promises must be kept and contracts strictly observed to the extent that the commitments made in them are morally just. A significant part of economic and social life depends on the honoring of contracts between physical or moral persons—commercial contracts of purchase or sale, rental or labor contracts. All contracts must be agreed to and executed in good faith (CCC 2411).

Loan Justice and Injustice

A loan usually involves a contract that says you will repay the money you borrowed along with reasonable interest. Paying interest is an important part of the process, because, in taking the money, you deprived the lender of the opportunity to invest it and make money (for more on Catholic teaching on lending at interest, see this article).

Simply put, it is a matter of justice that we give back what we borrow, whether it’s a friend’s bowling ball or a bank’s $50,000. To not give it back is on par with taking the bowling ball when our friend is not home or taking $50,000 out of a bank vault without permission.

Now, there are cases where it might not be a sin to fail to repay a loan. This could occur with fraudulent loans, loans with exorbitant interest rates that exploit the poor (something Pope Benedict spoke against in Caritas in Veritate, 65) or a borrower’s inability to repay the loan.

The latter can happen if a borrower becomes ill, has been unable to find gainful employment, or uses what little money he makes for necessities like food and shelter for himself or his dependents. A basic principle of morality is “ought implies can.” No one is obligated to do the impossible, and so, in cases where assets have been depleted and loan repayment is impossible, bankruptcy can be a moral decision (this Catholic encyclopedia article about the morality of filing bankruptcy discusses some of those cases).[i]

However, if you freely agreed to a fair loan, even if you agreed to a foolish one (e.g. $50,000 to study underwater basketweaving), then you have an obligation to pay the loan back to the best of your ability. If that’s impossible through no fault of your own, then there may not be a moral obligation to repay (though there is a legal obligation, since student loans are almost impossible to discharge in bankruptcy court).

But a person who is in this situation because he took out an irresponsible loan is a different story. Most egregiously, someone who does not repay a loan because he just doesn’t want to either pay or to work a job that is, in Siegel’s words, “beneath him,” is guilty of the sin of theft—a very serious sin, I might add. St. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6:9:

Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither the immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor robbers will inherit the kingdom of God.

Going to College Without Debt

Now, lest anyone think I am being too hard on college students, I completely agree that colleges that receive or give out loans can be guilty of theft. This happens when schools lie to students and give them an education that is not comparable to the value of the loan they took out to pay for it. For example, a group like the now-closed Corinthian Colleges that falsified its program descriptions and job placement rates is guilty of stealing students’ time, money, and possibly their productive futures.

But students also have an obligation to not take out irresponsible loans and to get through college without going into massive debt. For example, I went to a community college for two years to shave off the cost of my undergraduate degree. When I went to graduate school at the Franciscan University of Steubenville, I understood the on-campus program would have cost me about $60,000. I love FUS, and I would have enjoyed attending on campus, but I didn’t go for the same reason I haven’t embarked on an equivalently expensive trip around the world: I couldn’t afford it and could never afford to repay a loan for it.

Instead I opted for FUS’s distance learning program, which allowed me to pursue a degree at a quarter of the cost while working a full-time job back home. For the next two years I paid for school out-of-pocket and spent nights and weekends writing term papers and studying. Although I did have to stay on campus for six weeks in order to complete my degree—which meant taking out a small loan—I felt this was morally responsible, because I borrowed only what I needed and was certain I could pay back the loan.

I’ve known people who used their student loans to finance expensive student housing, eating out multiple times a week, and buy expensive Macbooks when a cheap PC would easily run the same MS Word and Internet browsing programs. My meals ended up being sponsored by Campbell’s Soup and, to save money on housing, I lived off campus in a dirt-cheap apartment in a shady neighborhood.

Along with these suggestions, it might also be a good idea to go to school part-time while working full-time (instead of the other way around), even if school takes twice as long. This isn’t a waste of time, because the work experience gained during this time can be crucial to landing a good job after graduation. Or, maybe more students should consider not going to college at all and attending a low-cost trade school instead.

What really matters

The bottom line is that young people pursuing education should be open to these alternatives. They at least shouldn’t consign themselves to being saddled with debt they can’t realistically repay. But more than that, we as parents and mentors to these students should teach them that what matters most in life. Here’s a hint: it isn’t getting a diploma or even a well-paying job. What matters most is developing virtue and serving God in whatever honest, decent, and moral life he is calling us to live.