If people can take out a loan to buy a Tesla or a Birkin bag, having no money to pay it back, because they think it makes them cool - they should be allowed to take out a loan to get an arts history degree. If anything, it will bring less harm to the environment.
There's no way to forbid people to be stupid without sacrificing both market economy, and democracy.
And the creditor should be to deny them based on insufficient ability to repay, and it should be dischargeable in bankruptcy, and the government should in no circumstances pay it back for them.
This is the difference. The government backs educational loans and sets different rules that mean the creditor is almost guaranteed never to lose money. If there was no government guarantee, creditors would offer fewer loans to people they didn't expect to be able to pay them back.
