While campaigning in Grimes, Iowa, Elizabeth Warren met a man with a question about her plan to wipe out $640 billion in student debt. The question is far more important than it might seem to many people, apparently including Warren.

He asked, “My daughter is in school, I saved all my money just to pay student loans, can I have my money back?”

Warren’s response?  “Of course not.”

If you don’t stop and think, her response might seem sensible.  No debt?  Nothing to pay off.  Simple.  But this flies in the face of two of our thinking guide posts: 1. People tend to make pretty good decisions when they have to live with the consequences.  2. People respond to incentives.

What the man says next shows the very real problem with any plan like Warren’s.  “So, you’re going to pay for people who didn’t save any money, and those of us that did the right thing get screwed?”  He continued, “My buddy had fun, bought a car, went on vacation.  I saved my money. He made more than I did. I worked a double shift working to get extra money.”

If we think compensating people who spend frivolously and rack up debt while requiring people who save and spend carefully to foot the bill won’t have dire consequences, we probably deserve the results. 

But the perpetual problem with government is, there’s no way for the people who see the problem coming to get out of its way.  Everything is compulsory and ultimately enforced at gunpoint.  Warren’s blatant dismissal of this man’s question demonstrates the disconnect between our lawmakers and their understanding of the ramifications of their policies.

We need to understand them so policies like this aren’t enacted.