system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Why does the government NEED to charge interest on student loans?

Every politician seems to agree that college is too expensive nowadays, but at the same time none of them seem to consider eliminating interest from all student loans (I know some are interest free, but they are hard to qualify for). So can someone explain to me why collecting interest on these loans is more important than allowing recent grads some financial security?
gpt
Part of it is inflation. 100 dollars today will probably buy you more than 100$ ten years from now. If you lend someone money and they pay it back over a period of 10 years, it'll be worth less by the time you get it back. So you compensate with interest.

Part of it is administration. Lending money costs money. You need to keep track of who borrowed, under what agreement, when it's being repaid and how much remaining debt there is. You simply need to pay for people and material to keep track of all that.