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Except that someone still has to pay for it, and unless the cost of college is trivial then that means society still has to make choices about whether the ROI f
by qrendel 11y ago
Except that someone still has to pay for it, and unless the cost of college is trivial then that means society still has to make choices about whether the ROI for doing so is actually worth it. Resources spent giving people an education they won't actually need is money that could have been spent on other things like healthcare, disease research, or enriching their lives in other ways. The free college of other countries still comes with its own cost,; it's just hidden from the individual members of the public by being spread across the whole taxbase.
If you want to learn and absorb knowledge there are many cheaper ways to do it, e.g. libraries or MOOCs. But that won't give you a special status signaling symbol (the degree) that you can use to get past HR departments into the hiring process. That creates positional externalities that are a huge expense for society beyond just enriching people's lives through knowledge and education.
- littletimmy 11y agoThe best solution is we have is to tax the rich and use that money to educate everyone else. That's who should pay for it: people who have too much. I think it is a mistake to assume that resources spent on giving people an education will be spent on healthcare or other stuff. What's most likely going to happen is that the relevant cut in public spending will be made into a tax cut.
- Falkon1313 11y ago>Except that someone still has to pay for it, and unless the cost of college is trivial Compared to the price, the cost is trivial. If the price wasn't hyperinflated, it wouldn't be an issue. We see similar things in healthcare. "But someone has to pay for this $40 inhaler!" (Which only costs $1 in any other industrialized country.) What society needs to make choices about is whether the ROI of price-gouging everyone for things that we all agree that everyone needs is actually worth it. Resources spent giving rich people more money that they won't actually need is money that could have been spent on other things like healthcare, disease research, or enriching their lives in other ways. Like, for example, education.