I'm in Australia, when I grew up degrees were free and the government paid an allowance if your family was poor or you were classed as independent - which means

I'm in Australia, when I grew up degrees were free and the government paid an allowance if your family was poor or you were classed as independent - which means you worked for 2 years after school. So I ended up getting a degree after starting work as an apprentice. The days of an allowance are long gone, Uni degrees now cost here, but not as much as the folks across the pond seem to pay from what I can gather. Would I have gone to uni in todays conditions? probably. would I have finished - hard to say, 3 years of scrabbling for money would have perhaps changed things. The bit I can't figure out is why in the 70's and 80's we could afford that, but now we can't. I suspect it's peoples life style expectations, and the greed of those who earn money to not want to pay taxes. I don't like paying tax any more than the next person but if you want a functioning society taxes are necessary and the only way of redistributing wealth.