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I'm surprise nobody had mentioned tulips. http://slatestarcodex.com/2015/06/06/against-tulip-subsidies/ http://slatestarcodex.com/2015/06/06/against-tulip-subs

• gwern 9y ago
  Or http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/05/23/ssc-gives-a-graduation-speech/ http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/05/23/ssc-gives-a-graduation-... where Scott points out that the same question applies to lower education as well: we spend something like $100,000 on lower education per pupil (pre-school, kindergarten, 5 grades elementary, 3 grades middle, 4 grades high school = 14 years at ~$7k/year/pupil on the low end), which would be even higher if invested and compounded for ~18 years, but when you compare to unschooled or homeschooled kids the benefit of making six figures of expenses plus stealing everyone's childhoods is... hard to see.