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> similar to housing and a college edu - that "government intervention" often has unintended consequences. There's good and bad to everything and every policy,
by forapurpose 8y ago
> similar to housing and a college edu - that "government intervention" often has unintended consequences.
There's good and bad to everything and every policy, but this statement is meaningless. How many people have been educated in government-owned colleges, which includes ever public university in the U.S.? Whatever the unintended consequences, it seems to have done an enormous amount of good.
- chiefalchemist 8y agoI'm talking about cheap and easy to get loans. They created artificial demand - for housing and for higher edu - and as we all know that drives prices up. I hope this clears things up. The point is, when you squeeze a balloon...shit happens.
- cossatot 8y agoI really wish the approach to making university education more affordable was by subsidizing the universities more instead of subsidizing loans. I don't know if hand-outs to banks was the only way that the left could get enough support from the right to get any legislation passed or what, but it's terrible both for those who do take out loans and those who just cough up more of their own or their family's money.
- chiefalchemist 8y agoWas it the only way? No, of course not. Does Wall Street play the puppet master? I think we all know the answer to that.
- forapurpose 8y agoFor those interested in the actual policy rather than a rant: Giving loans to students is a 'market-based' approach; it allows the market to pick winners and allocate resources, via students choice of school, rather than the government. How does the government pick which schools get the funds? That doesn't make it a perfect policy, of course. I think grants to students or simply free education at public universities may be the best options. But that costs more money than loans.
- forapurpose 8y agoThanks for the clarification. I stand by my point about good and bad in everything. Doing nothing because there might be some bad consequences is unwise. On this specific point: I have yet to see much consensus in research that the loans drove up the cost of college; last I knew there was one paper. AFAIK, it's a story started by the partisan 'shrink-goverment-at-all-costs' crowd, and the repeated.
- chiefalchemist 8y agoLoans increased demand. Demand drives up price. Loans also increased the price the market can bear. A study for Ecom 101 just feels like more gov excess.
- forapurpose 8y agoThat's theory and it ignores all other factors. There's a reason that science, the law, and other fields rely on observable fact, not theory.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]