3 ms·

Or you could, you know, get the government to pay for it, through taxes.

lalos 8y ago
You mean the people instead of government right? Gov is basically the employees we choose to administer part of our money.
- officialchicken 8y ago
  We don't choose administrators of government, only the symbolic representatives. The actual administrators are most often politically connected "appointees" not "employees". Which is a completely different merit and vetting process than we normally consider in terms of employment.
- pjmorris 8y ago
  And, also, government creates the money we trade around as 'ours.'
  - lalos 8y ago
    People give value to the currency, if we stop using it it becomes just paper. Maybe that would apply for gold standard backed currency.
    - pjmorris 8y ago
      Look at the correlation between currencies traded around the world and currencies that are trade-able with governments to pay taxes. By volume, most trades are made in currencies created and backed by governments. People can and do make their own, but it's a fraction of economic activity. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiat_money https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiat_money [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_Monetary_Theory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_Monetary_Theory
jeffbax 8y ago
The last thing US education needs is further tuition inflation because now the government going to pay for everyone's $60k/year liberal arts degree. I think there's a place for government-funded higher-ed, but it has to be for schools that can keep costs under control (most likely state and community schools) as opposed to what seems to be a cry for unlimited education spending everywhere that will only accelerate ballooning costs. We should commend the private efforts like Berea does. That is a much better model than putting the cost burden on everyone.
- tareqak 8y ago
  I think we can commend private efforts like Berea, but also hold the government accountable in its spending. Tax collection and government spending are two different things: mismanagement of tax revenue only related to tax collection in that the latter allows for the former in that there becomes something to mismanage. If we want to stop collection because of mismanagement, then the government shouldn't have bailed out the banks in 2008. If you don't want to pay for someone else's liberal arts degrees, then you petition ask the government to only sponsor scholarships and grants for careers that are in demand / the state or nation as a whole lacks.
- jimbokun 8y ago
  The government should run its own schools to compete with the private ones, and then immediately suspend all aid and loan programs for private universities. Public money for private institutions is almost always a stupid idea with bad, unintended outcomes.
chiph 8y ago
The inflation in tuition is a result of two things - increased expectations of the "college experience" by students, and the easy availability of cheap money from those students via non-dischargable government loans. Asking the government to pay for it would be like when Oprah handed out free cars. [0] I'm hoping that a new generation of freshmen are telling the admissions people: "I want to go to your school, but I'm worried about the debt. Can I get a discount if I never use the free candy & coffee bars or the climbing wall and get a regular mattress instead of the expensive memory-foam one?" [0] https://www.autoblog.com/2014/09/12/oprah-free-car-giveaway-10-years-later-featured/ https://www.autoblog.com/2014/09/12/oprah-free-car-giveaway-...
- hakfoo 8y ago
  I suspect they'd rig it as some elaborate "opt-out" process. I recall at my university, circa 2000, you could theoretically get back the fee that paid for the student council services, but you had to go to some random room in the middle of the day to claim it and it was USD1/semester. Meanwhile the much larger gym fee was not refundable.

You mean the people instead of government right? Gov is basically the employees we choose to administer part of our money.

officialchicken 8y ago
We don't choose administrators of government, only the symbolic representatives. The actual administrators are most often politically connected "appointees" not "employees". Which is a completely different merit and vetting process than we normally consider in terms of employment.
pjmorris 8y ago
And, also, government creates the money we trade around as 'ours.'
- lalos 8y ago
  People give value to the currency, if we stop using it it becomes just paper. Maybe that would apply for gold standard backed currency.
  - pjmorris 8y ago
    Look at the correlation between currencies traded around the world and currencies that are trade-able with governments to pay taxes. By volume, most trades are made in currencies created and backed by governments. People can and do make their own, but it's a fraction of economic activity. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiat_money https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiat_money [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_Monetary_Theory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_Monetary_Theory

jeffbax 8y ago

The last thing US education needs is further tuition inflation because now the government going to pay for everyone's $60k/year liberal arts degree. I think there's a place for government-funded higher-ed, but it has to be for schools that can keep costs under control (most likely state and community schools) as opposed to what seems to be a cry for unlimited education spending everywhere that will only accelerate ballooning costs. We should commend the private efforts like Berea does. That is a much better model than putting the cost burden on everyone.

tareqak 8y ago
I think we can commend private efforts like Berea, but also hold the government accountable in its spending. Tax collection and government spending are two different things: mismanagement of tax revenue only related to tax collection in that the latter allows for the former in that there becomes something to mismanage. If we want to stop collection because of mismanagement, then the government shouldn't have bailed out the banks in 2008. If you don't want to pay for someone else's liberal arts degrees, then you petition ask the government to only sponsor scholarships and grants for careers that are in demand / the state or nation as a whole lacks.
jimbokun 8y ago
The government should run its own schools to compete with the private ones, and then immediately suspend all aid and loan programs for private universities. Public money for private institutions is almost always a stupid idea with bad, unintended outcomes.

chiph 8y ago

The inflation in tuition is a result of two things - increased expectations of the "college experience" by students, and the easy availability of cheap money from those students via non-dischargable government loans. Asking the government to pay for it would be like when Oprah handed out free cars. [0] I'm hoping that a new generation of freshmen are telling the admissions people: "I want to go to your school, but I'm worried about the debt. Can I get a discount if I never use the free candy & coffee bars or the climbing wall and get a regular mattress instead of the expensive memory-foam one?" [0] https://www.autoblog.com/2014/09/12/oprah-free-car-giveaway-10-years-later-featured/ https://www.autoblog.com/2014/09/12/oprah-free-car-giveaway-...

hakfoo 8y ago
I suspect they'd rig it as some elaborate "opt-out" process. I recall at my university, circa 2000, you could theoretically get back the fee that paid for the student council services, but you had to go to some random room in the middle of the day to claim it and it was USD1/semester. Meanwhile the much larger gym fee was not refundable.