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I hear you. The culturally-encouraged pseudo-slavery of debt really bothers me.

by gregw2 8y ago

DoreenMichele 8y ago
Yes, that really bothers me too. Ideally, I would like to see a situation where it is possible to have an entry level job, cheap rental and apply for standard federal financial aid and make it work with some reasonable degree of effort at a fairly high percentage of schools. One of my concerns with free tuition at elite universities is that it is likely to become one more way that "them that has, gets." My suspicion is that the vast majority of slots will still go to kids from wealthy families, though ability to pay is no longer one of the ways poor people get excluded. There are lots of ways to exclude poor people without using their income per se as a means to exclude them. If the most elite colleges have free tuition and you see rich kids getting a free ride because of it, then the gulf between rich and poor only grows. It won't shrink. That's very problematic, for a long list of reasons. One issue is that we should be looking to make education available to those with interest and ability in a particular area. We should be developing policies with an eye towards furthering human and societal development. Education that is too much about credentialing can turn into justification for "welfare for the rich." You get the job because you have the credentials. You got the credentials because of who your dad was, not because you are actually interested or talented. It makes you sure you remain comfortably upper class, never mind that you are essentially a leech on society. There are two ways to be rich: 1. Add enough value that everyone is better off, including you. 2. Extract value from the world and society such that you are very much better off, but it is questionable if anyone else is. Your employees have terrible lives. The environment is being destroyed. Etc. But, hey, your bank account remains fat and that's all that matters. The world needs to perpetually guard against that second thing. And we struggle with it.

I hear you. The culturally-encouraged pseudo-slavery of debt really bothers me.

by gregw2 8y ago

I hear you. The culturally-encouraged pseudo-slavery of debt really bothers me.

Yes, that really bothers me too. Ideally, I would like to see a situation where it is possible to have an entry level job, cheap rental and apply for standard federal financial aid and make it work with some reasonable degree of effort at a fairly high percentage of schools. One of my concerns with free tuition at elite universities is that it is likely to become one more way that "them that has, gets." My suspicion is that the vast majority of slots will still go to kids from wealthy families, though ability to pay is no longer one of the ways poor people get excluded. There are lots of ways to exclude poor people without using their income per se as a means to exclude them. If the most elite colleges have free tuition and you see rich kids getting a free ride because of it, then the gulf between rich and poor only grows. It won't shrink. That's very problematic, for a long list of reasons. One issue is that we should be looking to make education available to those with interest and ability in a particular area. We should be developing policies with an eye towards furthering human and societal development. Education that is too much about credentialing can turn into justification for "welfare for the rich." You get the job because you have the credentials. You got the credentials because of who your dad was, not because you are actually interested or talented. It makes you sure you remain comfortably upper class, never mind that you are essentially a leech on society. There are two ways to be rich: 1. Add enough value that everyone is better off, including you. 2. Extract value from the world and society such that you are very much better off, but it is questionable if anyone else is. Your employees have terrible lives. The environment is being destroyed. Etc. But, hey, your bank account remains fat and that's all that matters. The world needs to perpetually guard against that second thing. And we struggle with it.