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"Higher education should be free!" Do you mean no one should be paid to provide it?
by jamesbritt 16y ago
"Higher education should be free!"
Do you mean no one should be paid to provide it?
- z0r 16y agoSociety should pay for it, since society will benefit from it.
- jdminhbg 16y agoSociety doesn't seem to be benefiting from it right now if it's employing grads as waiters and bartenders.
- RyanMcGreal 16y agoEducation is a positive externality, i.e. the economy as a whole benefits as well as the individual receiving the education. In a free market, individuals tend to under-invest in education and the overall economy misses out on a higher aggregate education level.
- jamesbritt 16y ago"Society should pay for it, since society will benefit from it." OK, but if someone is paying for it then it's not free. Whether "society" (whihc I'm guessing really means tax payers) should foot the bill is a different matter. There's a good self-interest argument that one is better off in a society where more people are better educated, but the devil is in the details: Who gets funding, with what strings attached, and so on.
- todayiamme 16y agoYou know if you set up research based institutes that actively encourage spin offs based upon the knowledge generated and gained inside their walls. Then, this problem won't exist. For example, if I start a company/business the school will help me out with resources and in return take some amount of equity. Thus, what happens is that you have a VC-esque institution that remains true to the objectives of a university; learning.