> Whole conversation around free college is starting from the wrong premise (that 4 year college should even be the baseline). College is largely just a signali

> Whole conversation around free college is starting from the wrong premise (that 4 year college should even be the baseline). College is largely just a signaling tool, Maybe signalling your ability to pay! Making it tuition-free is a good step toward stopping some of that bullshit. University system is a kind of self-governing guild system. The signal is approval from the older generation who satisfied the requirements of the system in their time. It may be a signal that the younger group has put up with their bullshit hazing. Or that they met some reasonable standards. The money requirement is more like the bullshit hazing. > and the long duration and requirement makes switching career paths very costly, and pretty much impossible for people who aren't in their 20s. Even if it were made free Not really. It requires no more time investment than a full-time job. For working age people seeking career advancement not a problem. Replacing the income of a full-time job is part of the funding requirement that is more important for older people. > Doctors in particular are problematic, because as I understand it the AMA limits number of new doctors creating an artificial shortage Any degree system is "artificial scarcity" inherently. Even if the number of spots isn't fixed centrally, you have some social ("artificial") process for including and excluding people. The more exclusive the process, the higher prestige the degree can confer. You cannot remove the exclusivity while preserving the degree. (And maybe we should get rid of a lot of the degrees and the social divisions they create... I don't especially feel that way for MDs though.)