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Post WWII, the United States has seen massive economic growth. Tuition was not free. It’s tough to connect the two.
by hacym 4y ago
Post WWII, the United States has seen massive economic growth. Tuition was not free. It’s tough to connect the two.
- blowski 4y agoI agree with you there. My disagreement is with the OP's very confident predictions of what would happen, when those predictions have not come true anywhere else free tuition fees have been (or are) in place.
- btilly 4y agoStudent loan debt forgiveness is nothing like free tuition, and has very different economic effects. Countries that offer free tuition tend to pay universities directly and cap payments. That provides a strong incentive for universities to control costs. Similarly students who take advantage of the prospect of free tuition do not themselves go into debt. By contrast student loan forgiveness involves forgiving loans to students who have already gone into debt. This makes their private loans easier to pay for them. The prospect of this makes people more willing to go into debt. Nothing about this program gives universities an incentive to control costs. Rather than compare this to free tuition, it is better to compare this to other programs that make it easier for students to borrow to pay high tuition. The USA has had a lot of these programs, and the result is one of the factors driving tuition to rise faster than inflation for a half-century now. I'm just predicting that the result of this program will be the same result that we've seen for the last half-century.