4 ms·

Horrifying take. Typical of /hn/ when it comes to stuff like this, unfortunately.

by marcellus23 4y ago

sokoloff 4y ago
Suppose someone wants to spend the posited $500K on that degree. If not them, who should pay for it?
- woodruffw 4y ago
  The premise here doesn't match reality: nobody wants to (much less is, to a rounding error) paying $500k for a degree. Nobody should pay for it directly. It should be virtually free to go to college, the way it is everywhere else in the developed world. It should be that way because it's single most obvious investment and high-returning investment any country can make in its future.
  - aortega 4y ago
    >It should be virtually free to go to college If you are going to invest into something, it should be good investment that gives returns. An Useless degree clearly do not give enough returns not even to pay for itself.
    - woodruffw 4y ago
      "Nothing is free" is an aphorism. Read the comment again: the direct cost of attending university in most developed countries is close to $0. In other words: it's free for the attending individuals, because the country understands that investing in education is in its own self interest. Whatever your particular country's failures are might be unfortunate, but they don't counteract the track record of success here. It might be worth considering whether both of our countries would do well to change, rather than presuming that your country's failure will also be mine's.
    - hither_shores 4y ago
      > If you are going to invest into something, it should be good investment that gives returns. An Useless degree clearly do not give enough returns not even to pay for itself. You're assuming that individuals capture the entirety of the value they generate for society (and that they do so exclusively in the form of income), which is essentially never the case.
  - moduspol 4y ago
    Is there any amount of money or any study-able topic that you would acknowledge is, perhaps, not the single most obvious and high-returning investment a country can make? If so, we're already agreeing in principle and just disagreeing where the line is.
  - imtringued 4y ago
    You are disingenuous, I have seen plenty of comments on HN that say you should take on $100k/year degrees and be allowed to go in that much debt even if you are poor and have no prospects of ever paying it back. There are actually people on this planet who think this is normal and should be encouraged. I'm not one of them.
    - woodruffw 4y ago
      I'm not compelled to defend random HN comments, especially ones that don't have any particular basis in reality. The overwhelming majority of US undergraduates pay a tiny fraction of that for their entire undergraduate career.
miked85 4y ago
I'm not sure I understand the "horrifying" part - is paying for your own loan it?

Horrifying take. Typical of /hn/ when it comes to stuff like this, unfortunately.

sokoloff 4y ago

Suppose someone wants to spend the posited $500K on that degree. If not them, who should pay for it?

woodruffw 4y ago
The premise here doesn't match reality: nobody wants to (much less is, to a rounding error) paying $500k for a degree. Nobody should pay for it directly. It should be virtually free to go to college, the way it is everywhere else in the developed world. It should be that way because it's single most obvious investment and high-returning investment any country can make in its future.
- aortega 4y ago
  >It should be virtually free to go to college If you are going to invest into something, it should be good investment that gives returns. An Useless degree clearly do not give enough returns not even to pay for itself.
  - woodruffw 4y ago
    "Nothing is free" is an aphorism. Read the comment again: the direct cost of attending university in most developed countries is close to $0. In other words: it's free for the attending individuals, because the country understands that investing in education is in its own self interest. Whatever your particular country's failures are might be unfortunate, but they don't counteract the track record of success here. It might be worth considering whether both of our countries would do well to change, rather than presuming that your country's failure will also be mine's.
  - hither_shores 4y ago
    > If you are going to invest into something, it should be good investment that gives returns. An Useless degree clearly do not give enough returns not even to pay for itself. You're assuming that individuals capture the entirety of the value they generate for society (and that they do so exclusively in the form of income), which is essentially never the case.
- moduspol 4y ago
  Is there any amount of money or any study-able topic that you would acknowledge is, perhaps, not the single most obvious and high-returning investment a country can make? If so, we're already agreeing in principle and just disagreeing where the line is.
- imtringued 4y ago
  You are disingenuous, I have seen plenty of comments on HN that say you should take on $100k/year degrees and be allowed to go in that much debt even if you are poor and have no prospects of ever paying it back. There are actually people on this planet who think this is normal and should be encouraged. I'm not one of them.
  - woodruffw 4y ago
    I'm not compelled to defend random HN comments, especially ones that don't have any particular basis in reality. The overwhelming majority of US undergraduates pay a tiny fraction of that for their entire undergraduate career.

miked85 4y ago

I'm not sure I understand the "horrifying" part - is paying for your own loan it?