3 ms·

But the cost structure could very widely when there are different motivators. I suspect this is what is really happening. Colleges in the US are 5 star resorts

But the cost structure could very widely when there are different motivators. I suspect this is what is really happening. Colleges in the US are 5 star resorts wheres in Europe they are either old beautiful relics or just old boring buildings with no real amenities and a lot less staff needed to run the operations.

eru 4y ago
What I mean is that there's no way to indebt whole future generations. Wealth might be distributed unequally, but debt over all is still a zero sum thing. I agree that many people in many countries spend too many resources on education. Especially students' time. See Bryan Caplan's book The Case Against Education. See eg https://www.reddit.com/r/slatestarcodex/comments/7t59x1/review_bryan_caplans_the_case_against_education/ https://www.reddit.com/r/slatestarcodex/comments/7t59x1/revi... for a review.
- nebula8804 4y ago
  You make it sound like its a black and white thing. I disagree. If you can get your costs under control, that debt accrued now becomes an investment that should pay off the debt in the aggregate long run. After all this is not just money spent on a consumable. This is money spent on a resource(education) that generates more money(in the aggregate) in the form of productivity. The problem is that this is an extremely difficult problem given a large population. Because when you have a large population there ends up being graft that pulls value away and in the worst case scenario(the situation in Communist Russia) the majority of the value is stripped away leaving nothing but the debt. However, that does not mean it can't be made to work well. It seems like many European nations can somewhat get more value than investment (so far).
  - eru 4y ago
    Your thinking seems to be a bit muddled. You seem to be mixing up nominal concepts (basically, money and accounting and debt) and real concepts (capital goods / investing etc).

eru 4y ago

What I mean is that there's no way to indebt whole future generations. Wealth might be distributed unequally, but debt over all is still a zero sum thing. I agree that many people in many countries spend too many resources on education. Especially students' time. See Bryan Caplan's book The Case Against Education. See eg https://www.reddit.com/r/slatestarcodex/comments/7t59x1/review_bryan_caplans_the_case_against_education/ https://www.reddit.com/r/slatestarcodex/comments/7t59x1/revi... for a review.

nebula8804 4y ago
You make it sound like its a black and white thing. I disagree. If you can get your costs under control, that debt accrued now becomes an investment that should pay off the debt in the aggregate long run. After all this is not just money spent on a consumable. This is money spent on a resource(education) that generates more money(in the aggregate) in the form of productivity. The problem is that this is an extremely difficult problem given a large population. Because when you have a large population there ends up being graft that pulls value away and in the worst case scenario(the situation in Communist Russia) the majority of the value is stripped away leaving nothing but the debt. However, that does not mean it can't be made to work well. It seems like many European nations can somewhat get more value than investment (so far).
- eru 4y ago
  Your thinking seems to be a bit muddled. You seem to be mixing up nominal concepts (basically, money and accounting and debt) and real concepts (capital goods / investing etc).