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> Or we could forbid poor people from getting their desired degrees altogether, what you describe is the same thing but with more steps. We probably should. T
by ethbr1 3y ago
> Or we could forbid poor people from getting their desired degrees altogether, what you describe is the same thing but with more steps.
We probably should.
There's little difference between "I graduated with an uneconomic degree, and then failed to get a job in that market and/or labored under student debt I'll never be able to pay off" and "They wouldn't give me money for an uneconomic degree".
If anything, the latter is kinder because it nudges the college student into either funding their own uneconomic degree up-front (if they can find the money) or making other decisions.
It's always seemed insane to me that we let 18-year olds, sometimes with little financial education, make decisions that will benefit or haunt them for the rest of their life with so little guidance. (And college counselors have very conflicting incentives)
- nebula8804 3y agoIt may be better to tackle this issue at the school level than to pick and choose what constitutes a valuable degree because that can change depending on what the market wants. What may be true at student entrance may be totally false at student graduation. Isn't this a solved problem in Europe? The state treats public colleges as a utility to invest in the population. So the schools may not be as glamorous but they are easily and cheaply available for people who want to put in the work regardless of major.
- ethbr1 3y agoI guess the issue with college funding is: is it an entitlement or an incentive program? If it's an entitlement, we could just give people money whether or not they choose to spend it on college. If it's an incentive (buying a good outcome for society), then it seems fair that the funder has some say in what they're buying. I've heard Canada does have a serious problem with oscillating supply/demand mismatch in their medical education funding. But it feels like that could be smoothed by using look back averaging & creating a +/- % system vs a hard, "there are no more slots" one.