You're right, maybe I am being a bit too serious, and looking back I should have noticed the humor. Thanks for the grounding. :-) 1.) Agreed. 2.) I agree wit

You're right, maybe I am being a bit too serious, and looking back I should have noticed the humor. Thanks for the grounding. :-) 1.) Agreed. 2.) I agree with the first part. I'm not sure I agree that there is a negative effect for most people. I'd also argue that college provides a unique environment that allows these types of things to happen. 3.) I also agree, and this ties into what I mentioned in 2. 4.) Again, we have a consensus. I will note though that hardly anyone pays the sticker price at private schools. Others in my family are currently attending private school, and they are paying about what I am paying at a public school. 5.) My answer to this question ties into a larger debate about the proper role of government, so I'll just avoid it for now. :-) 6.) While the numbers are not what I put, I agree with the general premise. I'm not necessarily convinced the quality to garbage ratio could be higher outside of university. I'm more inclined to think that it's just a reality of creation, where most of it is garbage. 7.) and 8.) are larger issues about the value of humanities in general. Something I wouldn't want to get into here, but I've written about it before on HN. I don't think the line is as clear between the humanities and sciences as you seem to indicate. There is definitely a subjectivity about science as well. History is full of correct scientific views that were vilified in their time. The benefit of humanities is also largely unquantifiable, and thus difficult to defend. I will say that salary wise, the free market indicates that philosophy majors are just as valuable as math majors later in their careers. So you see that we are in agreement about many points. I simply hold that college is a worthwhile experience, and I do not think the quality to garbage ratio is any different than the real world. I have to filter out the garbage from most of the books I buy at the bookstore as well. I also hold that experiences outside the classroom are not directly reproducible in the real world, and thus should be incorporated into our assessment of the value of college. Your points about taxation of university income and wasteful government subsidies are larger issues that we probably shouldn't tackle here. Suffice to say, the money wasted in educations starts from grade 1. I have a lot of first hand experience with how the Chicago Public School system works, and there are inefficiencies abound. The only reason why I am remotely comfortable with it is that I think the abolishment of the system would result in a loss in human capital greater than the money saved. That's not based on any data, but it's something I'd like to believe is true. Admittedly, that sentiment is less likely to be true as you go up in education level. I apologize for my overreaction, and while we certainly don't see eye to eye on a few things, I think we agree on some others. I'll certainly admit that you've given me a few things to think about (even if that admission proves how quality education can take place for free outside of university) ;-).