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Milton Friedman's solution was interesting. Basically VCs fund your education in exchange for a certain percentage of your income over an agreed upon period. Si

Milton Friedman's solution was interesting. Basically VCs fund your education in exchange for a certain percentage of your income over an agreed upon period. Similar to how VCs invest in your company in exchange for a fraction of ownership. http://www.schoolchoices.org/roo/fried1.htm http://www.schoolchoices.org/roo/fried1.htm

jrockway 17y ago
The government already takes a certain percentage of our income; and the more you make, the more they take. It follows logically that they should pay for our education. Of course, as with healthcare, the rest of the world figured this out a long time ago.
- bokonist 17y ago
  The problem is that an individual school does not get rewarded based on how well it educates the students (except perhaps for private colleges who make money from alumnae donations). Ideally, you're education tax dollars would forever go back to the school that educated you. That way the school would have an incentive to train you well.
  - jrockway 17y ago
    This incentive does not exist today, either. To even hope to stay financially solvent enough to remain in existence, universities have to direct their resources towards research, not teaching. Having researchers teaching classes annoys the researchers and the students. But since it's the only way the system can work, it is tolerated. There is no money to be made in teaching.
    - deleted 17y ago
      [deleted]
  - johnnybgoode 17y ago
    Maybe that would be an improvement, but it sounds far from ideal. In today's world, the school would then have an incentive to send its students to Wall Street and fuel even more financialization.
netsp 17y ago
sounds unpleasant
- Dilpil 17y ago
  So is what we have now
noarchy 17y ago
So a VC gets your income, instead of the bank from which you got your loan, under the current system? Doesn't sound like it would be much different from how it works today, in practice.
- Dilpil 17y ago
  The key is that in an 'equity' based program, the most successful graduates pay for the mediocre ones by having a higher salary to pay dividends on, whereas in a debt based system the integrity of the system is ensured by squeezing every last drop out of the least successful graduates.

jrockway 17y ago

The government already takes a certain percentage of our income; and the more you make, the more they take. It follows logically that they should pay for our education. Of course, as with healthcare, the rest of the world figured this out a long time ago.

bokonist 17y ago
The problem is that an individual school does not get rewarded based on how well it educates the students (except perhaps for private colleges who make money from alumnae donations). Ideally, you're education tax dollars would forever go back to the school that educated you. That way the school would have an incentive to train you well.
- jrockway 17y ago
  This incentive does not exist today, either. To even hope to stay financially solvent enough to remain in existence, universities have to direct their resources towards research, not teaching. Having researchers teaching classes annoys the researchers and the students. But since it's the only way the system can work, it is tolerated. There is no money to be made in teaching.
  - deleted 17y ago
    [deleted]
- johnnybgoode 17y ago
  Maybe that would be an improvement, but it sounds far from ideal. In today's world, the school would then have an incentive to send its students to Wall Street and fuel even more financialization.

netsp 17y ago

sounds unpleasant

Dilpil 17y ago
So is what we have now

noarchy 17y ago

So a VC gets your income, instead of the bank from which you got your loan, under the current system? Doesn't sound like it would be much different from how it works today, in practice.

Dilpil 17y ago
The key is that in an 'equity' based program, the most successful graduates pay for the mediocre ones by having a higher salary to pay dividends on, whereas in a debt based system the integrity of the system is ensured by squeezing every last drop out of the least successful graduates.