Posted on 04/23/2016 4:51:24 PM PDT by MtnClimber
There’s no such thing as a free lunch, as the old saying goes, but is there a such thing as free college? There is if you believe the claims of the populist Democratic Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. However, even fellow Democrats seem skeptical, with several former Democratic chairs of the Council of Economic Advisers arguing his plan is harebrained. Sanders rebuts such claims by pointing to nations like Norway and Germany, where his ideological predilection toward democratic socialism holds greater sway, which are able to offer college tuition-free. If we could make college free here, as well, then why not?
As Economics 101 tells us, when demand for a good goes up, so do prices until they reach equilibrium. Yet despite the extremely high tuition prices at American universities, demand has yet to subside. Both local and international students have shown themselves willing to pay exorbitant fees for the chance to study at our universities. However, the tuition sticker price is highly deceptive.
For instance, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the state school, University of Massachusetts Amherst, is a more affordable alternative to its elite, private liberal arts cousin, Amherst College. And it is if you’re rich. However, the net average costs differ by less than $400 per year. According to the Dept. of Ed’s College Scoreboard, if your family is earning six figures, Amherst College will cost you nearly twice as much as UMass ($40,162 vs. $23,821). However, if your family is earning less than $30,000 per year, you will pay $1,936 at Amherst vs. $12,116 at UMass. Nearly 50% of your household income goes to UMass if you’re poor, while only 6% would go to Amherst. In this sense, tuition is actually a form of wealth redistribution, taking money from the rich and giving to the poor.
(Excerpt) Read more at realclearscience.com ...
True. I know welders who are making well over $110k/per year, and I know some folks with Masters Degrees making $60k. The world needs welders, machinists and tradesmen, more that it needs half a million degreed idiots.
Part of the allure of "college" is that your kid could turn out like one of those mutants. Of course, it's not true.
What IS true is that, due to class prejudice and corruption of the grading/assessment system, GETTING IN to H-Y-P, Stanford, and a few others guarantees graduation with a 3.5 GPA and entry into the ruling class, if you just don't f*** up.
THAT is what explains the intense competition.
It has zero to do with what happens during the four years you are there.
This also explains why elite high schools have become so crappy. THEIR product is no longer a well-educated senior, their product is The Perfect Application™.
College can be. It depends on what you are studying.
Yep.
Yeah. Sounds like a great idea if you can get the teachers and professors to work for nothing.
Online Master of Science in Computer Science
Are you ready to earn your master’s in computer science but not ready to stop working? Do you want a top-ranked degree without the top-ranked price tag?
If so, Georgia Tech has the answer.
We have teamed up with Udacity and AT&T to offer the first online Master of Science in Computer Science from an accredited university that students can earn exclusively through the “massive online” format and for a fraction of the normal cost.
This collaboration — informally dubbed “OMS CS” — has attracted thousands of applicants just like you, who are ready to pursue an advanced degree but not ready to make the sacrifices of time or money that are often required. With OMS CS, you can join computing professionals from more than 80 countries who are earning their M.S. on their own time, in their own homes, and for a total cost of about $7,000.
Yeah but his “Free College” idea sells. America has entered into the national dividend phase of its existence. We will not last much longer . Will it be internal disorders or external conquerors or both that administer the coup de grace?
No, they don’t, but you didn’t earn $60 000/year as a door-to-door salesman.
And I didn’t go to a school that cost me $60,000 year to attend. If people make the choice to attend such school, they need to make the decision that they can pay for it.
Those aren’t concentration camps. They are free colleges!
A few decades ago, the Ivies were accused of price-fixing.
As in an above post, "Harvard" selects the best candidates.
In reality, at least at the time, each Ivy had its selected pool of desirable applicants, and colluded when a candidate was accepted by more than one to offer varying amounts of student aid to off-set any price differences between the schools.
They claimed it was to eliminate economics as a factor in a candidate choosing one over any other.
That was then, and this is now, and the economics of education has evolved to serve the financial desires of corrupt bureaucracies, and not society.
Universities are granting degrees in zilch with $60,000 student loans attached which enable the student to do nothing that any high school grad couldn't accomplish.
I have run various businesses over the years and I have seen college grads come and go with various degrees of success. There is no argument against a professional degree in engineering, medicine, law, education, finance...etc, but spending 4 expensive years in college and studying little other than co-eds and sports seems counter productive
I favor cutting the tuition for students seeking STEM degrees by 50% and increasing the tuition for those taking useless courses that don’t yield productive jobs or help the country.
The courses in the latter group would include the social/liberal studies which deal with idiotic theories and “feelings” as well as about 2/3 of all law students.
Great idea, free college for people that aren’t competent to bag groceries.
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