Posted on 04/21/2008 9:06:12 PM PDT by jazusamo
A front-page headline in the New York Times captures much of the economic confusion of our time: "Fewer Options Open to Pay for Costs of College."
The whole article is about the increased costs of college, the difficulties parents have in paying those costs, and the difficulties that both students and parents have in trying to borrow the money needed when their current incomes will not cover college costs.
All that is fine for a purely "human interest" story. But making economic policies on the basis of human interest stories -- which is what politicians increasingly do, especially in election years -- has a big down side for those people who do not happen to be in the categories chosen to write human interest stories about.
The general thrust of human interest stories about people with economic problems, whether they are college students or people faced with mortgage foreclosures, is that the government ought to come to their rescue, presumably because the government has so much money and these individuals have so little.
Like most "deep pockets," however, the government's deep pockets come from vast numbers of people with much shallower pockets. In many cases, the average taxpayer has lower income than the people on whom the government lavishes its financial favors.
Costs are not just things for government to help people to pay. Costs are telling us something that is dangerous to ignore.
The inadequacy of resources to produce everything that everyone wants is the fundamental fact of life in every economy -- capitalist, socialist or feudal. This means that the real cost of anything consists of all the other things that could have been produced with those same resources.
Building a bridge means using up resources that could have been used building homes or a hospital. Going to college means using up vast amounts of resources that could be used for all sorts of other things.
Prices force people to economize. Subsidizing prices enables people to take more resources away from other uses without having to weigh the real cost.
Without market prices that convey the real costs of resources denied to alternative users, people waste.
That was the basic reason why Soviet industries used more electricity than American industries to produce a smaller output than American industries produced. That is why they used more steel and cement to produce less than Japan or Germany produced when making things that required steel and cement.
When you pay the full cost -- that is, the full value of the resources in alternative uses -- you tend to economize. When you pay less than that, you tend to waste.
Whether someone goes to college at all, what kind of college, and whether they remain on campus to do postgraduate work, are all questions about how much of the resources that other people want are to be taken away and used by those on whom we have arbitrarily focused in human interest stories.
This is not just a question about robbing Peter to pay Paul. The whole society's standard of living is lower when resources are shifted from higher valued uses to lower valued uses and wasted by those who are subsidized or otherwise allowed to pay less.
The fact that the Soviet economic system allowed industries to use resources wastefully meant that the price was paid not in money but in a far lower standard of living for the Soviet people than the available technology and resources were capable of producing.
The Soviet Union was one of the world's most richly endowed nations in natural resources -- if not the most richly endowed. Yet many of its people lived almost as if they were in the Third World.
How many people would go to college if they had to pay the real cost of all the resources taken from other parts of the economy? Probably a lot fewer people.
Moreover, when paying their own money, there would probably not be nearly as many people parting with hard cash to study feel-good subjects with rap sessions instead of serious study.
There would probably be fewer people lingering on campus for the social scene or as a refuge from adult responsibilities in the real world.
Thomas Sowell is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institute and author of Basic Economics: A Citizen's Guide to the Economy.
My daughter is home schooling her three and though the oldest is only fifteen the benefits are showing. It’s a shame more don’t home school their kids but then many simply don’t have the time or the inclination to do it, it’s hard work.
My praise and good wishes for your daughter and her three. Oh yes, she is doing hard work. Nothing can match the work and dedication involved with homeschooling. Nothing. It's 25/7, nonstop. It is good for the children; but it also requires mastery, self-discipline, and self-control in the homeschooling parent.
I once thought I had excellent professional management skills (in the workplace) but since homeschooling, I am the Queen of Management.
Your daughter may not feel like a Queen yet; but rest assured, her crown awaits her.
Having met your delightful children, they and you are right on track for absolute success! Recalling their ages, yes, I remember that stage. You wonder. I can now look back and I coin that particular age-stage of my children as the in "teen-transit" and "pre-launch" years. Once they are launched, there are newer hurdles. And then they begin to get a groove going. You get to put your feet up a bit more, lay that Tiara down and put on your crown and order the pets around, in between episodic newer challenges which your grown children simply MUST discuss, share, reveal, consider, worry over, with YOU. :)
I don’t suppose there’s any chance they’ll take the pets with them ... the snake is supposed to live another 15 years, and the kitten probably will, too. (But it’s my kitten :-).
Anoreth - the short girl with the orange hair and the Opinions - plans to join the military next summer. She wants to go to Iraq, have Adventures, and save the country. She also talks about dying gloriously - gets that from all the “blood and thunder” literature she reads.
We’ve put in thirteen years of homeschooling so far, and we can expect another sixteen, so it’s a good thing I can’t think of anything more fun to do with my life!
I have read every one of his books and all of them are worth reading. He is perceptive, intellegent and thinks outside the box. He is also the place to go for a sane and worldwide perspective on race relatons.
Thanks for your posts, syf. :)
Anoreth in the military would obtain an education of such an order as cannot be found anywhere else in the world. Military is an absolutely incredible educational experience, Tax-chick. And the homeschooling my kids received have stood them well in re military.
When my eldest daughter was at boot camp, and she was getting disciplined by her First Sarge(s), she'd start laughing, when all around her were shuddering and looking for rocks to climb under. And she wouldn't leave 'em alone.
Finally, one asked her what was so **)(*& funny! She told him he reminded her of her mom. SO, when I went to her graduation from boot camp at Fort Jackson, all her drill sarge's *had* had to meet me. My daughter just simply wasn't scared of 'em. (I can only imagine what they had thought I'd be like, lol). We had a great time together. (I think Anoreth and my eldest must have read the same books about "blood and thunder!".)
so it’s a good thing I can’t think of anything more fun to do with my life!
It doesn't end, even when they get out on their own. Those ties and trusts forged never go away.
I never tried to be their friend. We went through so much together, that a "brotherhood" (a strong family) was forged.
My eldest misses parachuting, btw. She's not able to do that anymore. However, that hasn't stopped her in the slightest from achieving and suceeding in any regard or desire or goal of her heart.
Nothing will stop your children from dreaming and achieving, either. And you and your groom will keep on being amazing and delighted in them. Now, they teach me so much that they have and are learning. It's really cool. :)
Just marking to read later.
I told Anoreth that if she wants a pet in the military, a fish in a jar is a good idea. (My brother had cats in Europe, but he kept having to find new homes for them when he moved, because he couldn’t transfer them between countries.) I figure the first week of Basic will knock the stuffing out of her, and after that, the immediate rewards for excelling will motivate her to excel.
All my children are fun now, even when they’re Impossible, so I’m looking forward to what they do with the rest of their lives. Pat may live in the basement with a snake and invent cold fusion :-). He walked off from us at the zoo on Monday, and when I found him, he said, “Oh, here you are! I wanted a drink of water, and I had to tell the tortoise something.”
I’m sitting here with the hugest and fondest grin on my face, Tax-Chick. Your delight in your children is the gift which keeps on giving to each and all. The world will try your children, and your children will never lose their innate innocence. That innocence is not naiivete. It’s how children are supposed to be raised, and to carry that gift with them through the rest of their lives. Yes, you do live “Mother’s Day” every single day of the year. :)
I grew into it over the years. At some point, I realized that I loved having a baby to carry around like a big, sweaty stuffed animal; and that Tom and Pat were just weird, so we might as well have fun with it; and that everyone except my mother thinks my children are turning out really well.
Mom actually said that Anoreth wouldn't have any options except joining the military if she didn't work harder, and Anoreth said, "Oh, what a good idea!" (Leaving Mom to wish she'd kept quiet ...) Anoreth will start community college in the fall, and I sort of hope she really loves college classes and decides to consider ROTC or National Guard service, instead of enlisting. On the other hand, if a girl wants to have Adventures, 18 is the right time to do it. She wants to be a mechanic or an MP.
I just realized I don't have to get her a standarized test this month, because she took the SAT earlier in the year. That leaves just the little girls needing tests; Bill and Tom did theirs in December.
You are right to wish that Anoreth get her degree (even an AA/AS) before enlisting. It does make a difference.
I have to laugh. My middle daughter, currently undergoing finals at a U laments to me that she's been going to college since she was 11, and asks, clingingly: "Mom, I understand your analogies concerning being trapped inside "Freddy Krueger's body" -- will I ever really get out of college?"
Do homeschooled students in NC have to be state tested each year?
Even my mother is positive, sometimes. I think she’s just forgotten what monsters my brother and I were. (Probably doesn’t even know some of it ...)
Yes, NC requires annual testing. They have to take *some* nationally-used standardized test, and we have to keep the results on file. The state doesn’t get to examine the results or have an opinion on them, but they could, if they wanted to, turn up on my doorstep and ask to see that we have an attendance record, a current-year test result, and a vaccination record.
Anoreth has been at home all her life, helping to take care of younger children. I think she really wants to go somewhere with no kids!
I always kept the same records in CA that you here are required to keep in NC. I did this for my own record. I kept a daily log, in fact, just so I could keep track of lessons, events, etc. (At that time, the College/U system throughout CA had been rancorously declaring they would NOT accept homeschooled students. I was geared to battle that when I came to it.)
Later, the state requested R-4 filers keep attendance records, etc.
Anoreth will indeed enjoy her newer life with no kids to supervise; but you, my dear, are going to miss her sorely! :>
You’re right - I will really miss Anoreth when she leaves home. She’s been my intellectual companion on a pretty equal level for a couple of years. I don’t have the same relationship with Bill, which is fine since he’s a boy - he ought to be more identified with his father.
Maybe Elen, who is 10 now, will turn interesting :-).
Next child is preparing to be launched. He's in many ways the most like me.
Ellen IS interesting. :)
Bill is encouraging Anoreth to join the Army this year, because he wants her room for himself and his lizards. She’s not buying :-). Our church has a part-time secretarial job open, and I’m encouraging her to call about it. She’s got the skills, and it would leave her time to attend college classes.
It’s hard to imagine “empty nest” when I’ll still have 7 children at home, but it will definitely be like having a close friend move away!
In re empty nest -- that's what got me, too. Eldest child launched, and I internally felt like a core element of my being was gone, and I couldn't figure it out because I still had my hands quite full with the rest of the kids. You know... they work hard to fill up the void left by the birdie which has flown the nest.
But it was there, regardless. Best thing I did was recognize it, deal with it. Recognizing she may never live under my protective roof again. But then, before we knew it she was in Afghanistan in early 2002, and empty nest was quickly replaced by: Please God, look after my child.
Out of the frying pan eternally, eh? lol
I don't think I exhaled until she made it back on US terra firma, alive. Didn't matter it wasn't under my roof, or injured -- but on US terra firma and alive.
My prayer once I recognize my empty nest condition? I prayed: Dear Lord, please help me cope and recover from missing her so much. And He did. Oh yes, did He. lol
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