Take a look at the map at the top of this post and tell me what’s wrong with this picture. That map shows all the countries in the world with FREE university tuition. The United States, the richest nation on Earth, is not one of them. The nations which provide free college extend beyond the usual northern European utopias which typically best the United States on every aspect. Even nations like India, Brazil, Mexico, Kenya, the Philippines, those all have free tuition.
In the news this week, US president Biden has agreed to pass a new measure which not only overhauls the Student Loan system, but *forgives* up to $10K in federal debt for students making less than $125K/year. The problem of spiraling Student Loan debt has long been a story of major concern to young adult citizens.
As predictably as the dawn, US Republicans are tied in knots having conniptions about Biden’s Student Loan debt forgiveness efforts. As you rattle around in the social media echo chamber, pay attention to the White House Twitter feed, which has been fast to call out hypocritical Republicans who protest Student Loan relief while also having pocketed PPP loans during the pandemic.
Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene had $183,504 in PPP loans forgiven.https://t.co/4FoCymt8TB
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) August 25, 2022
Somehow, all these Republicans come out of the closet, soapbox underfoot, to talk about how bad Student Loan forgiveness is for the economy, while also having had their own PPP (the Paycheck Protection Program, circa COVID-19) debt erased. Naturally, we’re all having a social media fight about it.
For example, in that thread, Representative Vern Buchanan brags that he was “a blue-collar kid who worked his way through college,” while neglecting to mention the boon that most blue-collar kids don’t get, $2.3 million in PPP loans forgiven. This hypocrisy goes on and on, Republican after Republican…
The American public is finally waking up to this inherently stupid state of affairs, where 3 generations of American professionals have been railed by the education financing system. And yet, as mad as you all are (good for you, my cosmic blueberries) you have no idea how much madder you should be!
What If America’s Students Are Also “Too Big To Fail”?
To hear Republicans tell it, president Biden forgiving some Student Loans is akin to setting the whole economy on fire, and is already being blamed for inflation (currently the product of the COVID pandemic and Russia trying its best to start WWIII).
In the first place, you will all be relieved to hear that economics does not work that way. As history has seen time and again, government grants to the public sector in times of emergency crisis do not contribute to inflation at all.
Bailing Out Debt – Case Study:
Most tellingly, we have a recent example in the historic Wall Street bail-outs during the 2007 Subprime Mortgage Crisis, AKA “the Great Recession.” At that time, the government was bailing out financial institutions left and right, justifying that they were “too big to fail.”
Let’s back up here: the Subprime Mortgage Crisis was caused by banks recklessly taking on greedy, overpriced home loans to high-risk consumers who really couldn’t afford them. This created a housing market bubble, where more loans led to more inflation of real estate prices, which in turn led to more home-buyers needing loans to cover costs.
Inevitably, these junk mortgages went unpaid, and millions of homes were lost by buyers who couldn’t have afforded them in the first place. Here’s an ELI5 Reddit post trying to explain the mess, although it was such a boondoggle that it is sure to have a landmark chapter in economic studies for generations to come.
Briefly, the massive defaults on mortgages threatened to topple the world economy, as banks everywhere suddenly went broke. To prevent the total collapse of the economy, Washington had no choice but to bail out these financial institutions, ruling them “too big to fail.”
You know how many Republicans protested the massive bailout on the grounds that it would increase inflation? Zero.
Never forget this important lesson: Whenever any sector of the economy goes so deeply into debt that it requires a bailout, that is the fault of the system. The problem is a deregulated economy (and former president George W. Bush left a dandy mess in that regard) which sets up the rules to allow reckless and irresponsible skulduggery on the part of the financial sector at the expense of us common citizens.
The same factors apply to the US Student Loan program. Generations of young adults were encouraged to take on a lifetime of debt to pursue degrees, hoping it would lead to a prestigious career, only to see that hope vanish like a soap bubble. Instead, we have had degree inflation, where thousands of positions which formerly did not require college now all of a sudden required it. But the jobs didn’t pay any more. Remember, average wages have stagnated over 50 years, while the requirements to get that job suddenly went from “walk in the door and apply” to “needing a Bachelor’s or better.”
Meanwhile college tuition costs have ballooned 1200% since 1980. This is what I mean when I say that 3 generations (Generation X, Millennials, Generation Z) have been shafted by this system, not just two. We’re seeing the same economic feedback loop that we did with the Subprime Mortgage Crisis.
Could it be that universities are guilty of the same greed and corruption that plagues the financial sector? Oh, we hate to criticize our academic institutions, but perhaps it is time we subjected them to a little scrutiny. Tuition is 12x what it was in 1980, but I don’t see graduates who are 12x more educated. Somebody’s pocket is getting lined.
If You Think Education Is Expensive…
…try ignorance! – (quote investigator tries to find the original source)
It should stand to reason that, if you want your country to be prosperous, you would naturally want your citizens to be educated. This isn’t just about making sure that our citizens can get better jobs. A more educated citizenry is a public benefit to everyone.
There is a very good reason why compulsory education, at least up to high school, is not only freely provided, but mandated in nations all around the world. The idea that an educated population is a holistic benefit to society as a whole is so old that it goes back to Plato’s Republic.
Well, if we all agree that primary education is important enough to subsidize on the public’s dime, then why do we stop at extended education? It turns out that, decades ago, a 12-grade basic public school education was seen as the only education most of us needed. College was seen as a specialized environment – something you’d need to become a doctor or physicist, but unnecessary for the average middle manager.
How far in life could you get with a high school diploma? Just ask the 9 US presidents who never attended college: George Washington, Andrew Jackson, Martin Van Buren, Zachary Taylor, Millard Fillmore, Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson, Grover Cleveland, and Harry Truman.
Yeah, can you imagine a president who never went to college now? Recently, social media has savaged Representative Lauren Boebert for having only a GED – though NerdTeacher harrumphs that this is the least of her issues. But truly, there is no law in our constitution that sets an educational requirement to run for office. If you can get the votes, you’re in!
But, as that NPR article I linked explains, the landscape changed starting in the 1970s. Suddenly, college went from being a lofty pursuit of the few elite, to a basic expectation for everyone. This gave birth to the modern standard: overpriced, fluffy degrees that do nothing to enhance your employment aspects, but are flat-out required for every job above burger-flipper.
At the same time, US public school education standards have been on a steadily plummeting trend over the decades. Compared internationally, US students rank middling-to-bottom. As for the reason why, well, pick any theory. Myself, I feel that the constant drive to strip the academics out of school and replace them with football stadiums has a spotlight in this debate.
But the bottom line appears to be that, as college went from an option to a necessity, public primary education simply pushed more and more subjects off onto college. Small wonder that Harry S. Truman became president with nothing but a high school diploma – in his day, that still made him more educated than a 4-year degree today.
Education Needs To Be Free
Why is this not self-evident? Brookings Institution cites increasing evidence that free college is a public benefit. And as I pointed out at the beginning, some forty countries around the world have a free college program, ranging from G7 nations like Germany and France to smaller countries like Panama and Uruguay.
It’s not impossible! Good ol’ Uruguay, you never see them in the news, but they get free college and their national energy production is 98% renewable. Our new national motto should be: If Uruguay can do it, so can we.
Nick Covington points out:
A pretty obvious, but no less shocking, consequence of education-as-human-capital, rather than a public good, is that it twists our perception of the benefits of education as accruing only to individuals rather than contributing to our collective social & economic capacity.
— Nick Covington (@CovingtonEDU) August 26, 2022
It hasn’t always been this way. In 40 other countries, it’s not this way.
An educated public is a public which falls to less crime and poverty, and is less gullible to fraud, misinformation, fake news, and conspiracy theories. And also, not coincidentally, votes for fewer Republicans.
