761–770 of 848 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Maybe it could be a percentage of all taxable income, kind of like giving out equity in the student themselves as a person? Although of course there is no reason for college in general to be particularly expensive.
I believe Australia has a system along those lines, with forgiveness for people who work in the public service sector.
Any time you make money easily available for a certain good, whether through debt or direct subsidy, the cost of that good is going to increase proportional to the amount of money made available. This is what happened in the housing market and with college tuition. I'd be willing to bet that if you outlawed student loans (assuming that was possible), you'd see colleges finding all sorts of ways to cut costs without n…
You would probably end up with a two tiered system of online MOOCs for most and the normal experience for the elite.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
"I never let schooling get in the way of my education." The problem with your view is you assume the only way to get educated is via academia. There is a lot of education when you become a mechanic, an electrician, a factory worker, a firefighter, etc. That is not academic. You learn on the job. There are also many certification courses for these fields that run outside of traditional college system. I believe in fre…
> The college system is very expensive, it's heavily subsidized by the state even in the U.S. If it is not teaching people valuable skills that they will be using in their profession, then it is not serving it's purpose. Education allows one to lead a richer life regardless of ones circumstance. Consider the janitor who took 8 years to get a bachelors degree in classics (after learning English). He admits that now wi…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Many lawyers need to drive taxis to get by. Being a lawyer doesn't mean instant riches unless you land at a high profile firm directly out of school. Wait, what? Since when?
I’ve heard of the actor waiting tables, I’ve never heard of the taxi-driving lawyer.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
To be clear, I don't think college should be paid for with loans. I agree with you that we shouldn't be enslaving people. But I also don't think allowing these loans to be discharged in bankruptcy will solve anything (and will arguably make things worse) without systemic changes in the way college is paid for.
In my mind the problem is the system itself was designed for a world that doesn't exist. When the supply of college degrees was low 50 years ago, sure, it paid to have a degree. But now that it has become commoditized, it's not that valuable. There's no supply / demand pricing mechanism to influence a student's major. The cost of tuition is mainly based on an arbitrary credit hour. No matter how worthless a course is…
A couple of points: not all colleges are created the same. Many state schools, particularly top-tier ones offer fantastic educations at an excellent price-point. They are a good value, and will remain so. Along with need-based aid and scholarships, they are amazing vehicles to reduce generational inequality (look at UCLA for example). I can only speak to the engineering (not software) side of things, but from lab wor…
I would personally consider the education I received in UC Berkeley when I was there studying CS, excellent. It was very challenging (in a way, it's impossible to exaggerate this), I found tons of help from TAs, my peers, professors were experts in their fields, labs were very useful to make me experience "real life" stuff and discussions were very useful to learn "theory" side of things, both of these occurring in t…
If your goal is to make money, then I don't think hard work matters nearly as much as figuring out the social aspect of how to fit in with working professionals.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This still inflates the cost of university for everyone. Basically the govt is taxing society to funnel the money into student loans which are then ploughed into college facilities and administration staff. It’s a massive misallocation of societal resources. And I suspect many people earning a mediocre wage are still stuck repaying, and would have been happier had loans not existed and college have been forced not to…
An obvious solution would be a comprehensive tuition cap for public institutions. Financial aid makes college more affordable, but allows colleges to raise tuition. Getting rid of financial aid could lower tuition cost due to market pressure but bring back the problem of affordability that it intends to solve. I would like someone to point out why a tuition cap would be a bad idea, since regulation often carries unin…
Of course, the numbers are already flatter than that at most public institutions but the general effect could still occur. Not saying tuition caps are necessarily a bad idea, but I can see potential downsides.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think that they help universities raise tuition as long as the projected lifetime income increase from going to college exceeds the cost of tuition. Which will just allow our unsustainable "tuition rises faster than inflation" trend to last a few more years before it falls apart. Note that "projected lifetime income increase" is generally overestimated. What we do is compare average income of a college graduate wit…
Its also backwards looking, obviously. In the boomer working years, colleges were very selective and a degree was a stealth IQ test along with socioeconomic group membership. At this point the average IQ of a college grad is very close to 100. I guarantee that within the next 30 to 40 years someone will make the shocking discovery that the presence or absence of a degree has no influence on income, success, or happin…
[1]https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Case_Against_Education
P.S. Signaling is very profitable for the individual benefitting from the signaling, it just isn't good for society.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> All of us should be regularly lobbying our lawmakers to make student loans dischargeable by bankruptcy, just like any other loan. The reason they aren't dischargeable is because what bank in their right mind would give a loan to an 18 year old with no collateral? They only guarantee they get that it will be paid back is the fact that it can't be discharged. Student loans would dry up overnight if they could be disc…
> The reason they aren't dischargeable is because what bank in their right mind would give a loan to an 18 year old with no collateral? If it's a bad bet for the bank , it must be far worse of a bet for young adults. That's the point -- right now we're essentially suckering millions of naive young adults into a life of wage slavery by giving them a "bet" which they are completely unequipped to evaluate; and many of t…
Contrary to popular perception, there's no robust private investor market for student loans. US Treasury is the predominant buyer.
https://www.advisorperspectives.com/dshort/commentaries/2020...