351–360 of 487 posts
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Because they can afford it. It's a redistribution tactic. You can also phrase it like this: college should be free for all to attend. Then, as long as you have a progressive tax scheme, the outcome is the same. Cheap for the poor, expensive for the rich.
Then are you suggesting buying anything should work like this?
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If this was inventory they were counting, sure. But you can’t sell part of a small business. Let’s say the parents own a restaurant, and the value of the land, building, and kitchen equipment is a few million. Do they sell an oven from the kitchen to put you through school? Sell the parking lot? It’s an all or nothing thing. The business needs all its assets to function, and shouldn’t be considered any more than for…
Lease back for land and building is definitely possible. Most capital efficient corps do not own their own land and buildings for precisely this reason.
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I don't know where the OP lives. But in Switzerland, where world-class univeristies like the ETH cost something like $ 1.5k a year in tuition, I'm pretty certain that people earn more on average than in the USA.
Americans earn more than Swiss people after taxes according to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disposable_household_and_per_c...
When I was touring colleges as a high school senior I met someone who had gotten into MIT but whose family could only afford to send one kid to an elite college, him or his sister. He decided to go to a state school which was a lot less expensive but whose academics weren't close to the same level. This stuff matters to people.
Most students go into debt to attend college. I fell into a bracket where I didn’t get any financial assistance but my parents didn’t want to/couldn’t pay for tuition. I got personal loans for everything. I think this is a common scenario.
In many developed countries higher education costs the same as high school.
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the ideal is that college should be very expensive for rich people and cheap, free, or at least more affordable, for less wealthy people. american universities get closer to this ideal than you might expect. the days of outrageous student debt are thankfully fading away, at least for undergraduate degrees. it would make more sense to do this redistribution through taxes if possible, but many US institutions are priva…
the ideal is that college should be very expensive for rich people and cheap, free, or at least more affordable, for less wealthy people. Dunno where you got this "ideal". the days of outrageous student debt are thankfully fading away ..."fading away", to the tune of (at last glance ) one and three quarters of a trillion dollars in outstanding student loan debt. it would make more sense to do this redistribution thro…
I wonder if people like you just lack the imagination or system thinking or equate poor with useless or are just afraid of thinking people? From the perspective of the state and the society it’s beneficial to have an educated population, unless you think you won’t have enough stupid people to man the factories?
Follow up question - what is a “family” here? A single parent with 3 kids? A married couple with one child?
This is a great step in the right direction. I can't speak directly for MIT, but there are issues with how these programs don't apply to parents with small family businesses. My parents had a small business, with my father taking home a salary of $XX,XXX. Duke University used the business assets to determine the EFC (expected family contribution) of literally 90% of the salary. Essentially saying to sell off the fami…
I can understand why they might do this. Many people who own a small business underpay themselves significantly and use the extra funds on the business to build up assets. This defers taxes and allows the funds to be reinvested without tax. They might even take out loans on those business assets. The same way the wealthy will pay themselves a tiny salary and just live off the asset value of their stock. Someone who o…
When you say them living off the asset value of their stock, you mean the dividends from the stock?
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Education in the US isn't cheap but those are elite colleges. The price tag is mostly for the networking.
Funnily enough, if you think about for networking you'd much rather be surrounded by kids who can afford that 200k price tag upfront.
[0] https://alum.mit.edu/slice/what-50000-i-better-practice-more