Free College Simply Won’t Work In The United States
Even though Senator Sanders’ hopes of being president are gone like a Hillary Clinton email, his fervent supporters continue to carry his torch in a fight for free college. Sanders said free college programs worked in Germany and Norway, so why the hell wouldn’t they work here, in a much larger, more diverse, richer and complex nation? We’ll just make Wall Street pay for it.
The call for free or even cheaper college is ubiquitous: US universities have the second highest average cost of tuition behind England. Some kids I knew, who didn’t have better things to do, took to the streets last fall and again this spring, blocking traffic and rerouting buses, to protest for free college and a wage hike for campus workers.
Sounds nice. I like free things. Why not pattern our tertiary education system after the European nations’ and make ours free, too? Well, because (according to Yahoo Finance) it won’t work, and it won’t actually be free.
First, let’s compare our “tax wedge” (the dollar measure of the income tax rate) with Germany’s: ours is 31.5 percent and Germany’s is almost 50 percent. In fact, 23 European countries have higher income tax rates than the US. Not to mention, with a comparatively lower income tax and a higher GDP per capita, there are plenty of US students who don’t need free college, ergo we’d waste a lot of money.
Now, let’s continue this apples-to-oranges discussion by comparing the value of a US education versus a free, European education. Free Euro schools are like our community colleges: There’s no manifestation of student life on European campuses and little professor-student interaction. There are no dorms, no philanthropies, no 2/3 capacity stadiums of drunk undergrads shouting “P-E-N-N-S-T-SUCKS!” Forgive me for using a tired cliche, but American students are paying for an experience as much as an education.
Most importantly, free college here just isn’t feasible. Take a look at enrollment percentages: Only 62 percent of German kids pursue some type of tertiary education after high school/high school equivalent, compared to 94 percent in the US. Without even getting into population disparities, US taxpayers would have to pay a shit ton more to facilitate free college, considering we have ten times as many college students as our German counterparts.
It’s worth noting that most of my data came from Yahoo Finance and Business Insider: Not BBC, National Review or Breitbart. A little fiscal responsibility can go a long way. The clamor for free shit wouldn’t be nearly as loud if students knew what they were getting themselves into from the outset..
[via Yahoo Finance]
its the same thing when they look to Australia for gun regulations, totally different shit that really cant be compared
10 years ago at 9:25 pmExactly. I’d be all in favor of really strict gun restrictions if it could work and actually drop crime and violence. But we’re not an island of 20 million people with a small pool of existing guns. We’re the opposite in every way, so I need to own a gun for self defense against those who would easily procure one illegally.
10 years ago at 1:13 amThe levels of bullshit in this article is remarkable. And so many ideas just taken out of the blue. Other then a very few, American colleges are comparable to horseshit.
10 years ago at 11:09 pmThan* I guess you went to a horseshit one, huh?
10 years ago at 11:34 pm“It works for Germany’s economy” So did hitler being in power but you don’t see Bernie supporters trying to implement that.
10 years ago at 11:20 pmActually when you compare some of the economic policies they’re pretty similar. Before the wartime production boost kicked in Hitler’s socialist policies were starting to drag Germany out of the depression it was wallowing in, albeit very slowly
10 years ago at 11:17 amKramer finally wrote something that wasn’t a dumpster fire? Nice
10 years ago at 11:33 pmThey get free highschool and throw it away fucking around. Imagine that fucking zoo while trying to get your degree…fuck Bernie.
10 years ago at 11:54 pmBut we have $1.5 trillion for a jet that isn’t necessary (and doesn’t work). Ok
10 years ago at 2:04 amBe as patriotic as you want, doesn’t change the fact that we have the infrastructure of a 3rd world country when you see the nation as a whole. Nationalism only works when we actually are good at stuff, guys. Lap me all you want, it doesn’t change the truth
Raise and rights
10 years ago at 5:16 amFirst, that 94% statistic has got to be bullshit. There’s absolutely no way that’s true, or else the percentage of Americans with a degree would me much, much hire. Secondly, you said “pursue” secondary education rather than get a degree. Pursue and obtain are two vastly different things. Thirdly, the German high-school system is vastly different from the United States; like many other European nations, high-school in Germany is much more rigorous, akin to a community college degree here. A lot of people don’t go to “university” because a high-school degree is sufficient to enter the work force there. And lastly, the experience part is incredibly true, but not to the extent you claim. The Atlantic just published an article showing that only 5% of college students in the US are recent high-school grads at a four year university. The vast, vast majority of college students in America are normal schmucks just trying for a CC degree or a certificate so they can work. As you said, it’s apples and oranges, so there’s really no comparing them. just trying to be the devils advocate here. That being said, fuck the Bern and his socialistic ideals. Free education will bankrupt the nation.
10 years ago at 12:01 pmWell I suppose I could break those few points open. The 94 percent Stat i used I would imagine is a self reported stat by high schoolers. Probably built mostly on intent rather than reality but I would bet 94 pct of high school grads intend to go to some kinda school or military training and 6 pct say they’re cool with just bumming. And you could say German undergrad is as much akin to community as it is American graduate school. the point was there’s very little experience to be had.
10 years ago at 2:59 pmI’ll take all the laps I get for that typo. TFM is by no means a bastion of grade A journalism, but by projecting yourself to such an audience, you’ve got the obligation to make sure what your presenting is accurate. Without providing us the whole picture, you could be leaving out vital info that leads to a very different conclusion. You’re preaching to an audience that already is just searching for the easiest thing to hold up to validate their opinions, so throwing out faulty stats is dangerous practice.
10 years ago at 5:28 pm“much,much hire”. Proof that not everyone in America who goes to college actually learns.
10 years ago at 4:19 pmCollege is overly expensive, and costs are growing at an unsustainable rate, because of government subsidization.
10 years ago at 11:15 am