Re:Why Is College in America So Expensive?
by lucideer on Thursday September 13, 2018 @06:22AM
(#17977436)
> Why do people always reach for central control, when we have the ultimate mechanism of price control as a core part of our society (competition).
Because competition and central control optimise for different "ideal" outcomes: we often reach for central control when the market fails to optimise for the desired "ideal".
This ideal is different in each case, but is usually largely differentiated on the basis of income inequality. Even a perfect market can't bring about perfect wealth distribution, and central control of education aims for universal access. Market-based price control will produce lower education costs, but only to include an income bracket that provides optimum profits, rather than universal accessibility.
> By it's nature, anything the government subsidizes is going to be taken advantage of.
This isn't entirely true: only unregulated subsidy has this flaw. The problem with many purported small-government advocates is they lobby for removal of regulation without removal of subsidy. One requires the other.
> Schleicher at the OECD. βItβs the inevitable outcome of an unregulated fee structure.β
In this particular quote, Schleicher seems to advocate for central control via regulation, rather than removal of subsidy.
Because competition and central control optimise for different "ideal" outcomes: we often reach for central control when the market fails to optimise for the desired "ideal".
This ideal is different in each case, but is usually largely differentiated on the basis of income inequality. Even a perfect market can't bring about perfect wealth distribution, and central control of education aims for universal access. Market-based price control will produce lower education costs, but only to include an income bracket that provides optimum profits, rather than universal accessibility.
> By it's nature, anything the government subsidizes is going to be taken advantage of.
This isn't entirely true: only unregulated subsidy has this flaw. The problem with many purported small-government advocates is they lobby for removal of regulation without removal of subsidy. One requires the other.
> Schleicher at the OECD. βItβs the inevitable outcome of an unregulated fee structure.β
In this particular quote, Schleicher seems to advocate for central control via regulation, rather than removal of subsidy.