Not to mention the opportunity cost of people not being able to start families, buy homes, etc. Go ahead and collect the future economic value of people’s education, but I won’t be surprised when “middle class” America is then too tapped out to support the consumerist economy.

Only people I see having kids are those with strong, secure incomes, or those with no prospects at all. The cohort in the middle earning $40k to $120k doesn’t feel secure enough, or at least not until their 30s.