Re:More than 1M fewer students are in college, the lowest nu...
by afiori on Friday January 14, 2022 @05:47AM
(#29932887)
There is another option, make degree status a protected class so that degrees cannot be an in-name-only qualification.
This would remove the FOMO of college and significantly increase trades and bootcamps.
An idea partially inspired by this blog: https://slatestarcodex.com/2015/06/06/against-tulip-subsidie...
I agree college is far too expensive and the rate of inflation of college tuition is rather absurd. The reasons for such, are best debated in another thread. However, I'm skeptical that eliminating student debt would ultimately result in significantly better financial outcomes for young people. Instead, most of the "savings" would be swallowed up by higher real estate and rent costs. The pandemic should serve as prima facie evidence -- give a huge swath of the population more cash, real estate will eat much/most/all of it. Let's say that instead of student debt, the typical 22-32 year-old professional has approximately $500 more spending power. All that means is that they will compete with each other to purchase housing, pushing rents and housing costs up -- not just for themselves but also for everyone else.
This doesn't mean we shouldn't try to reduce student debt (not via forgiveness, but by reducing education costs to begin with) -- but doing so is not a panacea.