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Let’s start with the financial illiteracy that makes one think they have more than a few billion amongst the whole lot of them in cash to begin with.
Point taken, and an excellent one at that.
Quote:
Originally Posted by LordSquidworth
If the US wanted free education it could find it. The problem is it would need constraints.
I personally like the idea the gov pays for half. That gives people skin in the game. And if the government wants the increased tax revenue from theoretical increased earnings it can help out as well.
Quote:
Originally Posted by LordSquidworth
But there also needs to be limits on tuition. The rate it currently goes up is asinine. I’d rank the inability to discharge the debt as a leading problem there.
Another great point. Although, forcing schools to charge less would also be a form of government overreach, according to some.
But why does the US not want everyone educated? Would it make for a better economy in the end?
Hear me out, I’m just a socialist with a spreadsheet and a search engine.
According to Forbes--
1. The combined wealth of the world’s 10 richest people ballooned by over $400 billion in 2021.
2. There are over 400 billionaires in the USA.
Here's a thought experiment:
If we merely BORROWED 80% of the wealth from the top 40 wealthiest people in the USA for 5 years, interest free, we could set up a fund for free post-secondary education for anyone who needs it.
Important to note that they would still be billionaires several times over (each of them would temporarily be worth only between 3-40 billion instead of 18-201 billion).
This LOAN amount would be a total of one trillion, 854 billion, 800 million dollars.
Low-risk investments can easily earn 10% on the principal, amounting to well over $185 billion annually.
Skim off enough to pay for college (or trade school) nationwide for everyone from a household making less than $125,000.
This would be about $75 billion annually. (SOURCE: Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce,The Dollars and Sense of Free College, 2020.)
You would still have earnings of over $100 billion left, to which you will add $100 billion every year for 4 more years, earning 10%. At the end of the five years, the earnings with compounded interest would total well over $600 billion.
Then you can give them back their money back AND continue to fund post-secondary education in perpetuity.
What do you think? Can we afford to provide a free post-secondary education to all who need it? Should we? Wouldn't it be better if we could? Maybe it would even save money in the end, since it would give disadvantaged people a way out of extreme poverty and make college loans a thing of the past. It could actually be a huge boost to the economy.
Im still working on the bolded. Do you want to let us know what that low risk investment is? Id like to transfer my savings over to that.
Point taken, and an excellent one at that.
Another great point. Although, forcing schools to charge less would also be a form of government overreach, according to some.
But why does the US not want everyone educated? Would it make for a better economy in the end?
Not really.
People should have access to it. Not everyone should.
I have a college degree. Isn’t worth much to me and has never made me a penny.
I had a position open. I don’t really care about college degrees. One fella wanted more pay because he has degree. I said he might have one… I don’t need it.
A lot of college degrees aren’t worth anything. We like to point to stuff like philosophy and such but I laugh just as much if not more at business grads.
These days there’s a lot of money in trades and other jobs that don’t require degrees. People just have to… we’ll… work.
My gf has a masters. Prolly a year from doctorate. Decade of experience.
I’ve paid kids in their early twenties the same thing she’s making to swing hammers.
** nor do college degrees really mean you’re educated. I slept through college. Didn’t find it very challenging.
If you had a billion dollars and spent $1,000 a day, you would run out in 2,740 years.
Suggesting I liquidate 80% of my miniscule wealth in pursuit of this idea is like suggesting that I reduce my carbon footprint to fix climate change, when Lufthansa has confirmed that it flew 18,000 empty flights since the pandemic just to keep its take-off and landing rights at airports.
People who are worth over 18 billion don't have to work to earn money. The money is earning the money.
Unimportant, at least to wishful thinkers and thieves like you. The guy who has that much (and overwhelmingly earned most of it through risk, venture, huge effort, loss, and eventual success) will decide whether he has to work further, not you.
People who use language such as "People who are worth over 18 billion don't have to work to earn money" are always, every time, trying to get people used to the idea that if YOU use government to take it away from them, it's somehow not theft.
Mr. Socialist, when get a couple more decades of life experience -- actually working somewhere, not teaching -- you'll blush at your current thinking. In the interim, may I suggest a sabbatical in North Korea or Cuba and see how that "free post-secondary education" is working out there. Why reinvent the wheel?
If you had a billion dollars and spent $1,000 a day, you would run out in 2,740 years.
Suggesting I liquidate 80% of my miniscule wealth in pursuit of this idea is like suggesting that I reduce my carbon footprint to fix climate change, when Lufthansa has confirmed that it flew 18,000 empty flights since the pandemic just to keep its take-off and landing rights at airports.
Scale is everything.
You’re still forgetting that wealth isn’t in cash.
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