When did going to College become a RIGHT vs. a Privilege?

Question

I am listening to the democrat runners blow a bunch of hot air right now, and just heard someone say that "we" - meaning the US - can afford to send everyone to college . . . Is that another way of them saying that they will raise our taxes?

Derrick: All men are created equal with certain unalienable rights that have to do with the government providing college educations for all.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

Answer 1

This seems to be the new Democratic campaign: it's your right to have everything you want, courtesy of the upper class taxpayers. No wonder they want to raise taxes on the wealthy.

Education is free until you're 18. After that, you can consider college. Anyone can go, just take out loans. Oh, loans are no fun? Then don't go! I'll tell you what, you take out loans and do well, paying them back is no problem.

Answer 2

Well, that depends on what kind of society we live in, largely speaking the United States is at significant competitive disadvantage when it comes to the pathetic approaches our politicians take towards education broadly, and I suspect that attitude will continue to encourage the brain-drain which has been occurring over the last few years with President Bush.

But that is a seriously taboo subject, that nobody likes talking about, broadly speaking we are the only industrial power that does not have public education including the college level , primarily this means that our population is significantly less likely to obtain college degrees than they were 30 or 40 years ago, when we were more prosperous as a nation, and so those citizens who do go, tend to incur larger debts which debilitate their personal economic situation for years afterwards.

Many choose service through the military and thereby gain access to the GI bill, however we must understand that over time, significant disadvantages exist by not having a larger percentage of the population more properly educated.

Perhaps as we continue to experience downward pressures on salaries and increased pressured for low-skill, low wage labor having a large permanently non-enfranchised worker class could be seen as an advantage to some, I however don't see it that way.

However, the converse could also be true, that a higher skill, slightly higher salaried workforce would simply move the downward salary pressure further up the economic scale , so that stock-brokers, accountants, teachers,engineers, scientists and doctors can also be pressured properly to work under increased salary pressures and decreasing expectations as far as quality of life is concerned.

Colleges and universities largely provide workers with skills, so whether you set the bar a little higher is really a question of how much of the workforce do you wish to commoditize and how much do you wish to support the concept of an upwardly mobile middle class.

The overall costs of education are largely felt by society anyway as the purchasing power of those individuals who currently pay out of pocket is reduced for years if not decades, why not socialize that expense and have more effective consumers with higher purchasing partiy while they are in their early 20's and have years of taxable revenues to bring in.

I submit that it's rather an even trade, when one considers the returns that German or French or Japanese economies see in efficiency and consumer inputs to the economy vs. the overall revenue hit from financing basic college education.

Answer 3

Something about all men being created equal.

Crazy.

"Derrick: All men are created equal with certain unalienable rights that have to do with the government providing college educations for all."

The right to not work at McDonalds for the rest of your life because you have the brains but not the cash seems like a noble enough one to me.

Or would you rather have drug dealers instead of educated scholars?

Answer 4

I agree completey.

It's better to keep our college tuition fees really high, then more people will be forced to join the military in order to get an education.

Answer 5

if we want to compete as a nation in a global economy we need to include more people in college without saddling them with huge loans at the end

other wise we can continue sliding behind China and India and other developing nations

Answer 6

Goodness, don't they know we can't pay for a trillion dollar oil war and send kids to college at the same time.

Answer 7

than why can't I afford to send my kids to college.

Answer 8

Finally my taxes will be good for something, I hope you get advantage of my tax dollars if they do.

Answer 9

Equal and fair education for everyone!

Answer 10

Do I get a refund?

Plus interest to even things out.

Answer: And it is not right