Free stuff is usually worth what you pay for it. There is no such thing as free education. Someone is always going to pay for it. The question is should each person pay for their own?
When you insist you want free college you are taking a stand. You are taking the position you are not responsible for the cost of your education. By definition, you are requiring the cost of your education be pushed off onto someone else.
So, why is using the free education of government to force others to pay for your entitlement reasonable? That you may not see the situation this way does not change what you are doing. If you are correct why do people owe you an education? Why should you get to force them to work and pay for what benefits you?
Do on to others as you would have them do unto you
Shouldn’t they be able to retain the fruits of their labor? You want to keep what you earned, don’t you? Why is your time so much more valuable than theirs? Has it occurred to you those other people may not really want to take money out of their pockets to pay for your education? Why should they be forced to pay for a college degree that only benefits you?
There seems to be an assumption in play here: Universal tuition free college guarantees people have access to better economic opportunities. It is an investment in the future. That’s why so many of the world’s most successful countries do it.
Well maybe, let’s examine that a little closer. Even if you think it is a good investment… it is still immoral. It is unfair to take other people’s money. You are taking money from people who did not go to college themselves so you can get a college education. How’s that fair? And you did not even ask them to donate; you just took the money. Can you see how some people are not crazy about your idea?
Aside from that, the assumption it is simply not true. Using tax dollars for education does not automatically and always improve economic opportunities. The economic opportunities are there whether you are educated or not. What may be true is that you would be better prepared to identify or perhaps take advantage of opportunities that are already there.
What is the goal of education?
In many cases, even in countries with “free college education” students get student loans anyway. The money gets spent on associated costs. More importantly, universal free college education does not lead to a greater portion of the country’s population with a college education. It may be important to understand why that is true.
Free college also does not reduce indebtedness either. More education subsidies necessarily means higher taxes on everyone. That means everyone has less disposable income. So the standard of living goes down not up. Household debt compared to household income also goes up. It’s a double drag on every household budget and by extension the national economy.
We should be working toward making higher education more affordable. But… shackling tens of millions of people, with tens of thousands of dollars of student debt is a bad idea. These things put them personally at greater risk and it slows the economic growth in other parts of the economy.
Spending more money on education puts off home acquisition. Lower home sales ripples to construction and so it goes through out the economy. This leaves untouched discussion of online education and availability of information… Liberty University… Harvard… Yale… lecture series availability. Is the goal acquisition of knowledge and skills or government subsidies for a government controlled indoctrination system?