Talk or Walk

Coupling good Intentions With Sound Economics

My daughter graduated from the St. Charles County Community College last Saturday.  I am happy for her, yet we all need to be asking ourselves what kind of a world the next generation will face.  Two of the commencement speakers quoted Dr. Seuss.  Is anyone else concerned with the dumbing down of America?  Are we now trying so hard to entertain that we must draw from a socialist children’s book author for inspiration?  Nevertheless, three of my children have now earned four post-secondary degrees, and I am grateful for the opportunities afforded all of us living in a country that values education.

Young people should not have to start out their lives saddled with debt.  Students should be able to gain greater education without mortgaging their futures.  The present college tuition situation poses a prime lesson in what we must learn about in the coupling of good intentions with sound economics.  Many legislators sought to make college presidents and their constituents happy by redistributing more taxpayer dollars.  This had the unexpected effect of raising tuition rates, which, ultimately, harms the students.  Joe Biden even admited that government subsidies have raised tuition costs thereby creating the student loan bubble:

The Cato Institute raises another valid point about how this affects the blue collar workers:

“There are numerous problems with federal subsidies for higher education. For one thing, such subsidies benefit people who will earn higher than average incomes during their careers. Thus, the effect of subsidy programs, in part, is to impose taxes on blue collar workers, who have not attended college, to pay for the tuition of future white-collar professionals. Why should the government subsidize future high earners at the expense of average working people?.”

Hopefully, some of the young college graduates will have a better understanding of how to right our economic ship.

Here is my interview I did at the TV station in Kirksville, MO:

Your thoughts on government funding for education are important to me, so please share what you think here:
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