The Atlantic: Adam Harris: 'What's The Deal With Free College?'

Source:The Atlantic Magazine- Adam Harris, talking about so-called free college. 

“Every day now, it seems, another Democratic candidate announces his or her 2020 presidential run. Among the most popular ideas these hopefuls campaign for is a tuition-free secondary education. “A free-college proposal has practically become an entrance fee,” says writer Adam Harris.

In a new Atlantic Argument, Harris explains that while this is an intriguing idea, it is also a vague and sweeping one, and voters want policy specifics. “The nuts and bolts of education proposals in the 2020 election,” Harris says, “are critical to understanding whether or not, six years from now, the student-debt bubble reaches $2.5 trillion, or even $3 trillion.”

From The Atlantic

From Adam Harris: “Every day now, it seems, another Democratic candidate announces his or her 2020 presidential run. Among the most popular ideas these hopefuls campaign for is a tuition-free secondary education. A free-college proposal has practically become an entrance fee, says writer Adam Harris.

In a new Atlantic Argument, Harris explains that while this is an intriguing idea, it is also a vague and sweeping one, and voters want policy specifics. The nuts and bolts of education proposals in the 2020 election, Harris says, “are critical to understanding whether or not, six years from now, the student-debt bubble reaches $2.5 trillion, or even $3 trillion.”

“What’s the deal with free college?” I believe is the perfect question in this debate, since it’s basically like asking: What the deal with flying trucks?” Since neither exists or ever existed. When you get something for free from wherever it might be, it means you didn’t pay anything for the service that you supposedly received for free. And government is the perfect example of that.

If you’re going to ask, what’s the deal with free college, you better know the answer to: “What’s the deal with taxes?” As well as: “Why do we pay taxes?” And: “Where does government get the revenue to pay for the services that we receive?”

If you already know the answers to these questions, then you know if government starts to not only get into the college financing business, because it’s already there with Adam Harris already explaining that in the video, but if government were to go further and essentially take over the business or be such a player in to that it’s now paying for the college education of every single American who is eligible to go to college in America, you will know how government is paying for everybody’s college education which of course is through taxes. And not just on wealthy people, but for every single American who works for a living.

Government services of course are not free. Even if you’re not working you’ve already paid for the public assistance or retirement that other Americans got when you were working. And if you’re not working right now, but will be in the future you’re paying for the public assistance, or retirement, or unemployment that Americans will receive in the future.

As the great economics professor Milton Friedman once said: “No such thing as a free lunch.” He was referring to the public services that we receive from government that we all pay for. The only way to go to college for free is by winning a college scholarship either through athletics or academics, or have parents or grandparents that can afford to send you to college with their own money. Otherwise you’ll be pay for your college education one way or another. 

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