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Ron Paul Wants To End the Federal Student Loan Program
On the heels of declaring his intent to axe a few departments from the federal government, Ron Paul has revealed more plans should he become President. The_THOMAS writes "Ron Paul wants to end Federal student loans stating that the Government involvement artificially inflates the cost of a college education and that once the government is out of the situation, students will be able to work their way to a college degree. What do you think?"
Student Loans should include two things:
1. Fixed low-rate loan (2-3% even for private loans)
2. Allowed to be paid with pre-tax income (like money put towards retirement etc)
If they want to remove the government's involvement and make it private only, these rules should still be added. We should be helping student's get through school to make this country a better place.
-SaNo
In California, since the 1970's, the state has subsidized less and less of the tuition for students, while student loan amounts have not been increased substantially, and yet the state universities have not gotten less expensive in the process.
Sometimes Ron Paul says things that are correct, but silly (like how we could lower health care costs by removing the requirement medical providers be licensed. Probably true, but....) Mostly though, he just says things that are incorrect and silly. His supporters piece together some sort of reality from this that makes sense to them, I guess.
And what of the flip side? The people who really achieve in the field they studies at University, but wouldn't have been able to go were it not for student loans. Are they a price worth paying for libertarian ideology?
Can America afford to be less educated?
A loan isn't a subsidy. But if student loans were indeed the cause of the high price of college, what makes you think stopping them would make the price go down?
I went to school on the GI bill, and the state of Illinois paid my tuition. That's s subsidy. But I still had to work and was still dirt poor. That was in 1975; when did the school cost inflation begin?
Without student loans, only children of the wealthy will be able to go to college. The price keeps it out of reach of the working class, and always has. Education never was inexpensive.
Free Martian Whores!
There was a time when working part time over the summer would be enough to pay ALL college expenses
20 years ago I found sorta-full time (lets say, 30 hrs/wk average) minimum wage work, year around, easily paid for a nice live-by-myself apartment in a nice area, a cheap and rusty yet reliable car, and full to part time tuition while earning my associates degree. No benefits, no health insurance, no dental, nothing. That degree led to a "real job" that had benefits including full tuition reimbursement for my bachelors degree...
Since then, minimum wage has gone from 5 something to 7 something, gas has gone from 90 cents a gallon to $4, my old bachelor apartment rent has gone from $400/month to $575/month, and tuition at the local school has quadrupled due to federal student loans...
The other interesting issue is tuition reimbursement 20 years ago was typically unlimited, other than having to be accredited, C or better grade, and vaguely related my job and/or employer. Then it dropped to $5K/year which at that time was pretty generous, going to school part or quarter time 3 semesters per year, I was paying about $160/credit long term average including all books and fees, I usually spent less than $4K/yr, I had to be careful to submit each semester's expenses in the proper calendar year but it was no big deal.
Since then, reimbursement remains at $5K/yr, but full time tuition at the local engineering school a couple blocks from where I work has risen to ... $540/credit (I checked online while writing this), before endless fees and parking permits and $200 each textbooks. Let's round that up to $640/credit. So I would only be able to afford about two semesters per year were I to start another degree. Has the value of the education provided increased by a factor of 4 in the last 20 years?
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
Speaking as a successful software developer who needed student loans to attend college. Bullshit. Student loans SUCK, but they are the only thing that allows a large number of low to middle income people get into the career they want and need.
There are alternatives to student loans:
Ron Pauls solution: only the wealthy may attend college. Tuitions will skyrocket even farther because there are so few new students. Hundreds of universities are forced to close their doors and all we are left with are a lot of trade schools and the Ivy Leagues.
Something rational: Recognize that state universities are state universities and have no profit obligation and should not be run like corporations. Cut administrative costs (tuition increases go almost 100% to higher administrative wages and more administrative positions instead of to professors and facilities) and offer low or free tuition subsidized by the state.
He is an ignorant blowhard who thinks his medical degree makes him an expert on economics. Any problem that is too complicated for Ruin Paul to understand, he simply proposes destroying all affected institutions.
This isn't statesmanship. It's demagoguery. But you as many Glibertarian fanbois are so entranced by the simplicity of Ruin Paul's message that you apparently fail to actually think any of his ideas through to their conclusions.
Which are disastrous. Ruin Paul's political philosophy seems to be that since government has been unable to completely solve every problem perfectly, we should just stop using it. Of course, he forgets that all of these solutions, including the government itself, came into being because the original problems were real and in need of a solution that the so-called "free market" had failed to provide.
As it will fail to solve this problem as well. Doing nothing about a problem is not a solution.
I can tell you what happens to people who do nothing while living in some lotus-dream that it's all going to fix itself -- they end up HOMELESS, HOPELESS, JOBLESS, and DEAD. Your philosophy proposes treating all of our urgent social needs like a drug addict treats his personal needs -- by ignoring them.
Unfortunately, after we've paid the price by doing it your stupid way, YOU will not be around to help us clean up the mess. I'm pretty sure of that one. Lazy is as lazy does. And your philosophy is in a nutshell, LAZY. I have zero respect for it.
One day I feel I'm ahead of the wheel / the next it's rolling over me / I can get back on / I can get back on