The Destruction of American Higher Education [Comments enabled] This article makes clear what I've pointed out since the insanity with student "loans" began: In short, this is a recipe for nearly free “loans” for an ever-increasing number of people, courtesy of the general public. Until the public goes broke, that is. The Penn Wharton Budget Model estimates the full plan could drive total future costs toward $1 trillion. In other words its not a one time on existing loans, its a permanent capacity to take them in unlimited amounts and then walk off, capped by income at a crazy-low repayment rate. The entire problem arose when the Federal Government started restricting the capacity to discharge this debt in bankruptcy. Prior to that time nobody in their right mind would loan you money for education unless they were pretty-sure you'd pay it back. This meant they paid a lot of attention to your individual capacity to both learn and your character, that is, your desire to pay it back. Since there is no such thing as "collateral" with a thing you stuff in your head that's all they had. A tiny number of people gamed this; they went to medical school and then strategically defaulted, filing bankruptcy. The outrage in Congress and the public was immediate. The correct answer was to ruin the medical monopolies using 15 USC Chapter 1, an existing law, so that the supply of medically-trained people was no longer artificially constrained; for decades prior the AMA and others had done exactly that by limiting admissions to medical schools. What Congress did instead was start the process of making student loans non-dischargeable. Prior to that time you could literally spin pizzas and pay for college. I know this to be true because I did it, paying in cash with money I earned. In fact I left college because I was able to out-earn the cost of tuition, fees, books and board and, on the plan I was in, I decided that my earnings trajectory would not be materially improved by remaining in school. I was, over time, proved correct. Now the destruction of higher education is basically complete. Colleges no longer admit people simply on whether you can do the work; they now do so by changing standards if you can't, which in many cases means your "degree" denotes nothing more than paying the money. The "unlimited" money spigot has turned college dorms into luxury accommodations I refuse to buy for a weekend when on vacation as I just don't see the value. The prior concept of cinder-block walls, a built into-the-wall desk accommodating two people and a pair of twin beds that can at the occupant's option be stacked into bunks with a shared bathroom either with another connecting room or down the hall as a communal facility is gone, with people believing this is "beneath them." I remind you that the previous focus on doing rather than money put men on the moon several times over the space of ten years using nothing more than slide rules, pocket protectors and pencils. Today we just watched technology to transport cryogenic fuels from a tank to a rocket fail repeatedly on the launchpad. This engineering feat was mastered sixty years ago in the Apollo program without a single computer and worked reliably; today we can't manage to make it work at all. The cost of "college" has skyrocketed at multiples of inflation exactly as has health care. The reason is the same in both cases: The market pricing mechanism has been destroyed in favor of so-called "social engineering" and the parties involved have all taken advantage of it to screw the population. This latest scheme will not only make it worse it will destroy what little value remains in said credentials, and when the people get tired of paying for these boondoggles -- which will eventually occur -- it will destroy both the institutions and those in them.

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The Destruction of American Higher Education

[Comments enabled]

This article makes clear what I've pointed out since the insanity with student "loans" began:

In short, this is a recipe for nearly free “loans” for an ever-increasing number of people, courtesy of the general public. Until the public goes broke, that is. The Penn Wharton Budget Model estimates the full plan could drive total future costs toward $1 trillion.

In other words its not a one time on existing loans, its a permanent capacity to take them in unlimited amounts and then walk off, capped by income at a crazy-low repayment rate.

The entire problem arose when the Federal Government started restricting the capacity to discharge this debt in bankruptcy.  Prior to that time nobody in their right mind would loan you money for education unless they were pretty-sure you'd pay it back.  This meant they paid a lot of attention to your individual capacity to both learn and your character, that is, your desire to pay it back.

Since there is no such thing as "collateral" with a thing you stuff in your head that's all they had.

A tiny number of people gamed this; they went to medical school and then strategically defaulted, filing bankruptcy.  The outrage in Congress and the public was immediate.  The correct answer was to ruin the medical monopolies using 15 USC Chapter 1, an existing law, so that the supply of medically-trained people was no longer artificially constrained; for decades prior the AMA and others had done exactly that by limiting admissions to medical schools.

What Congress did instead was start the process of making student loans non-dischargeable.

Prior to that time you could literally spin pizzas and pay for college.  I know this to be true because I did it, paying in cash with money I earned.  In fact I left college because I was able to out-earn the cost of tuition, fees, books and board and, on the plan I was in, I decided that my earnings trajectory would not be materially improved by remaining in school.

I was, over time, proved correct.

Now the destruction of higher education is basically complete.  Colleges no longer admit people simply on whether you can do the work; they now do so by changing standards if you can't, which in many cases means your "degree" denotes nothing more than paying the money.  The "unlimited" money spigot has turned college dorms into luxury accommodations I refuse to buy for a weekend when on vacation as I just don't see the value.  The prior concept of cinder-block walls, a built into-the-wall desk accommodating two people and a pair of twin beds that can at the occupant's option be stacked into bunks with a shared bathroom either with another connecting room or down the hall as a communal facility is gone, with people believing this is "beneath them."

I remind you that the previous focus on doing rather than money put men on the moon several times over the space of ten years using nothing more than slide rules, pocket protectors and pencils.  Today we just watched technology to transport cryogenic fuels from a tank to a rocket fail repeatedly on the launchpad.  This engineering feat was mastered sixty years ago in the Apollo program without a single computer and worked reliably; today we can't manage to make it work at all.

The cost of "college" has skyrocketed at multiples of inflation exactly as has health care.  The reason is the same in both cases: The market pricing mechanism has been destroyed in favor of so-called "social engineering" and the parties involved have all taken advantage of it to screw the population.

This latest scheme will not only make it worse it will destroy what little value remains in said credentials, and when the people get tired of paying for these boondoggles -- which will eventually occur -- it will destroy both the institutions and those in them.he Destruction of American Higher Education

[Comments enabled]

This article makes clear what I've pointed out since the insanity with student "loans" began:

In short, this is a recipe for nearly free “loans” for an ever-increasing number of people, courtesy of the general public. Until the public goes broke, that is. The Penn Wharton Budget Model estimates the full plan could drive total future costs toward $1 trillion.

In other words its not a one time on existing loans, its a permanent capacity to take them in unlimited amounts and then walk off, capped by income at a crazy-low repayment rate.

The entire problem arose when the Federal Government started restricting the capacity to discharge this debt in bankruptcy.  Prior to that time nobody in their right mind would loan you money for education unless they were pretty-sure you'd pay it back.  This meant they paid a lot of attention to your individual capacity to both learn and your character, that is, your desire to pay it back.

Since there is no such thing as "collateral" with a thing you stuff in your head that's all they had.

A tiny number of people gamed this; they went to medical school and then strategically defaulted, filing bankruptcy.  The outrage in Congress and the public was immediate.  The correct answer was to ruin the medical monopolies using 15 USC Chapter 1, an existing law, so that the supply of medically-trained people was no longer artificially constrained; for decades prior the AMA and others had done exactly that by limiting admissions to medical schools.

What Congress did instead was start the process of making student loans non-dischargeable.

Prior to that time you could literally spin pizzas and pay for college.  I know this to be true because I did it, paying in cash with money I earned.  In fact I left college because I was able to out-earn the cost of tuition, fees, books and board and, on the plan I was in, I decided that my earnings trajectory would not be materially improved by remaining in school.

I was, over time, proved correct.

Now the destruction of higher education is basically complete.  Colleges no longer admit people simply on whether you can do the work; they now do so by changing standards if you can't, which in many cases means your "degree" denotes nothing more than paying the money.  The "unlimited" money spigot has turned college dorms into luxury accommodations I refuse to buy for a weekend when on vacation as I just don't see the value.  The prior concept of cinder-block walls, a built into-the-wall desk accommodating two people and a pair of twin beds that can at the occupant's option be stacked into bunks with a shared bathroom either with another connecting room or down the hall as a communal facility is gone, with people believing this is "beneath them."

I remind you that the previous focus on doing rather than money put men on the moon several times over the space of ten years using nothing more than slide rules, pocket protectors and pencils.  Today we just watched technology to transport cryogenic fuels from a tank to a rocket fail repeatedly on the launchpad.  This engineering feat was mastered sixty years ago in the Apollo program without a single computer and worked reliably; today we can't manage to make it work at all.

The cost of "college" has skyrocketed at multiples of inflation exactly as has health care.  The reason is the same in both cases: The market pricing mechanism has been destroyed in favor of so-called "social engineering" and the parties involved have all taken advantage of it to screw the population.

This latest scheme will not only make it worse it will destroy what little value remains in said credentials, and when the people get tired of paying for these boondoggles -- which will eventually occur -- it will destroy both the institutions and those in them.