Just as the existence of health insurance makes healthcare twice as costly as it would be otherwise, the existence of federal student loan programs makes education twice as expensive as it would be otherwise. Long-existing, traditional methods, and traditional institutions become rigid, bureaucratic and self-serving by definition; this process of institutional calcification is a normal state of affairs when institutions and people are shielded from competition.
Reformers who recognize calcification, seek to change the paradigm and launch innovative ideas and methods. This effort at change is highly threatening to established institutions and the people who occupy positions of power and status within these institutions. Traditional American higher education is in a calcified state of existence and is beginning to come apart at the seams, just as our economy is doing. Government intervention only prolongs, exacerbates, and worsens whatever problem it seeks to address. All government ends up doing is throwing money at the problem and kicking the can down the road for the next generation of suckers.
The escalating cost of higher education has been at work since WWII as government has spent more and more money with fewer and fewer positive results. Too much money chasing too few units can only result in higher costs, which have become insupportable. A bubble exists in American higher education and a crash is inevitable, just as happened with our financial system of easy credit and excessive spending.
Most students who have large federal student loans outstanding are simply unable to repay these loans due to the fact that there are fewer jobs (you can thank government for that), and among jobs available, many pay no more for a college degree than for a high school diploma. A college education has become devalued in the marketplace.
When government seeks to encourage or discourage behavior through coercive laws and coercive taxation, an impossible task is undertaken, the result of which is usually the opposite of what was intended. This is the tyranny of coerced good intentions.
Among elected members of congress and state legislators, the lack of knowledge and understanding of human nature, economics, and history is simply nothing short of astonishing. People who run for public office are attention-seekers and do so to boost their egos, not to serve the public or their country. Paying lip service to serving their fellow citizens is just part of the pathology of the narcissistic personality.
Our society is being bankrupted by a lack of competition in higher education and a lack of competition among the providers of legal services, two major societal institutions.
As a society, 95% of us are priced out of the market for higher education and legal services. Only the elite 5% of income earners in America can afford these services on their own.
Both of these sectors of our economy have manipulated their respective systems to lock-out competition and innovation in the name of protecting consumers and the public. That they say such things with a straight face is nothing short of amazing and a pathological denial of reality for which they are trained.
It is no accident that the average income of licensed lawyers has long since passed the income of doctors and all other occupations. Did you know that licensed lawyers are the only self-licensed profession in America? Yes, they license themselves. Our government of the people plays no role in deciding on the requirements for practicing law or the structure of our legal system.
And, it is no accident that federal government student loan programs have caused the cost of higher education to soar as those who operate the system soak up all the money for their own benefit. They are spared the competition of the marketplace of ideas. They win, society at large loses.
Traditional residential colleges and universities are diploma mills in that they run as many people as possible through their programs at the highest possible cost while minimizing individual student contact, avoiding individual mentoring, and avoiding extensive written work that requires too much time for tenured professors to read.
Traditional colleges and universities serve themselves not students.
Reformers who recognize calcification, seek to change the paradigm and launch innovative ideas and methods. This effort at change is highly threatening to established institutions and the people who occupy positions of power and status within these institutions. Traditional American higher education is in a calcified state of existence and is beginning to come apart at the seams, just as our economy is doing. Government intervention only prolongs, exacerbates, and worsens whatever problem it seeks to address. All government ends up doing is throwing money at the problem and kicking the can down the road for the next generation of suckers.
The escalating cost of higher education has been at work since WWII as government has spent more and more money with fewer and fewer positive results. Too much money chasing too few units can only result in higher costs, which have become insupportable. A bubble exists in American higher education and a crash is inevitable, just as happened with our financial system of easy credit and excessive spending.
Most students who have large federal student loans outstanding are simply unable to repay these loans due to the fact that there are fewer jobs (you can thank government for that), and among jobs available, many pay no more for a college degree than for a high school diploma. A college education has become devalued in the marketplace.
When government seeks to encourage or discourage behavior through coercive laws and coercive taxation, an impossible task is undertaken, the result of which is usually the opposite of what was intended. This is the tyranny of coerced good intentions.
Among elected members of congress and state legislators, the lack of knowledge and understanding of human nature, economics, and history is simply nothing short of astonishing. People who run for public office are attention-seekers and do so to boost their egos, not to serve the public or their country. Paying lip service to serving their fellow citizens is just part of the pathology of the narcissistic personality.
Our society is being bankrupted by a lack of competition in higher education and a lack of competition among the providers of legal services, two major societal institutions.
As a society, 95% of us are priced out of the market for higher education and legal services. Only the elite 5% of income earners in America can afford these services on their own.
Both of these sectors of our economy have manipulated their respective systems to lock-out competition and innovation in the name of protecting consumers and the public. That they say such things with a straight face is nothing short of amazing and a pathological denial of reality for which they are trained.
It is no accident that the average income of licensed lawyers has long since passed the income of doctors and all other occupations. Did you know that licensed lawyers are the only self-licensed profession in America? Yes, they license themselves. Our government of the people plays no role in deciding on the requirements for practicing law or the structure of our legal system.
And, it is no accident that federal government student loan programs have caused the cost of higher education to soar as those who operate the system soak up all the money for their own benefit. They are spared the competition of the marketplace of ideas. They win, society at large loses.
Traditional residential colleges and universities are diploma mills in that they run as many people as possible through their programs at the highest possible cost while minimizing individual student contact, avoiding individual mentoring, and avoiding extensive written work that requires too much time for tenured professors to read.
Traditional colleges and universities serve themselves not students.