A Friend Just Sent This Email to Me

A friend just sent this email to me and I replied and thought that maybe you might be interested too -

BTW - What's your opinion ??

Email 

Walt,

What do you think of the proposal for the state to take part of your income in exchange for paying for your education.

Reply

C______,

It’s good to hear from you.

I’m flattered that you ask for my opinion.

As to my feelings about the current plan, it’s just another mechanism to avoid confronting the real issue, “Why is college so expensive?”

When you and I went to school the tuition was but a fraction of what it is today. You might say “Sure but everything was cheaper too” but so were incomes and so that’s not a good excuse.

(See my previous article - Monday, August 12, 2013  - The College Loan Bubble - Toil and Trouble).

Back to the question you asked about the currently proposed scheme – any plan that indentures people for a lifetime to pay outlandish college costs, whether it be upfront or back door, doesn’t appeal to me at all !

All this will do, as the student loan program has done, is to encourage even higher tuitions and fees. The whole thing is similar to credit cards, which certainly have induced even more spending by consumers and allowed

prices to rise even more than the would have without them.

Thanks again for asking.

Walt