It’s a good idea for folks – especially young folks – to question and think about the advice and teaching given to them, especially about taking on debt, by those holding themselves out as leaders of civil society and government. They should also watch out for that hazy area of overlap where government funds nominally private institutions to advocate, often using what are held out as “independent studies” or “expert analysis”, for government policies favored by the permanent part of the government and which would increase the power of those in the permanent part of government. See, for example, reports on the work of Elizabeth Warren, et al., on medical bankruptcy, http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/06/04/warren-accused-repeated-instances-of-scientific-misconduct-before-harvard-hire, and the various law professors now lining up to support the efforts of the NYT and WaPo to affect upcoming SCOTUS decisions, e.g., http://washingtonexaminer.com/tribe-john-roberts-student-of-mine-will-uphold-obamacare/article/2500672.
Before the long march through civil society institutions and government, the folks now mostly controlling the institutions and government would have agreed – “Question Authority” – but now they are appalled when anyone suggests that their policies and ideas are wrong – and often harmful.
Would that anyone wonder what interests lead mostly economically and financially illiterate and innumerate 18 year olds (and, often, similarly situated parents) to take on huge debts to pay high tuitions for outcomes that are rarely measured? What thinking person makes “investment” decisions like that? It’s a pretty basic third party payer / “easy” credit combination type of problem which leads to the ratcheting of prices. But, if private companies sold high priced goods or services on easy – non-dischargeable – credit terms to young ignorant people on vague promises about vague results, university types would be calling for prison time.
FRC Blog » One Nurse’s Travails with Student Debt Paints a Bigger Picture.