On Wed, Jun 13, 2012 at 12:01 PM, GMoney <[email protected]> wrote: > > On Wed, Jun 13, 2012 at 1:55 PM, Cameron Childress <[email protected]>wrote: > >> >> Education is not a free market. It's heavily subsidized, by federal money, >> and by loans. If it were a finance based free market, you'd only get to go >> to school if you had the money or could prove you were good for a loan. In >> an intelligence based free market on education, only the smartest people >> would get in. >> >> AFAIK - neither of these criteria are used for student loans. >> > > I see your point. The subsidization interrupts the normal reduction in > demand that would usually accompany the rise in price. >
It isn't that simple either. First off, you have opportunity cost. Demand swings significantly depending on the job market even when there is only a small change in school cost. When there is a rough job market, more people head to school or head back to school because it is 1) something useful to do and 2) an investment for when there is (hopefully) a better job market. When the job market is good, fewer people go to school because the you are forgoing income while incurring debt which is quite the load. Those are extrinsic factors that exist largely outside the simplified model the article presented on government investment in the student loan market (though it does make it indirectly easier for the above cycle to take place by making loans easier to get). Secondly, you have a split post-secondary education system between career or job training degrees/certifications and generalized "education" tracks. Cost and return on investment may have a more direct correlation if you are looking at education that is directly related to specific job prospects, like IT training, teaching degree, healthcare certifications, etc. But that isn't all there is to education in general. There is still value in post-secondary education in subjects that aren't specifically job training, like English, Anthropology, Economics, etc. They teach people how to think, how to study, how to reason, how to work in groups. All of those skills are worthwhile but not necessarily subject to the same simplified cost/benefit analysis you would apply to a specific job-oriented certification and so the supply/demand/price calculations aren't so readily applicable either. The skills are still very important but you can't easily use the same reductionist economic logic to them. Cheers, Judah ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:351945 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
