Doug Henwood writes: "I was on a panel with a libertarian just this morning. He argued by anecdote and metaphor - we need a "purgation" after all that debt, it'd be like the "recovery room" after surgery, no mention that he meant that we need an unemployment rate of 25% to correct the "excesses of the past." Here too, no actual evidence. In fact, federal support for education is flat-to-down over the last three decades, and state/local support is down. Tuition, though, is up."
I don't see the inconsistency at all. As it does with housing, the government has moved its education spending off the balance sheet. Instead of spending money directly on education, the government heavily subsidizes the student loan market through guarantees. The net effect has been an increase of allocated resources to education, with great benefit to the universities. Off balance sheet guarantees are the politician's best friend -- no new taxes, no deficit issues, take credit for helping some kid go to college. What could go wrong? David Shemano ps I don't see why you were so dismissive of the Cato article. Looked credible and empirically supported to me. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
