Post-Secondary Education & James O'Connor (was Re: Pro-ITN LibelSuit Post)

[Brad De Long]

>
>The point about explicit tuition fees is an interesting one I think.  You
>could
>argue that one problematic feature of fees would be to tie students into the
>idea that education, is merely another commodity for which they are a
>passive
>consumer, thus degrading it.
>
>A bigger problem than fees however (students have been paying fees in one
>way or
>another for some time, either as official student loans, or before that,
>overdrafts),
>is the official degradation of higher education.  It is now not seen to be
>worth anything
>more than a chance of some sort of job, and is no longer seen to have a
>value of
>its own in creating a more educated independant thinking individual.
>
>cheers,
>Paul

A still bigger problem with the lack of explicit tuition fees is that 
those who attend institutions of higher education have high lifetime 
wealth relative to the rest of their society. Truck drivers' taxes 
should not be going to pay for the training--or even the 
enlightenment--of future lawyers...

Brad DeLong