The extreme left , as this blogger is wont to repeat ad nauseam, is as bad as the extreme right. The champions of the hard left - Bernie Sanders in the US and Jeremy Corbyn in the UK have one policy in common that is a good example of this. Free college for everybody.
They also have another thing in common which is often the case with the left's policies. Right problem. Wrong solution.
First the right problem. Its a complete disgrace that in a developed country, a young person starts working life under a mountain of debt. Outstanding student debt is now £100bn in the UK, and a ridiculous $1.3 trillion in the US. And just to give you a perspective on the latter statistic, its $ 600 m higher than the total credit card debt in the US. You start life with a mountain of debt, and not a ready prospect of a good job. Great. If I was to be born again and had a choice of where to be born, I wouldn't choose either the US or the UK on that statistic alone.
The left deserves great credit for highlighting this problem. Successive governments of all stripes and colours (pun intended) deserve censure for ignoring the problem and allowing it to build to these levels. A society, and a nation, that spurns its young does not deserve to be called "civilised".
But, as is often the case, the left's solution is dead wrong. Their prescription is for college to be made free and the costs to be picked up by the government. Fantastic. Will they never learn that tax tax tax and spend spend spend does not work - for free advice apply to Hugo Chavez, Fidel Castro, et al.
This blogger suggests three solutions instead.
First cut costs. Why is college education so expensive ? In the US, a ridiculous amount of cost is spent on college sports, fancy living quarters and everything that has nothing to do with education. My good friend Sriram has blogged extensively and is far more knowledgeable on this subject. In the UK, the average Vice Chancellor earns £300,000. And gets payoffs for leaving the job, which would make any corporate fat cat proud. Wield an axe on any cost that does not strictly have to do with education. Get the professional cost cutters from industry and let them loose on the education sector and within 3 years they'll cut costs down.
Secondly, what about parental responsibility. I am not at all clear why parents in these countries do not pick up a large portion of these costs. In Asia, education costs are largely picked up by parents. That's their legacy and gift to their offspring. If you are not prepared to start your child off well in life, you don't deserve to have a child. Period. And anyway what sort of an argument is it that you will not pay for your offspring's education, but somebody else (the tax payer) should. And don't tell me the parents cannot afford it - they have 15 odd years from the child's birth to plan savings. Save $ 5 every day and you won't have to worry about student debt.
Thirdly make college education truly global. Allow students from anywhere in the world to study anywhere else - allow free movement of students. There are superb universities in China and India for example, where you can get high quality education at a fraction of the cost in the US or the UK. Just like industry has truly globalised with activity automatically moving to the lowest cost location, so be it with education. Yes, I know this is an utopian dream and will never happen, but at least I can articulate it in my own blog (and no doubt face a volley of criticism in the comments !). Just to make it very clear, I am only advocating free movement for education; not permanent immigration.
The hard left may not ascend in the US, despite how many ever have felt the Bern. But there is a real chance that Jeremy Corbyn might become the Prime Minister of the UK. In that case their national anthem of "God save the queen" could perhaps be amended to God save the UK !
