Originally Posted by Old Dad
Well, the way I look at it, everyone who "gets ahead" either worked for it or had someone or numerous people in their family who worked for it / invested wisely / made wise decisions. It's not "fair" to force others to pay for the education of someone / some family who didn't work for it / didn't make wise investments / didn't make wise decisions.

We have to set aside unfounded a priori assumptions if we're going to have any meaningful dialog here.

- A cursory glance at financial headlines over the past 8 years will indicate that "making it" often has less to do with hard work or good decisions than with taking advantage of others.

- This thread has already demonstrated many reasons why today's runaway university costs have nothing to do with the true costs of providing an advanced education, and everything to do with runaway capitalism.

- The number one cause of bankruptcy in the US is healthcare expenses, even for those who are covered by insurance, and poor health is more often the result of losing the genetic lottery or bad luck than "good decisions."

- The current system of paying for college expects teenagers who know nothing about the employment world to make "good decisions" about their future earnings in a marketplace that may have turned upside down four years later.

Etc.