Should Government Provide "Free" College?

Free College

The thought of free college has gained more interest than ever before. After all, who wouldn't be for free college? Of course the college students want it. But what about the people who will be forced to pay for it? Free college is a misnomer. Nothing is free. As the saying goes, "there's no such thing as a free lunch."

Bernie Sanders has been the leading voice promoting this idea of government providing college for every student that wants to go. As we move further away from the Constitution towards a socialist empire, it only seems logical that the Federal government would want to get its hands into education even more.

Federally Funded College is Unconstitutional

Keep in mind, the Federal government doesn't have the power to regulate education. Policies like Obama's No Child Left Behind is already unconstitutional. How? The 10th amendment:

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

The 10th amendment means the Federal government can only do what is allowed by the Constitution. Where does the Constitution grant the United States Federal government the power to control education? It doesn't! Therefore it's unconstitutional.

The government literally has to break the constitution to do this, but that's no big deal because they do it all the time. They're supposed to amend the Constitution if they want to change it, but they rarely do. This is why we're more like a covert dictatorship than we realize.

Free College Is Theft

There are so many arguments against so called free college. Besides being unconstitutional, it's theft. Forcing someone to pay for someone else's college is immoral. If you want to go to college, then you pay for it. If it's your own money you'll spend it more wisely and appreciate it more when you get it.

High school grads who aren't interested in college won't be likely to pay for it out of their own pocket, but if the taxpayer is picking up the bill they won't care. They may go to college just for the experience, or to get their parents off their back. Of course you're less committed to something if you don't have any skin in the game. That's part of the reason why mortgage lenders want people to put money down. Forcing hard working people to pay for everyone's college education is wrong. If it were voluntary that would be different.

The Road To Communism

Of course, free college seems like an admirable idea the way Bernie pitches it. However, it's really just a continuation of a plan to bring socialism/communism to America. A plan that has been in the works for about 100 years. While this is slightly out of the scope of the topic of free college, it's important to know about it to better understand what's really going on. Things aren't always as they seem. Could there be an ulterior motive? I think so. To see why, you'd need to look into Charlotte Iserbyt's work.

Darletta Scruggs on Fox News

Lead organizer of the Million Student March, Darletta Scruggs, was featured on Fox news to present her stance on taxing the 1% to pay for college for everyone. This is important to point out because her interview went viral on Facebook. Many people saw an edited version showing only her talking points which made her appear to make a very strong argument. This just gets more people on board wanting the government to provide free college. Check out our commentary on Darletta Scruggs on Fox.

The Rising Cost of Higher Education

If private banks make school loans they want to make sure they're going to be able to get their money back. This would be especially true if they weren't using fiat currency backed by nothing and created out of thin air using our fractional reserve banking system, but that's not the case. Nevertheless, they still have to invest their money wisely.

The school loans market has been skewed ever since the government started guaranteeing the loans in 1965. When you artificially prop up a market there are consequences. By government guaranteeing school loans, banks are willing to make stupid decisions because they're going to get their money regardless. They'll loan money to just about anyone if the loan is guaranteed. This creates artificially high demand for colleges, and they know it. The more demand there is for college, the more the colleges can charge for education.

If students had to pay for their tuition out of pocket, their savings and income would determine if they can go to school or not. But if the government guarantees loans students can go to school without savings or income, by borrowing the money to pay for school. Not only does guaranteed loans create more students demanding higher education, it creates students that aren't as concerned with the costs because they're not paying as they go. They're only making payments after they graduate and land their dream job.

Unfortunately, many students don't graduate and many of those that do don't land their dream job. Lots of students have degrees but work jobs that don't require their degree. At the same time, they're deep in debt from all the debt accumulated during those college years.

Obama's Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010

To make things worse, Obama's Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 changed school loans once again. Now instead of the government guaranteeing loans, they're funding them directly. The Act reduced the maximum amount students are required to pay towards loan repayment down to 10% from 15%. That means people can afford a more expensive education because their payments will be lower. Colleges can do the same math and easily figure out they can charge more because students will have lower monthly payments. This will continue to make college even more expensive.

Free College Would Be Even More Expensive

Can you imagine how high tuition costs could be if college was free? If students didn't have to pay for college, they wouldn't care how much it costs. This is only good for the colleges that intend to profit it. There's not much restraining the increasing college tuition if the taxpayers are paying the bill. They won't be paying it directly, so they won't feel it as bad. With no one directly paying the costs, the price of a college education could skyrocket! At the same time, the value of the degree would diminish.

Free College Creates Worthless Degrees

The more people that get a degree, the less that degree is worth. These is simple to understand. What makes a degree valuable is scarcity. If everyone has a degree, how do you stand out among other job applicants? This is already happening.

Many college graduates are working jobs that either doesn't require a degree or is in a field unrelated to their degree. Why should everyone be forced to pay for someone's degree that doesn't get them a job? That wouldn't benefit society. It would only burden taxpayers with even higher taxes.

College is Becoming Obsolete

Free college is just a desperate attempt to sell college because it's becoming obsolete. The internet is far more efficient. Students can watch videos instead of having the teacher explain it to a new class each semester. Students can watch it in their own time, within the comfort of their own home. It saves them travel time, and in some cases, travel costs. Many students move to a new location just for college. If they could get the same degree online it would save them a lot of hassle.

The Internet Is Free College

The Internet is like free college. In same ways it's even far superior to college! You can learn just about anything on the Internet these days. Useful stuff too. Not just a bunch of useless so-called facts. A quick search on Google or Youtube can show you how to do all kinds of useful tasks that will help you in real life. Useful information for daily living isn't plentiful on college campuses.

You can even get a college level education on the Internet for free! Some colleges already include open courseware free to the public. MIT has published all of their course materials online for free and states it is a permanent activity. Check it out here.

There's plenty of opportunity for those that can't afford to go to college. If it weren't the government guaranteeing loans college would be more affordable. Getting loans directly from the government will probably continue to make things worse. Free college will create the most expensive college we've ever seen!

The Internet Teaches Things Colleges Won't

Colleges are pretty mainstream. They all tell you the official narrative. The teachers in general have all been indoctrinated by the same system, so college is a world ran by people with a mainstream paradigm. With the Internet you can learn about alternative theories and come to your own conclusions. Much of what we're taught about history is slanted to fit a particular view.

We don't need more cookie cutter people. We need more independent thinkers who study both sides of the story. The Internet gives us that opportunity because of its virtually infinite amount of information available instantly right at your fingertips. I encourage you to be a self-learner, and a student of life, for life.