Bernie Sanders Interview with MSNBC

[Patrick Chewing]

Bruh we spent trillions of dollars on Iraq and Afghanistan and our military budget is the largest in the world. The estimated cost of free community college by the Obama administration was 60 billion over 10 years. Let's put that in perspective.

During the 60s the California public universities used to be free and now the cost has risen to those of the private universities. Granted I wish the government would get out of guaranteeing loans which has aided in the rise of tuition costs in college education and I'm not sure if more higher education is the solution but the proposal has some merits.

Who cares what was spent on wars? Those two things have nothing to do with one another.

Just come right out and say it, it's another tax on the American people. Plain and simple. Who in their right mind is going to sign up for that?? And then think of the consequences. As if we don't have enough people jumping fences to get in here. This country will go belly up with everyone across the globe trying to get free schooling.

Free college is the dumbest shit I've ever heard. Going to college is a privilege, not a right.

[ALBballer]

Who cares what was spent on wars? Those two things have nothing to do with one another.

Just come right out and say it, it's another tax on the American people. Plain and simple. Who in their right mind is going to sign up for that?? And then think of the consequences. As if we don't have enough people jumping fences to get in here. This country will go belly up with everyone across the globe trying to get free schooling.

Free college is the dumbest shit I've ever heard. Going to college is a privilege, not a right.

You should care. Those two wars are a large reason why we are in huge deficit. Imagine how much better we would of been if 2 trillion dollars was spent on our infrastructure and think of how many jobs it would of created and how much it would of done for our economy. Sure I understand its a fallacious argument but if the figures are correct assuming 60 billion dollars over 10 years that would cost each individual around $200 in 10 years. The wars have cost how many of our tax dollars?

As for college being a right or a privilege that is debatable. It is even debatable IMO if college is the solution for most students and more emphasis should probably be put on blue collar jobs ie electrician, plumbing, etc. Finally you could make community college free to only citizens of this country. Regardless I doubt 3rd worlders will jump the borders to attend 13th grade in the states.

[KyrieTheFuture]

Who cares what was spent on wars? Those two things have nothing to do with one another.

Just come right out and say it, it's another tax on the American people. Plain and simple. Who in their right mind is going to sign up for that?? And then think of the consequences. As if we don't have enough people jumping fences to get in here. This country will go belly up with everyone across the globe trying to get free schooling.

Free college is the dumbest shit I've ever heard. Going to college is a privilege, not a right.

....Are you unaware several countries around the world offer free education to their citizens?

[Patrick Chewing]

....Are you unaware several countries around the world offer free education to their citizens?

Free education or free "College Education"? Be more specific.


And then if you find that the latter is actually the case, please provide the names of these countries.

[KyrieTheFuture]

Free education or free "College Education"? Be more specific.


And then if you find that the latter is actually the case, please provide the names of these countries.

Well after 40 seconds of googling cause I'm not a ****ing moron...

All Europeans (and some people outside) may attend college in Germany, tuition free.
The Nordic countries will even pay for grad school.
Finland used to let internationals come in for free, but now only charge a small fee.
I can list other countries like Brazil and Argentina, or Sri Lanka, but who the **** wants to go to school there.


Now, I do not advocate free college for everyone, we're simply way, way to big. I think there should be a big ass scholarship fund you can apply to, and is easy to get money from, but not everyone should go to college, in fact many should not. I'd be cool with the free 2 years of community college for everyone though. How do we pay for it? Maybe by slashing our hilarious defense budget *gasp* don't worry, relax your anus, we won't die in a sea of hellfire from reducing our military budget from over 4x the next highest spender, to 3x.

Edit: Free to attend, does not mean, everyone gets to come here. It means everyone who was smart enough to get in, doesn't have to worry about how to pay.

[bladefd]

Free college is the dumbest shit I've ever heard. Going to college is a privilege, not a right.

First, I know you didn't mention this but I break this issue into 2 compartments: basic education and higher education (including college).

Basic education IS a human right for every human on Earth, in my estimation. The problem is that developing countries like India/China/etc don't have enough wealth/GDP to focus too much on education. For them, survival and trying to feed people has to be first. There just is not enough money left for them to make higher education a right. For them only basic education can be a human right because survival comes first. In USA, there are about 46 million poor people (3 million homeless) that have to focus first on survival. India? About 450 million poor people -- 350+ million of those make $1 a day (entire US population).

Now, if we consider a developed nation like the USA, basic education obviously must be a right - that's a given. Here comes my rebuttal to your point. I argue college should be a right as well. Why? Because you have the infrastructure in place and high enough GDP to make it happen. There should be 0 reason why you don't have $60 billion to educate every person in America.

Source for cost of education amounting to $60 billion: http://www.theatlantic.com/business/...n-free/282803/

I agree that you as a student should not be able to choose the college. You cannot go "Hmm, do I want to go to UConn in different state, Rutgers in my state or community college? OK, I will choose the MOST expensive!" No, but as a nation, you can afford to make it local college. That would wipe off dorming costs if the college is local in same county that you live in.

As far as your fundamental argument goes.. I think if you have GDP of $16 TRILLION DOLLARS but cannot afford to pay $60 billion for higher education for everyone, something is seriously wrong. Not with that idea but with how congress/government juggles the checkbook. Fix the damn checkbook but don't discard the idea itself.

[bladefd]

Oh and keep in mind that the USA spends $70 billion on pell grants yearly already (students have to take loans to pay back extra if they dorm and go out of state). You take that same money and just shift it over to public college that must be local to where you live.

There is no extra money necessary.
-You just need to enforce a stipulation on the public college to not get greedy & raise their tuition rate. Punishment: Funding and/or research money gets pulled.
-You need to enforce a stipulation on the student that the public college they choose must be in same county or bordering county (cannot be out of state or 3-4 counties over). Punishment: Denial of approval and chance to re-apply.