[hef19898]

Upvoted you for you being rather young, so benefit of doubt all that.

Just one thing, expensive college is a purely US thing, except some MBA programs most universities in Europe are practically free. So, that thing about socialism. Free, public healthcare as well as education are what some in the US might consider "socialism". So there you might have an issue with your reasoning.

[ajay_sibri04]

I don't think college should be free. It is a business after all. But the price of college in the US is definitely inflated. People used to be able to pay for the tuition by taking a summer job or going one semester on, and one semester working. I just think college should be priced affordably for middle class people and that there should be more merit based aid for lower class people.

I have some friends I play video games with online who have went to college and they have all said that it really wasn't that useful as far as education is concerned, but does get you into the 'club' to apply for better jobs.

[hef19898]

For me college is not a business, same as basic health care. Education is not a business. But then I guess I am used to that way.

But let's stick to college as business. You say tuition is to expensive. A college needs professors, equipment, buildings, employees. All that costs a ton of money. If they are not government owned, they have to cover that plus profits. And they cannot decrease tuition fees. So as long as college are businesses they have to be expensive. Your average studies in Germany run somewhere around 100k Euro if memory serves well, stuff med school and engineering tend to be higher.

In my opinion, a society can only benefit from making education as accessable as possible for everyone. The one thing nobody can take away from you is your knowledge, so the more you have the better yptu are off. That also means there is no such thing as "useless" knowledge. That you only need part of what you learn in school in your future professional life is true. Still nobody knows where you will end up when you are an adult. So the younger you are the broader your education has to be. As you progress, education becomes more specialized up to a point. From there on it is experience and dedicated training on the job.

[yardie]

Part of the reason for the recent protests in Paris was because the government wanted to add fees (though comparatively small) to university tuition. This was viewed as another slap in the face of lawmakers (many of whom went to university for free) wanting to pull the ladder up behind them.

[hef19898]

True, Germany got rid of tuition fees after a short period. Still a far cry from the US, so.