[tekknik]

Then how do you decide who gets a bachelors, masters or PhD? What if I want to have a PhD in computer science but work a normal job? Will the gov pay for it or force me into research? What if I want to be an MD? Will the government pay for that MD while denying others that want a PhD? What happens when someone fails out of school? How do you avoid people using school to avoid the selective service?

[runarberg]

It doesn’t work like that. Lots of countries have free education, some even pay students in higher educations stipends (and some make you pay it back if you drop out without a degree, for better or for worse). Students are free to pursue whichever degree they want, and leave academia for whichever job they can get whenever they want.

Think about free education like you think about universal income, except free education is not an experiment with limited data to back up it’s value, but rather a tried and trusted policy with ample data to back up it’s success.

[tekknik]

Yea I don’t want to pay taxes for someone pursuing something worthless. You missed the point.

[runarberg]

You probably already do. If you are American, you probably paid much more taxes to pursue a worthless invasion into Iraq and Afghanistan. If you live in a capitalist country, you are probably paying taxes to pursue worthless bailouts of corporations, or whatever infrastructure these corporations want the state to pay for them.

It is also a bit unfortunate that you view education that doesn’t lead directly to a career to be “worthless”. You learn a lot of skills when you get university education, including but not limited to knowledge about the field at hand. If you get education in one field and then go into industry in another area, you will take those skills with you, and the industry at whole will benefit from having a wider skillset among its workers.

[tekknik]

I agree with all of those, but not paying for a degree in underwater basket weaving. Sorry.

[runarberg]

Your counterpoint is made up. I’m not aware of any universities—neither free nor paid for—which offer a degree in underwater basket weaving. I assume you are creating a scarecrow to make your argument against free education more convincing. I’m not gonna grant you this, and instead—in the spirit of HN—assume you meant normal basket weaving, and respond to the strongest plausible interpretation .

For sure there are crafts programs and vocational schools which teach basket weaving, surely you must see the value in maintaining the craft of basket weaving and for there to be skilled basket weavers out there weaving quality baskets, and those interested getting into the industry of weaved basket, there should be an available avenue to learn this skill.