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by okaram 1061 days ago
Of course! Basically everything is paid by somebody (TANSTAAFL). Nobody thinks that free education is magically free, everybody understands that it's paid by taxes/government/society.

OTOH, it is a much cooler slogan than 'education paid by society at large :)
1 comments
lisper 1061 days ago
> Nobody thinks that free education is magically free, everybody understands that it's paid by taxes/government/society.

That is far from clear. There are crazy people on the left just like there are crazy people on the right, and I think some of them really don't understand how the world actually works, and that you really can somehow magically make education "free for everyone".

Even if it's not true, it provides ammunition for the opposition to say that it's true. One way or another, I think using misleading terminology is generally not a net win.

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sudosysgen 1061 days ago
Oh come on. Literally no one believes that teacher salaries are going to pay for themselves.

When leftists say that something like public healthcare would be literally free what they mean is that the net cost compared to the alternative is null or negative, not literally that nothing is being spent.

If you want to give me a link of someone who literally thinks that free college means that no one has to pay anything for the college itself or it's staff, I'm willing to take a look. Otherwise, it's just an argument that the net cost to society is negligible or negative, which is a valid use of the word too.

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lisper 1061 days ago
I don't think they think that no one will pay. I think they don't think about it at all, or they think that government somehow has unlimited resources at its disposal.
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throwawaylinux 1061 days ago
It's actually that "billionaires" will somehow produce a whole lot more things and pay for it all for everybody else, absolving themselves of any further rational thought or moral responsibility to those with less than themselves.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ee8GedvPmBU

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Clubber 1061 days ago
Many young people have no concept of money. It's not their fault, their parents paid for everything and it's not really taught. My first car loan out of college floored me at how much the monthly payment was at 60 months and it was a reasonably priced demo (cheaper than new).

Of course, not many people have the concept of money at the government scale either. What does $75B to Ukraine really mean?

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