[piva00]

What you want or not is not related to what's best for a society. This radical individualism is, at best, short sighted.

You will benefit from a society that has healthcare and education, even if you individually would prefer not to be because you might not directly need it if you have your private money for your own healthcare and education. The rest of society might not and living in a society where people are decently treated is better for you in the long term.

From your own words:

> Would have done tons of things like this if I didn't have student loans hanging over my head.

With access to low cost/free education you'd be free from this, hence giving you more freedom. Healthcare is similar, without the lingering fear that it might bankrupt you in case you are not well covered you have more freedoms, you don't depend on an employer to have access to healthcare that won't destroy your life.

The warped view of freedom in America is baffling, you prefer to be "free to" than "free from". True liberation usually don't come only from being "free to"...

[boppo1]

Believe it or not, I mostly agree! But we are not culturally proactive about our health. There are entire industries dedicated to making unhealthy people feel good about their obviously bad choices.If it were just 5% of the population, it would be no big deal, but it's not. 39.6% of americans are obese. If free healthcare came along with a cultural push that everyone who is able ought to get fit, I'd be excited about it. But as it stands I think it's simply not affordable, like our overzealous military spending.

As for degrees, college has a similar cultural issue. There are tons of degree programs that are frankly frivolous. I'm not even against humanities, but when I was in college I knew kids in $50k of debt making Picasso-esque garbage and writing conceptual poetry as the zenith of their studies. I still know them. They work in food service and are extremely unhappy and demoralised. In the same way we shouldn't be letting young people make these kinds of mistakes, we shouldn't subsidize them as a society. If we make STEM degrees free for anyone who can pass exams on the prerequisites, I'm all in. I'd like some support for humanities as well but it's incredibly hard to draw that line, especially now when people will sincerely argue that Jackson Pollock was as talented and important as Frederick Edwin Church.