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I really wish the approach to making university education more affordable was by subsidizing the universities more instead of subsidizing loans. I don't know if hand-outs to banks was the only way that the left could get enough support from the right to get any legislation passed or what, but it's terrible both for those who do take out loans and those who just cough up more of their own or their family's money.

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For those interested in the actual policy rather than a rant: Giving loans to students is a 'market-based' approach; it allows the market to pick winners and allocate resources, via students choice of school, rather than the government. How does the government pick which schools get the funds?

That doesn't make it a perfect policy, of course. I think grants to students or simply free education at public universities may be the best options. But that costs more money than loans.

Was it the only way? No, of course not. Does Wall Street play the puppet master? I think we all know the answer to that.

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