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Comment by sntax | Hacker News Reader

I am aware that this is not what the NPR article is about but, can someone please change my mind on this? The vast majority of college degrees in the US do not have a return on investment. Many people are struggling because they studied information that is not a marketable skill from a university that accepts low-quality students. Why is the solution that the nation just foots the bill to make a bad investment instead of the individual?

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> Why is the solution that the nation just foots the bill to make a bad investment instead of the individual?

Almost the only economic reason in a rational choice model [0] for a public program is the existence of externalities that justify action that would not occur in a market system without government intervention to internalize the externalities; in this case, that would be diffuse social benefit that offsets the negative expected financial return to the student if they paid full price in the market.

Of course assessing the existence and, particularly, value of such externalities is, in practice highly subjective.

[0] which is known to be inaccurate, and real-world irrationality may provide additional reasons.

Even people who get degrees with good employment rates go into a ton of debt (by non-American standards) for them unless they have a scholarship.

I don't understand your point here. If your degree has a return on investment it means that you can pay back your loans because you have a higher paying job that was a direct result of your degree. You will go into a ton of debt to become a nurse but you will make up your investment in salary eventually. If you spend 100k dollars on an art history degree from Univ. of South Carolina Aiken your job prospects have not changed from someone who never attended college at all.

Well there's the argument that it educates the citizenry and thus strengthens our democracy.

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