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Comment by dahart | Hacker News Reader

Why do you assume there’s debt involved? Whether BS or not, people with degrees have higher earnings (~2x on average according to the FED) and pay higher taxes (more than 2x on average); it’s very much in the government’s financial interest for more people to have degrees.

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That suffers from the stereotype fallacy. Some majors have huge ROI while others leave graduates very frustrated with their prospects. Not everyone will benefit from a degree. Not all degrees are financially sound.

If people think that all majors tend near the average, they are mistaken. Some do very well, others are of dubious value to a career. Averages hide ugly realities.

Oh no! You’ve misunderstood. I wasn’t really talking about the benefits of degrees to individuals, I was talking about the benefits to the federal budget (in response to the claim that we’re taking on debt). And there, the average income of graduates is actually the only thing that matters, not individuals’ performance, because that average turns into a sum total in income tax revenue for the federal government, a total that factors in the benefits of all degrees and all incomes, good or bad. There is a healthy positive ROI today for the government on education, even after student debt forgiveness. We’re making a tidy profit on degrees, not taking on debt. We’re making such a good profit, in fact, that we’d still be in the black making money if we covered all 4 year degrees for everyone who’s already choosing to go to college now. It looks like just the additional income tax revenue the country makes off degree earners compared to high school grads is on the order of 2-3x the sum total money paid in tuition and fees to all post-secondary schools in the US. If everyone in the country decided to get free degrees, all else being equal, it might get closer to break even or dipping into the budget… maybe. But there are multiple other countries that cover college for everyone who wants it, and they’re doing fine financially and not taking on education debt, some even rank better than the US on several economic measures.

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