But apparently there could be such thing as "free" post-secondary education...or at least almost.
Taxpayers already pay around 70%-80% of the cost of a post-secondary education and the Liberals want to make it closer to 90%.
While a well-educated work force does benefit all Canadians, being well-education greatly benefits those who receive the education.
Statistics continue to show average earnings of those who receive a post-secondary education are much higher than those who opt not to seek out post-secondary education.
In fact, on average across Canada in 2001, those people who received a university degree, certificate or diploma earned $48,648 a year while those who only had their high school degree earned $25,477. A difference of $23,171 a year!
Do the math, if you work from age 25 to age 65, the constant dollar benefit if you received your university degree is a gain of $926,840. I think most people would enjoy a 4,600% return on their $20,000 (4yrs x $5,000/yr tuition) investment. If the Liberals implement their $8 billion/year plan that return will increase to a nearly 6,200%.
Even if students were to pay the full shot of university ($20,000/yr) they still would receive nearly a 1,200% return of their investment.
I don't know about you, but if I was presented with the opportunity to purchase a house today for $80,000 knowing that it will likely be worth the equivalent of $926,840 (2001 dollars) when I retired, and I would be able to receive the value in annual payments, it wouldn't take a lot of thought, especially if the gov't was willing to loan me the money (interest free for the first 4 years).
Furthermore, funding "soon to be rich people" with the tax dollars of "not soon to be rich people" is completely unfair. Why should a janitor earning $10/hour have his tax dollars used to pay for the education of a lawyer who will end up earning $200/hour after he graduates?
It's no different than using our tax dollars to provide corporate welfare to large corporations.
It's a bad, desperate policy.
Friday, January 06, 2006
There ain't no such thing as a free lunch...
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5 comments:
Nice work Scott. $8 billion? Yegadz.
Good post. I pre-empted Martin's announcement with this.
I recently saw a NDP candidtate on CPAC state that "Canadians do not want to pay for health care". All of a sudden, I thought "WTF? Doesn't someone have to pay?" Ditto for education. Is it corruption that leads to the attitude that everything is free? Is it corruption that compels policiticians to promise things for "free" if we vote for them?
Free education, what a farce! All that would encourage is more people making poor decisions about their education choices. More poeple with degrees that cannot find jobs does not help our economy grow.
The more money for post-secondary education, the better.
Of course, I have a strong bias on this issue. (wink)
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