This is a discussion about the unintended consequences of subsidies. Politicians can’t help themselves when prices move against their voters so they always want to subsidize their voters – especially for “important” things like college education, solar energy, milk and ethanol.
Unfortunately the subsidies not only fail to work they usually make the problem worse.
In the case of subsidized college education the subsides given via college loans allow the college institutions including their faculty and administration to raise their prices (and salaries) to adjust for the subsidies. College presidents and professors end up with this largess - not college students.
Most college students only consider where the cash is coming from (or is it?) in considering their college options. Very little attention goes into how much debt will be accumulated and how expensive it will eventually be to pay off the college loans. If a 45 year old politician thinks this way what are the chances that 18 year old high school graduates will think with any more maturely?
And once subsidies are established (even when they are called temporary) they are almost impossible to eliminate. The reason is the beneficiaries of subsidies fight much harder to keep them that the average tax payer that only loses a few dollars a month to foot the bill.
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