President Obama just announced a plan to make community college free and universal.
Of course, Obama himself isn’t going to pay for it and it certainly isn’t going to be free for those paying. The proposal, if implemented, would cost taxpayers $60 billion over 10 years.
Just as Obama copied a certain Republican governor in Massachusetts for his national Obamacare plan, Obama is copying a Republican governor in Tennessee for this community college proposal.
It isn’t enough that government (at all levels) pays for K through 12, as well as some pre-K now. It isn’t enough that there are state-funded universities and highly subsidized loans for college. Now we need “free” community college.
What about MBA programs or doctoral programs? Is Obama going to propose that the government pay for these? After all, these must be important too.
And why stop there? Is Obama going to propose that every household in America be given a free computer with free Internet access? Is Obama going to propose that every American be given a government job? Is Obama going to propose that every household be delivered three meals per day?
Actually, I shouldn’t give the man any ideas. He has probably already proposed something similar to some of these ideas and he may extend them.
It is unbelievable that these politicians make all of these proposals and promises with other people’s money. And these proposals and promises cost a lot. That’s why the average American household is paying over $30,000 per year just to fund the federal government. They just don’t know it because much of it is funded through inflation or hidden taxes.
And don’t think this is just Obama, or even the Democrats. The two senators from Tennessee, Bob Corker and Lamar Alexander, are favoring states’ rights in this particular case, but saying that other states should follow the lead of Tennessee.
Of course, if there were a Republican president proposing this, then we can be sure that many Republican politicians in Washington DC would be supporting the plan, just as they did with many of Bush’s big government programs.
A Misallocation of Resources
Almost all government spending is a misallocation of resources. It is spent on things decided by politicians and bureaucrats. Even if the people in government spending the money had the best intentions in the world, there is no possible way for them to efficiently allocate resources. This can only be done in the marketplace, through voluntary exchange.
Regardless of the current “needs” of Americans, this proposal for community college is a waste of resources. That’s not to say that some young people wouldn’t take advantage of the program, but it would be at somebody else’s expense. But if every young person were to be given the amount of money that it costs to go to community college (this isn’t a suggestion), then many wouldn’t use it for that purpose, as well they shouldn’t.
Obama says we need an educated workforce to be competitive. But the federal government already subsidizes college education in a major way and there are probably way more college graduates than would exist without government interference. There is also a lot more student loan debt than would exist without government interference.
This wouldn’t be a bad thing if there were less college graduates. Some jobs simply don’t require a college diploma. There are many other jobs that do, but probably shouldn’t. Employers just use it as a screening device.
But think of the lost creativity. There are several college dropouts who went on to make billions of dollars by starting companies. Many young people are talked in to going to college by societal pressure and government subsidization, yet they may have an entrepreneurial spirit that would be better used to start a profitable business.
Obama can give a hundred reasons on why college is great and how it helps young people. But regardless of your opinion on the subject, it shouldn’t be the government deciding on what is and isn’t good for people.
And we must remember that somebody has to pay for this. Whether it is paid for with more taxation or more deficit spending, it is theft. It is using government force to take money from people to fund this program.
This whole proposal pretty much sums up Obama as a person. He believes in central planning. He believes it is the responsibility of the government to provide these things. He is like most of the presidents of the past 100 years.
