Chilean activist destroys student debt papers worth $500m

[Bereta_Eder]

Education can't be free, plain and simple. It is a service that consumes resources to provide. You can make the argument that different people should be paying for it, but you can't argue that no one should be paying for it.

tax money ARE paying for it.

education/health/ etc all must be free. And are free.
Free as in every citizen has equal access. Not that they don't take money to be supported

[C0ckney]

Education can't be free, plain and simple. It is a service that consumes resources to provide. You can make the argument that different people should be paying for it, but you can't argue that no one should be paying for it.

that's very true, but i don't think that anyone is saying it doesn't cost anything. there are lots of ways to pay for education, while making it free at the point of use. we could simply divert an appropriate portion of society's resources to it, or we could tax graduates after they finish their course and have a job, to give but two examples. both of these (and many other) solutions avoid the student going into debt.

[Sava]

reg hates democracy

[Lorizael]

that's very true, but i don't think that anyone is saying it doesn't cost anything. there are lots of ways to pay for education, while making it free at the point of use. we could simply divert an appropriate portion of society's resources to it, or we could tax graduates after they finish their course and have a job, to give but two examples. both of these (and many other) solutions avoid the student going into debt.

Certainly, but this individual's act makes it more difficult to do any of that.

There are many different ways to pay for education. The student loan system is one way. Proposing that we adopt other systems is reasonable. Setting fire to the current system is not.

[dannubis]

reg is a selfish little ****. Who would have thought?

[kentonio]

Certainly, but this individual's act makes it more difficult to do any of that.

There are many different ways to pay for education. The student loan system is one way. Proposing that we adopt other systems is reasonable. Setting fire to the current system is not.

Because reasoned debate has had such a striking impact so far?

[Lorizael]

Reasoned debate is the foundation of democracy and I'd say it's produced incredible results thus far.

[Elok]

I can't speak for the current state of Chile, but I don't see how this will improve it, whatever it is.

[Bereta_Eder]

It's a symbolic gesture I guess that draws light to a particular issue through (pretty ballsy I admit) activism.

[regexcellent]

Paying for college education with tax money is taking money from the poor and giving it to the rich.

[Sava]

Paying for college education with tax money is taking money from the poor and giving it to the rich.

k
thx for your input

[kentonio]

Reasoned debate is the foundation of democracy and I'd say it's produced incredible results thus far.

Except when the power of decision making ends up squarely in the hands of those with the money, and the status quo supports those with the money. If reasoned debate is working out so well, then how come the poorer keep getting poorer?

[Lorizael]

Paying for college education with tax money is taking money from the poor and giving it to the rich.

That depends solely on your tax system.

Except when the power of decision making ends up squarely in the hands of those with the money, and the status quo supports those with the money. If reasoned debate is working out so well, then how come the poorer keep getting poorer?

This is an argument I don't particularly want to have, but if you compare the poor pre-democracy to now, the poor are way, way better off now.

[Bereta_Eder]

That depends on the country and the gap between rich and poor.
Some countries have reasonable gaps and others have abysmal.
A worrying trend is that these gaps are widening so clearly something is going very wrong.

(actually some measure the existance and well functioning (or not) of a democracy by these very gaps)

[DinoDoc]

exactly.
education is free

Why? If it is cost free, that only leads to more people majoring in Ethnic Studies or Basket Weaving who are shocked they can't find a job.