Argumentative Essay: Should College Education Be Free Or Free?

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Education is a necessity of civilization. Without education, we would still be living in caves. The concept of education is the very reason we live as we do today, however, there is some controversy on how we attain this education. Should education be free or should we pay for the opportunity to further our learning? The recent Presidential election brought Senator Bernie Sanders’ ideals into the limelight, most notably his idea that a college education should be free. There are potential benefits with this plan, but also there are unavoidable problems. These problems greatly outweigh the benefits, and this idea of free public college education would prove disastrous for our economy. If college were to be free then a college education would …show more content…

The way Bernie Sanders would plan to pay for it would be to tax Wall Street, but by creating these taxes, Bernie would be discouraging trade. This could make the trade market even more volatile and in effect damage the economy (Carney). Another one of the Senator’s major points, catching up with other countries, also has a major flaw. The countries that Sanders is talking of “catching up with” are socialistic countries, which is at the root of many of this plans flaws. Many socialistic governments have existed, and most of them have failed or are not working as advertised. Aspects such as these are undeniably aspects of a flawed system. Bernie Sanders sees an America where everybody is equal, but sadly there is no sustainable way to attain that, and trying to bring about such things will only result in history repeating itself. There is one matter that I must agree with Bernie Sanders on, and that would be that interest levels attached to student loans can be absurdly high. But as with everything, these interest levels don’t come without their reasons, when loans are not paid back the item purchased with the borrowed money is usually reclaimed, but in the case of student loans there is nothing to reclaim, as such there is not as much of a guarantee that a student loan will be profitable to the organization handing out the loan as there would be for other objects, a car loan …show more content…

In a future where free public college becomes a reality it would be viewed as an extension of high school. This optional high school extension would be sucking money from the capitalistic heart of the country, and distributing it among students who view this amazing opportunity that they are given as high school. Some of these students may drop out, wasting the money that paid for their education, except it was not the student’s money that was wasted, but it was tax money that could have been spent on welfare or a new road, instead the knowledge that the money obtained now sits in the head of a dropout who is unable to use it. Yet another issue that would arise is that a college degree would not be viewed as it once was. The college degree will replace the high school diploma and those who have neither will fall into even greater turmoil. Though these changes may be the beginning of a change in public opinion towards socialism, as after all, Bernie Sanders’ plan is to make the United States into a country ruled by “democratic socialism” which could be what would put the ‘final nail in the coffin’ for the economy as it would eventually collapse. There is of course no way that the voters would allow this to happen (fingers crossed) as it has been proven repeatedly that socialism simply doesn’t

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