I’m a big fan of Lew Rockwell podcasts. I often listen to them while preparing breakfast. These two interviews both touch on what’s a new idea to me: college as government intervention – guaranteeing loans, subsidizing student lending, eliminating free market disciplines on Universities. Suddenly I see in a new light the extravagant cost of tuition, the legions of people devoting thousands of hours to subject which they themselves do not care about.
Peter Schiff: You’re Better Off as a Renter. March 23, 2009.
Peter Schiff talks about the college in the last quarter of the interview, from 11:30 onward.
Gerald Celente: The Fed Has Wounded You. April 26, 2009.
Gerald Celente only touches on it briefly in this great interview, from 9:45 to 12:30.
havent listened to these but re: universities being outside the market system – that goes way way way beyond just govt involvement in loans for any research based institution. student tuition, govt subsidized or not, cover only tiny percentage of operating costs, at least in the sciences, universities essentially pay none of profs’ salaries – the grant system essentially pays the institution to have the prof work there.
A recent airing of NOW on PBS covered the subject of student loans, and based on that show, it appears that student loans are just another form of predatory lending. The government lends its name only to the loans, and hands them over to private lenders, who like in the vast majority of loans, show no mercy, logic, or ethical standards.