Speaking at the 2020 Federal Student Aid Training Conference on December 1, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos warned of the insidious hidden effects of government-funded higher education. As Market Watch reports:
We’ve heard shrill calls to ‘cancel,’ to ‘forgive,’ to ‘make it all free.’ Any innocuous label out there can’t obfuscate what it really is: wrong.
The campaign for ‘free college’ is a matter of total government control. Make no mistake: it is a socialist takeover of higher education.
DeVos speaks the truth.
It’s not an overt takeover, of course. And that’s not what she meant. Government agents are not going to come in, kick the administrators out, and literally install government administrators in their place. It’s actually much more insidious than that, because the control takes place largely behind the scenes. But make no mistake. It’s government control. Making college “free” means the government will have to pay colleges directly. With the responsibility to pay comes the responsibility, and power, to set conditions for both the college and the student. “Who pays the piper, calls the tune.”
So, how does DeVos’s opponents respond? One opponent, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, fires back with:
“Tuition-free public college is a dangerous socialist takeover of higher ed, as opposed to the far superior capitalist takeover of higher ed, which reliably buries millions of Americans in trillions of dollars in debt & graduates them into low paying jobs without good healthcare.”
This self-described socialist is apparently ignorant of the difference between socialism and capitalism—or wants deliberately to deceive us on the true natures of both.
Capitalism logically cannot "take over" higher education, or any other industry, because its government is limited in the scope of its power. Capitalism is by definition individual self-governance and determination under a government limited to protecting the inalienable rights to life, liberty, and property of all individuals. The government under capitalism—there is, strictly speaking, no such thing as a “capitalist government”—does not have aggressive coercive power. In particular, it does not have any role in financing education, whether through direct or subsidized loans, grants, gifts, or scholarships, or of administering education.
Socialism, on the other hand, is by definition government control. The socialist government respects no individual rights, including the right to individual self-government. So, when the state pays for higher education, with money taken by force of taxation from its citizens, it sets the terms. And the power doesn’t have any limits beyond what government officials can get away with at any given time. When the government sets the terms, it decides who goes to what college, what courses must be taken, and so on. Ultimately the career path of the graduate is controlled. Just ask the Cuban Doctors who are "tired of being a slave": "You are trained in Cuba and our education is free, health care is free, but at what price? You wind up paying for it your whole life," one Cuban Doctor put it. When the government pays your education tab, it has that to hang over your head for life. When the likes of AOC push for "free college," they know full well that the “price” college graduates will pay will likely be far more insidious than monetary debt. What can the graduate answer when the state says, "We paid for your education. Now you must do your social duty," which means, duty to the state.
Under capitalism, the individual sets the terms: If he likes the school's offering, and is accepted, he attends that school and is responsible for paying the tab. Whether he is "buried in debt & graduates into a low paying job" or goes on to a successful career while paying off a reasonable level of debt will be determined by his own choices and work ethics. To the socialist, this is a "capitalist takeover of higher ed" because the entitlement mentality it appeals to believes that "the world owes me a living," including "free college."
Of course, the government is already heavily involved in financing higher education in America. That is why college costs so much to begin with, and why there is such a disconnect between many students' debt and their subsequent earning power. Investopedia reports that today, the Federal Government owns over 90% of all student loan debt, up from 55% in 2010—right before the Obama Administration’s federal monopolization of student lending, which expelled the private lenders from that market—and 0% in the early 1990s. * That is not capitalism. That is a creeping socialist takeover of higher education. Eliminating that lending and paying colleges directly out of the federal treasury would complete the takeover. What, AOC, is the cause that “reliably buries millions of Americans in trillions of dollars in debt & graduates them into low paying jobs without good healthcare?” Your precious Democratic Socialism, that’s what. Higher education in America is nowhere near capitalism.
To be sure, Betsy DeVos is not calling for an end to federal student lending or aid, as she should. She simply wants to “overhaul” it. I give her credit for calling attention to this creeping socialist takeover of higher education. But not too much credit. What would a real “capitalist takeover” look like. It would start with the abolition of the entire federal student loan program.
When AOC and her ilk speak of a capitalist takeover, they speak of individuals controlling their own educational affairs without government interference. When she speaks of “free college,” she calls for government control. DeVos is right. Government-paid “free college” is socialism, and represents a manifestation of “a socialist takeover of higher education.” I’ll take a capitalist takeover anytime—a genuine capitalist takeover; not what we have now, with the student loan monstrosity and overpriced colleges. Let’s have the real thing—the complete separation of higher education and state.
Ocasio-Cortez is either an ignorant fool or a liar—or both. Nonetheless, thank you, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, for highlighting the fundamental choice we Americans face—socialist slavery or capitalist freedom in higher education.
* [ . . . although the Federal Government had been in the business of guaranteeing private student loans since at least 1965, Investopedia reports.]
Related Reading:
Criminal Socialism vs. a Free Society
End, Don't Reduce, Federal Student Higher Education Funding
Obama’s “Free” Community College Scheme
NJ Assemblyman Joseph Cryan's Bill to Control College Costs is the Wrong Solution
QUORA: ‘Is capitalism voluntary?’
QUORA *: ‘What makes someone a socialist?'
No comments:
Post a Comment