There's also the matter of how every institution here exists to extract wealth profitably. It's not just libtarded to invest in citizens at a less than explosive profit return, it also undermines the system of exploitation that needs people dumb and cheap to hire.

It starts feeling like the government thinks education is dangerous and only gets in the way of the ruling class.

It worked in the US for many years...quietly. Ask Boomers, Gen-X, and probably Millenials how much their University of Puerto Rico education cost them, and you'll mostly get a big fat $0. For a long time, UPR price per credit was closely tied to federal Pell grants. The grant check, which applied a vast majority of students, would cover credits and books most of the time.

And counting education as more than a just money extraction device imposed on the populous.

nationalizing an industry.

Not even. Every state has a public university system. Many of which used to be free. It’s as simple as investing enough that they be free to state residents again.

Let the private universities continue as they want. Some people will use them but they’ll need to compete against free

It also helps push people away from furthering their education. If its just another bill to pay, why bother when you can get just as good a job without it?

Step 1: Give everyone a free dollar to add to their lunch budget. Step 2: Lunch starts to cost $1 more.

"needed"

My overall tax burden is only a little higher (3.5-4%) than it was in the US.

Does that also take into consideration not having to pay insurance premiums for basic healthcare?

Yep, great comment.

And right now a lot of schools are shutting down because they can't enroll enough students and they charge way too much to attend. Like 12 schools in my state have closed in the past 2 years. These are typically cheaper schools too, but students don't want to go to cheap schools, so they don't apply.

Basically, it's a story of gluttony and greed.

The pricing dynamics of college education is also obscured. Basically, the reason they all charge so much is because they don't want to look 'cheap'. So if one place hikes tuition, they ALL have to do it, because they don't want to seem 'cheap' compared to a competitor. Nobody wants to go to the 'cheap' school.

There are great studies about how many colleges, when they increased their sticker prices, saw more students apply to go there. Because if you apply between a uni that charges 50K an one that charge 100K, the 100K one MUST be better. right? This means all the cheaper universities inflated their prices to look competitive with the more expensive ones.

BUT the real cost that students pay at both places is pretty much the same.

this misses what happened to public colleges, like the land grant colleges you mention. at the height of counterculture, campuses exposed everyone to powerful ideas that made them do all kinds of organizing against the establishment. for example in 1970 the Ohio National Guard was called onto Kent State University and fired over sixty rounds into anti-war protestors, killing four. Ronald Reagan became California Governor, defunded universities, and introduced tuition to stop this onset of class consciousness; in his words, to bar “undesirables” from college. then in 1975, NYC went almost bankrupt, and regretfully adopted the same measures upon the City University system in a ton of cuts to tackle $14 billion and growing in debt. thus the same policies spread across the rest of the US. a similar reason is why the “leftist” party in Britain managed to landslide against 20 years of Conservative rule by promising to introduce tuition.

Reminds me of this tweet/meme I still remember. Something like:

"Oh it's fine that we just rolled out another $6bil aircraft carrier, but mention that people should get healthcare or education and suddenly Grandpa's pulling out his fkin abacus."

XD

You don't understand American politics until you understand American racism.

Plenty of Americans would rather die of a treatable disease than have one penny of their hard-earned taxes go to a black person's healthcare.

The American experiment with socialism died the instant it could no longer legally exclude black peopde.

Pick an issue in the US and it's probably because of xenophobia of some flavor (racism, bigotry, etc) or money. Often both.

The other is rampant corruption, look at student loans right now, even federal. The amount of corruption, cruelty in the system is staggering.

Why is American culture so selfish, though? Humans are just animals and are easily influenced. "Culture" is a continuously moving target. What are the sources that have had the most influence on Americas population over the last 20-80 years?

As a foreigner who was heavily influenced by American culture up until getting cable news in my room and watching fox news as a teenager in 2001, the year I was studying modern history and its propaganda, I would argue the root cause is Americas business and political leadership. Millions of people have expected mask-off fascism from America far longer than Trump's been relevant. Why did those people come to that conclusion long ago?

They require passing grades in relevant high school level subjects, like engineering might require you to pass mathematics, physics and English on a high level.

Some of the more sought after ones have thresholds for your average grade, but if you qualify you should always be able to get in somewhere.

Everyone.

As said, some studies can’t take everyone so if there’s a higher demand then the requirements to get in is higher (think GPA)

But you can apply to multiple schools

We all know it won’t be properly supported, it will get abused

Yup, and then it became "I was able to work a summer job and pay for my entire tuition, why are you whining you lazy young kid", ignoring the fact that you literally can't do that anymore.

I am ineligible for any federal or state grants. I'm an adult who lives alone, works full time, and pays all my own bills. I had to drop out of college because I couldn't afford the 20k a year tuition. The government told me that based off my income I should be able to afford to pay $39k worth of tuition and fees on my own, at the time I was making about $44k a year in total pay with OT. I guess I can just go live in a fucking box and eat out of the garbage while I finish my degree.

Meanwhile my old boss, who is married with a kid, dual income making a 6 figure salary and owns a really nice house, gets over 10k a semester in grants to attend 2 college classes a semester, because having a kid and owning a house means you can claim those expenses. I can't claim my rent as a living expense on the FASFA, therefore the government assumes I get free housing somehow.

pretty much.

they basically didn't want to pay taxes, and all during the 70s and 80s they slashed tax rates and spent the money on cars and boats and travel.

In america we have 1 administrator for every 2.5 students. And we have 1 faculty for every 30 students, and half the faculty are not full time.

It takes a lot of people to run the sports facilities, the healthcare clinics, the support services, the DEI offices, the grants admin, the labs and computer facilities, etc.

Education is not the point of our universities. What it is is making sure each student that attends is a very happy little camper. And that's exactly what our uni system has become, sleep away camp where you fill you days with fun activities, clubs, and sports, and you only spend about 10 hours a week doing anything educational.

Then we lament that our graduates lack basic job skills and can't read, do mathematics, or write...

No one wants America to "protect the world" except I guess Israel and even then that stops at America funding and supporting their genocide.

good luck getting universities and the american population to give up college sports, and all the other shit that american universities do taht don't exist in europe.

This is not mandated at EU level afaik. Though I found this compare page. Though I'm not sure, what these number include. For example germany is listed as free, though you pay I think between 300 and 400€ per semester. Though that includes a public transport ticket for all of germany (Deutschlandticket). And of course no housing included.

yep. people don't really want to acknowledge that in the german/danish systems, and often schools in asia, if you aren't a top student you aren't getting a higher education, it's completely barred from you.

and a lot of the same economic issues persist... most top students come from rich families... just like in the USA.

there is more opportunity for a poor kid to go to college for free/low cost in the USA. but they are a minority of students, and a lot of people HATE and resent them for that. especially the mediocre students from wealthy families.