Free College Debate

Will it cost the U.S. more if we don't have free college?

Through an increase in the economy, decrease in government expenditure, and increase in tax revenue.

How will we pay?

The workforce will become more efficent

Efficency

Robots and AI are taking over jobs

Robots and AI

Free College

Around 24 countries offer free college. Why don't we?

Other Countries

info

Opportunities to innovate

Innovation

More people will own homes

Homeownership

Free Colllege

By Luca Schroeer

Cites

20%

40%

80%

100%

60%

info

03.

02.

01.

Increase in consumption

More Incentives for Needed Jobs

Decrease in Demand for Government Aid

Bigger Workforce

Societal gain.

Increase in Tax Revenue

Home Ownership

Increase in Productivity

Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Benefits of Free College?

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat. Ut wisi enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exerci tation ullamcorper suscipit lobortis nisl ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.

The Solution

+ info

We would also benefit societally from free college. The higher the education level, the more likely a person is to vote and be engaged in politics. There is also a higher likelihood of donating to charity and volunteering. This is not because those with higher degrees are “better people”. Those with higher degrees typically have more resources to contribute to society. For example, someone with a bachelor’s degree typically gets paid more than someone with a high school degree. This means they would have to work less to earn the same amount of money as someone with a high school degree. This allows them to either have more time or more money to contribute back to the community than someone with a high school degree does.

Societal Impacts

Page 1 / Page 2

Increase in Tax Revenue

People who have degrees statistically make more money than those without degrees. This means they will contribute more to taxes through consumption taxes, income taxes, etc. They will also be less likely to need/rely on government aid. An example of that is the lower unemployment rate for those with college-level degrees. Those with a high school have an unemployment rate of 3.7% whereas those with a bachelor's degree have an unemployment rate of 2.2%. That along with the fact those with bachelor’s degrees are 24% more likely to get employed indicates free college would create a larger workforce.

What we can gain

Free College in other countries

Around 24 countries offer free college.

European Countries with Free College

What’s going to happen when all these workers are displaced? Unemployment will go up, and more people will need government aid such as unemployment, SNAP, and Medicaid. There will be much fewer jobs available to those with less than an associate degree, so people will have a much harder time getting back on their feet. The demand for such jobs will skyrocket, and wages will be at an all-time low. People who are already in such dire situations are not going to be willing to take out loans to go to college. This is despite the fact that a college degree would greatly increase their chances of getting rehired. This situation would deeply hurt the economy and the government’s budget. Not only would the government be spending more on aid, but it would also be getting less in revenue and sales taxes. Having free college would make it possible for these people to get degrees without deepening the hole they are already in. This would train workers for other jobs and make them seem more “hirable” for jobs. This could greatly reduce the impact robots will have on unemployment. It would also make other changes in the workforce easier. For example, switching over to clean energy wouldn’t be such a blow to workers. Alternatively, the government could create job training programs; however, I would argue that it would be unnecessarily complicated to create so many job training programs. It would also not provide the many other benefits that college provides.

There have been many recent improvements in AI. Companies will start to utilize AI to replace workers and increase efficiency. A new study from MIT called “Unpacking Skill Bias: Automation and New Tasks” shows that low-skill workers are at a higher risk of being replaced by robots. Some contemporary examples of this are self-driving taxis and trucks, computer customer service agents, cashiers, stocking, bartending, food delivery, and many, many more.

How AI will affect the workforce

Online Colleges

Online schooling has become more and more popular ever since the COVID-19 pandemic. Online schools cost less to attend as there is less money needed to fund these classes. There are no costs such as maintaining buildings, providing housing and food, or making parking lots. These are just some examples amongst all the other costs of maintaining a physical college. Online colleges could lower the cost of free education to the government.

What is the Cost of No Free College?

These are just some of the costs of not having free college.

Robots

With the way things are going today, it is inevitable that robots will take over some job sectors. A way to prevent this is to pass laws against such robots. However, this will cause both firms and the nation to be less efficient and productive. This could cause other countries to gain an advantage over us in trading.

An increase in government aid

If there is no free college, the United States’ economy may suffer in the future. This would be due to worker displacement, higher reliance on government aid, and a shortage of high-skill workers.

All these projects were created using federal funding rather than private investments. The key difference is that federal funding allows for failure. Failure is an essential part of the innovation process, as it allows for experimentation and learning from mistakes. In "The Color of Money: Federal vs. Industry Funding of University Research" it is proven that federal funding cannot be substituted by private funding. If a researcher was not in college, they would have a much harder time getting federal funding.

If people didn’t have student debt, their debt-to-credit ratio would be significantly better. This could open up new opportunities for them. For example, many would be able to get a loan to buy a house. Homeownership increases housing stability and is an investment that will appreciate. More people owning houses also means more tax revenue from property taxes, real estate taxes, ect.

If college is free, more people will be incentivized to take college courses. This can be to gain a degree, to learn more skills for their workplace, or personal satisfaction. As workers gain skills and knowledge, they become more productive in the workplace. This increases output and profit and will boost a company's success. This, in turn, boosts the economy.

Got an idea?

Use this space to add awesome interactivity. Include text, images, videos, tables, PDFs... even interactive questions! Premium tip: Get information on how your audience interacts with your creation:

• Visit the Analytics settings;
• Activate user tracking;
• Let the communication flow!

Got an idea?

Bring it to life with an interactive window

Create a new layer with all the Genially features.

• Generate experiences with your content.
• It’s got the Wow effect. Very Wow.
• Make sure your audience remembers the message.
• Activate and surprise your audience.

Got an idea?

Use this space to add awesome interactivity. Include text, images, videos, tables, PDFs... even interactive questions! Premium tip: Get information on how your audience interacts with your creation:

• Visit the Analytics settings;
• Activate user tracking;
• Let the communication flow!

Got an idea?

Use this space to add awesome interactivity. Include text, images, videos, tables, PDFs... even interactive questions! Premium tip: Get information on how your audience interacts with your creation:

• Visit the Analytics settings;
• Activate user tracking;
• Let the communication flow!

Got an idea?

Use this space to add awesome interactivity. Include text, images, videos, tables, PDFs... even interactive questions! Premium tip: Get information on how your audience interacts with your creation:

• Visit the Analytics settings;
• Activate user tracking;
• Let the communication flow!

Got an idea?

Use this space to add awesome interactivity. Include text, images, videos, tables, PDFs... even interactive questions! Premium tip: Get information on how your audience interacts with your creation:

• Visit the Analytics settings;
• Activate user tracking;
• Let the communication flow!

If people didn’t have student debt, that would free up their finances for other things. The average student debt payment is $200–$299. That means college graduates have 200–299 more dollars to spend. Due to monotonicity, an increase in a normal good, such as consumption, is always good for the consumer. This means there is an increase in utility to the consumer from $200 to $299.

College gives our brightest minds the opportunity to get access to funding, networking, labs, and research material. Some of the most important technological improvements were created by or with the help of colleges. For example, Wi-Fi was created by the University of Hawaii. The University of Delaware created touch screens. Google was created by Stanford. The U.S. Defense Department created the Internet with the help of several colleges.

Got an idea?

Use this space to add awesome interactivity. Include text, images, videos, tables, PDFs... even interactive questions! Premium tip: Get information on how your audience interacts with your creation:

• Visit the Analytics settings;
• Activate user tracking;
• Let the communication flow!

This increase in disposable revenue also causes an increase in the demand for consumable objects. This will cause firms to try to catch supply up with the increase in demand, which will subsequently cause an increase in demand for workers, which causes an increase in wages. The increase in wages means the worker has more disposable income, and since consumption is a normal good, it will increase. Thus, the cycle continues. This would also increase tax revenue through sales taxes, corporate taxes, and income taxes.

College fosters entrepreneurship and innovation. Students have and continue to create projects that increase our quality of life. Additionally, as students create startups and succeed in creating businesses, the government gains more tax revenue. This would also create more jobs, growing the economy. If we had free college; more students would have access to these resources. We would benefit societally and monetarily.

Got an idea?

Use this space to add awesome interactivity. Include text, images, videos, tables, PDFs... even interactive questions! Premium tip: Get information on how your audience interacts with your creation:

• Visit the Analytics settings;
• Activate user tracking;
• Let the communication flow!

If there are more college-educated workers, there will be more growth in job sectors that require them. For example, we have a shortage of teachers, social workers, and nurses. This is because these jobs require a lot of money and a lot of time on education for hard and lowly compensated work. Why would someone go hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt for a job that pays 30k a year? Yet our society requires these kinds of workers to function. Having free college would be a step to incentivize more people into these much-needed jobs.

Got an idea?

Use this space to add awesome interactivity. Include text, images, videos, tables, PDFs... even interactive questions! Premium tip: Get information on how your audience interacts with your creation:

• Visit the Analytics settings;
• Activate user tracking;
• Let the communication flow!