McInnis 03 said:
And btw, stop worrying about paying for higher education..it'll be free by the time my kids get there.
you know what, I know some of you won't agree with "free" higher education, but I will lay out some thoughts on why it may be in the national interest to do so for select types of education (e.g. computer science).
1) we are already comfortable, overall, with taxpayer funded K-12. I know some of what they teach is repugnant, but in general, most of us survived that environment and we think for ourselves as adults
2) The US economy is an innovation based economy. Investing in developing our talent vs. importing it through visas is a good way to develop our talent and keep our lead, which is ultimately critical
3) the world is changing and the superpowers will also have intense software and technology development skills in addition to manufacturing and other military capabilities. Quick sidebar, most of you are not frightened enough about data collection, AI and machine learning. I find it sort of ironic that the government wants you to wear a mask right now because in the very near future, you may want to wear a mask to distort computer vision recognizing you, and the government likely seeks to ban appearance altering devices. It will all be good until a cop or a robot walks up to you and says "hello mr. so and so, you are under arrest because you bought .223 ammo last week and we need to ask you some questions".
4) foreign nationals are coming here, being trained in our schools / companies, and they're stealing our IP for the benefit of China and Russia
5) there is a tangible economic output benefit tied to this use of taxpayer funds vs. the entitlement programs that don't encourage anyone to work. I'd much rather have this than UBI.
6) there are not enough skilled americans in computer science
You don’t trade for money, you trade for freedom.