The real cost of student debt

People are waking up to the fact that the health-care system will collapse without a transformation into a universal one funded by government taxes, as even Harry Reid recently admitted.  The same could become true of higher education. Experience in France, where those who benefit most from government infrastructure pay a corresponding share of taxes, shows that both universal, publicly funded higher education and health care can be achieved in an economy that withstood the banking crisis better than did the US.

The answer is not to be found in market-based fixes like limiting government backing of student loans to promote efficiency in containing costs while increasing competition for tuition rates. In also making college less accessible for the middle class and those who aspire to it, the solution would be worse than the problem. Instead of trying to correct the market for education, we should be taking it out of the marketplace and making it part of the commons.  

The damage done to the economy by the banks will not be repaired without fundamental changes in the way they operate as well as in the overall structure of business in America. If the government took the money now wasted on subsidizing corporate welfare and put it into education, green jobs, infrastructure repair, and financing cooperatives where the wealth is fairly shared by worker-owners, we could counter the pernicious effects of globalization. 

In the process, we could build a sustainable economy capable of meeting the needs of all its citizens rather than just a privileged few. We would also be building a far richer society in which people were encourage to develop their talents and interests while acquiring the knowledge to become responsible citizens.