Germany has long shown far greater foresight than the United States in the investment into science, infrastructure, and alternative energy — investments that are now giving the country huge returns as a leading economic system. With a decision of Lower Saxony, the German have now shown precisely how serious they are about keeping the country as one of the most educated in the world: they have eliminated all college and university tuition. The Germans view education as not just a right, but an essential component for continued growth.
There are critics to educational subsidies who raise some good-faith issues of how such payments can eliminate pressure to make efficient choices and actually drive up costs. I actually see value to students paying some tuition. However, with tuition sky rocking in the United States and falling enrollment numbers, the United States is heading to a reckoning in the future for our lack of investment in our workforce. While we have spent trillions of dollars on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (and just renewed our commitment to the later to keep forces in the country), we have continued to cut environmental, scientific, educational, and infrastructure investments. The inevitable result is that we will continue to drop in our competitiveness in the world market and the future economy. Every other country is investing heavily in education while the United States continues to be distracted by shiny objects with more immediate political benefits for politicians.
What is striking is that it is not just third world countries that are investing heavily education, but economic leaders like Germany.
Notably, tuition was only introduced in Germany in 2006 after the German Constitutional Court ruled that limited fees do not violate the country’s commitment to universal education. However, the tuition rates proved unpopular and the country is now tuition free. Of course, there is no such thing as free tuition. The taxpayers are footing the bill. Moreover, such government subsidies can have a negative impact on not just the choices of students (who feel less pressure to make efficient choices) but on schools which are dependent on the government.
Nevertheless, the contrast could not be greater with the United States in terms of the commitment to education as not just a right (as it is in Germany) but as a real national security priority.
The article below has an interesting discussion of how England rejected the free tuition approach but has lost more money due to the higher student default rate on tuition. Yet, the English students face a maximum debt load of $14,550 per year where U.S. tuition rates and debt are soaring. Student loan debt in our country now stands at $1.2 trillion.
Of course, that is less than a third of the costs for the wars, but no one is making such comparisons.
http://thinkprogress.org/education/2014/10/01/3574551/germany-free-college-tuition/
Thank you Dan!
I don’t have a particular dog in the ideological fights breaking out here, but the one thing I can’t stand is when complete and utter misconceptions masquerade as “facts” and mislead those reading it. For example, Free NYC Pics wrote:
“the social market economy produces income levels in Europe at about 1/3 less than the US and Germany is actually no exception.”
Wrong and totally misleading. Americans have to pay soaring costs of health care and higher education with **after-tax dollars**, compared to Germans and other Europeans (as well as many South Americans and Asians) who have First-World quality health care through single-payer systems that don’t deplete their after-tax income, as well as university and childcare costs that don’t leave them deep in debt.. IOW when you factor in not only income but mandatory costs that automatically deplete that income every month, Germans and Europeans have much more purchasing power and after-tax **discretionary income** than Americans (which is the only way to accurately compare nations’ incomes– what can they actually buy with those incomes?). This is why Americans have a much higher private debt level than other countries– far higher than the Germans, for example, since people are putting essential purchases on credit cards or student loan accounts.
So this means that Germans and other Europeans pay much higher taxes than the US for such health care and low-cost university tuition, right? Wrong! The claim of “high-tax Europe” vs “lower-tax USA” is one of the great myths of international economics, and Karen S (citing Forbes) fell into that trap with one of her comments:
“There is no such thing as a “free” education. Germany is already the 2nd highs taxed nation, and will surely rise, leading to a brain drain as professionals leave the country to try to keep more of what they earn.”
Utterly false! In addition to the fact that Germans get many tangible benefits for their taxes (and much higher wages for skilled workers than the US), the Germans don’t have anywhere near “the 2nd highest tax rate” and in fact, the US **effective tax rate** is higher than most of Europe. Tax comparisons too often mess this up my misleadingly comparing only the topline (fed income) taxes between nations, forgetting that the US has many more different “types” of taxes than almost any European country. Americans have to pay not only fed income tax but also state and local taxes, **property tax every year** (most of Europe either has no property tax or it’s assessed at lower levels, often just once at point-of-sale), sales taxes, FICA/Medicare and franchise, road and transport taxes, plus all kinds of fees and steep traffic fines which are taxes under different names. Add them all up, and US taxes are a good deal higher than most of Europe. US small businesses are hit especially hard by taxes,and whereas European tax authorities tend to take a more cooperative attitude in resolving confusion about tax assessments (with a simpler tax code), the tax collection authorities in the US are absolutely ruthless. Especially against small business and anyone in the middle and upper classes below plutocrat levels (you can simply buy a politician to protect you if you have enough billions)– you’re guilty until proven innocent. My business had branches and offshoots in the Netherlands, Estonia and Germany along with the US and Brazil, and the US tax regime was by far the worst for small businesses, with far more general nastiness, red tape and anxiety compared to Europe. And this is even before we get to the worsening disaster of the US Fatca laws…
Yet despite all this, Americans get the worst of both worlds– both among the highest (total) taxes in the world, yet little to show for all those taxes when they disappear into the pockets of well connected crony-capitalists or banker bailouts.
To some commenters desperately insisting on the “work hard and you’ll get ahead” platitudes of the American Dream: Americans actually are working harder than ever before, with record productivity in 2014, and yet inflation-adjusted wages have actually gone down in the past two decades even as the cost of living has gone way up. This is why most Americans according to all the surveys still feel we’re in a recession and have had no recovery at all. It’s useless to respond to this with even emptier platitudes like “the American Dream means opportunity, not a guarantee”– that’s a nonsense statement that can be said about every country in the world. There’s some degree of “opportunity” even in Somalia or the poorest parts of Bangladesh. What’s been distinctive about the American Dream is the social-contract element– that working hard, following the laws, mastering a skill historically have been associated with a reasonable expectation of success and material comfort, yet over the past few decades, despite working harder and being ever more productive, Americans’ standard of living has actually gone down even as Europeans’ standard of living has gone way up, with much better infrastructure and higher social mobility. On that note, Nick Spinelli claimed:
“The European economy is tanking, and starting to effect our meager recovery here.”
100% false. The EU aggregate economy is actually a good deal larger than the US economy and in fact, Germany alone out-exports the US– Germany’s trade surpluses regularly top $200 billion annually (with a record surplus of nearly $30 billion in July 2014). Meanwhile the United States continually racks up record trade deficits every year approaching nearly $600 billion. The “Europe is tanking” claim was never true and by now it’s simply ridiculous, usually resulting from someone trying to equate a struggling country like Greece, Ireland or the UK with the whole of Europe– forgetting that Europe is anchored by the German powerhouse and the solid economies of Scandinavia and the Netherlands.
Paul C. Schulte: “DBQ – one of things I do not like about Germany’s model is that once you are on a track you cannot switch to the other track.”
That’s not true at all. This is a little more obscure and I can see how people would be confused by the subtleties of Germany’s educational system. It is true that Germany does track students into different paths (academic/university track vs. the trades for example), but those tracks are in fact quite flexible, and in fact German students can and frequently do switch from one track to the other. Several of my business colleagues from North America, the UK and Australia have emigrated to Germany and raised their kids in the German educational system. The way they describe it, most students after “Grundschule” (early school) years are placed on tracks at different types of schools, with the “Gymnasium” generally leading to university (though with difficult exams to take to get there) and the “Realschule” leading to the trades. However, some students in the Gymnasium decide they’re more interested in mastering a trade and switch to a more Realschule-style program (which can be done in many ways), while many Realschule students show significant academic aptitude that was maybe not evident initially, and switch to the Gymnasium. It’s actually very flexible there.
I’m not saying we all need to be experts on these things and I don’t claim to be one myself, but I really wish that, no matter people’s ideological orientations, that they at least think with a critical mind and don’t unquestioningly accept so many of the anti-European myths and propaganda spouted out on US media. Europe actually functions at a very, very high level, with a balance of job security and entrepreneurialism, and higher quality of life and infrastructure, compared to the US, with remarkable export economies and trade surpluses even though they have anything on the level of natural resources that the US enjoys. (Granted, to get to those natural resources through fracking the US is basically sacrificing its clean water supply, but that’s a topic for another forum.)
See The Burning Bush!
(Dusty and Paul – this is not an allusion to George W. See Doomsday and wilderness and Hark @ 12:33. All sounds rather biblical to me.)
docmadison – the Burning Bush was a message from God to a single individual, much like the Sustainer spoke to the Prophet. Dolly sounds like Chicken Little got loose again.
Rush Limbaugh a voice in the wilderness! Hark!
Buy big water tanks from Dusty!
Buy big water tanks!
Buy TP!
The end is near!
Jim
Seems to me that it is the media (CNN) fanning the ebola fears with relentless coverage and breathless reporting. The government/ medical experts seem to be downplaying the risks greatly. Although between ISIS and ebola, some of our friends on the right are about to lose whatever is left of their mind 🙂
po – since the right does not control the MSm and they are rarely reported on by the liberals at MSM how is it that you know they are losing their minds?
That’s the spirit, Dusty! Go get ’em!
Hooray for the self-reliant West!
Warms the cockles of your heart…
Actually, Jim, I don’t work for the government. I AM the government. I am the King of Romania. And I am one busy, busy, busy king ginning up all this Ebola fear for Obama.
Actually though, my contact is with Rush. He thinks Obama wants all our troops who were sent to Africa to be infected with Ebola to get back at all the white people in America for slavery.
Imagine! But Americans will buy any old story. But pretty soon they’re going to have to change that song – you know – the one about the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave?
That “Brave’ part is gonna have to go.
Paul….. I was teasing docmadison about his picky choices of what would be acceptable links for him/her to deign to view or accept as credible. I thought that PBS would make the cut.
It was a joke.
“I trust you won’t be looking for a federal government handout that will just increase your dependency.”
Not at all. We expect to be selling 2600 to 5000 gallon water storage tanks. Potable and non to people who need to 1.) meet the idiotic regulations and 2) want to store water to supplement the production of their wells.
We have to depend upon ourselves.
doc,
I completely agree that the Ebola thing is a ginned up deal. Again, it is the govt. making themselves seem important and scaring us new “crisis” (Never let a good crisis go to waste). My point in bringing it up was that it is just another example of the govt. screwing up. So your solution to agencies that do a terrible job is to steal more property from people and give it to those agencies? Do you work for the govt?
Paul,
Another reading comprehension problem. I didn’t call Friedman ‘icky’. Dusty did. I would never call Friedman icky. It is juvenile and stupid. I strongly disagree with Friedman, but he is not icky.
Followed by an asinine remark that I am jealous because will never get a Nobel in economics.
Mensa scholar devastates again.
Dusty
Cry me a river about your water situation.
The discussion you had the other day about what water belonged to who was all I expected. ‘That’s my water!” No, that’s my water”. “No, that’s Nestle’s water”. “Well, maybe the farmers need it.” “Hey, wait. What about San Diego?” There’s your vaunted free market, friends. There’s your individualism. There’s your Western self-reliance. You’ll be at each other’s throats in 10 years. But you’ll take comfort that we’ll all suffer as much as you.
I’ve been screaming about the western drought for years. Conservatives don’t give a damn. It’s all a ‘hoax’.
So Dusty is upset because of ‘one size fits all’ sprinkler reg.. Who will be the first to tell her that the problem is WATER. You’re in trouble about water. It’s not about the damn sprinklers.
I trust you won’t be looking for a federal government handout that will just increase your dependency.
docmadison – if the progressives in CA cannot save it from itself then the world is doomed. They are in control of the state. They have all the power, yet people still need water, the drought continues. Progressives for all of their feeling bad about it have not fixed the drought. However, Gov Moonbeam is trying to deflect the citizens of CA with a shiny object, his new bullet train to nowhere.
Jim
Here are some health statistics to research while worrying about Ebola:
How many Americans died of the flu last year?
How many Americans died of lung cancer last year?
How many Americans died of breast cancer last year?
How many kids lost their hearing because of measles last year?
How many kids were accidentally shot and killed last year?
How many were killed by drunken drivers last year?
How many died from malaria last year?
How many died of heart disease last year?
And good luck checking out the references of a doc when you’ve suddenly collapsed with a heart attack and are unconscious on the ER gurney.
And if you’re worried about the CDC doing a lousy job, call your Congressman. They cut almost a billion from CDC and NIH budgets. All that bad government spending doncha know.
“But if he has a family or lives in a town or city alongside others, I sure as hell do care what he does with our shared plumbing and electrical and so do the first responders and his insurance company.”
Agreed. When you live in a city or in close proximity to neighbors it IS incumbent upon you to make your place safe so as not to harm your neighbors.
Here is a real life example of ridiculous regulations made for a one size fits all situation. In California new construction of residences need to have fire sprinklers http://nfpa.typepad.com/firesprinklerinitiative/2010/01/california-adopts-fire-sprinkler-requirements-in-new-homes.html. The rules are quite specific on the amount of water, psi and the time that the sprinklers must run. All well and good if you are on a public water system with the proper amount of water pressure and with a sustainable flow of water. If I lived in a subdivision, cheek to jowl with other houses I would like to know that there is protection.
However, what about those who live in rural areas on large acreages. Not on a public water system. Depending on a well for the water. Many wells don’t even produce the GPM that is required and many especially now do not produce for the sustained amount of time. http://www.placer.ca.gov/Departments/CommunityDevelopment/~/media/cdr/BLD/BldServCEDivMainWP/FiresprnklrReqmntsRev01282011.ashx No exceptions for the rural areas. We are treated just like an urban housing development.. If you live next to someone your house could catch theirs on fire. When you live on a 20 acre parcel in the middle of an alfalfa field. Who cares other than you if your house burns down.
Not only does this increase the cost of the home, it does it unnecessarily when applied to houses that are not near other structures. In addition this applies to NEW construction so that the rate of new homes is going to be slowed or even stopped in some areas.
We have some solutions as a company for our clients in the form of holding tanks and booster pumps so that the sprinklers will pass inspection. We will make money…yay. But that isn’t the point.
The issue is that the government is fine tuning with a “one size fits all” ruling. Ridiculous and counter productive to what they are trying to accomplish.
As to the links. I’m having some fun with you since YOU were the one who indicated that there were unacceptable links that you didn’t want to see or that weren’t worthy (In a Wayne’s World kind of way). To harsh for your delicate sensibilities I guess 🙂
Speaking of the FDA, just received this email:
Breaking: Obama EPA is set to Approve Dow Chemical’s new 2,4-D GMO corn and soy! Please lend your voice to say NO to the next generation of GMOs!
Dear Po,
I just got off the phone with a source in Washington DC and the news is NOT good. Sources close to the administration claim that as early as tomorrow, the Environmental Protection Agency WILL APPROVE Dow Chemical’s new Enlist Duo 2,4-D “Agent Orange” GMO corn and soy. This is outrageous and we need your help to stop these toxic new GMO crops!
Click here to tell President Obama to stop the approval of Dow Chemical’s toxic new GMO crops – it’s time to end the chemical arms race taking place on our plates! Every voice counts.
po
Yes, I want to have the FDA around but the approval scam is an abomination.