A few years later, another Dutch trader comes to the little kingdom. Everyone asks if he is there to buy tulips, and he says no, the Netherlands’ tulip bubble has long since collapsed, and the price is down to a guilder or two. The people of the kingdom are very surprised to hear that, since the price of their own tulips has never stopped going up, and is now in the range of tens of thousands of guilders. Nevertheless, they are glad that, however high tulip prices may be for them, they know the government is always there to help. Sure, the roads are falling apart and the army is going hungry for lack of rations, but at least everyone who wants to marry is able to do so.
A kingdom having no preconceptions about the state legitimate role in the economy could have just started some tulip farms and hand those to the poor, free of charges. I guess that would lower the price tulips would reach, but given the damage bubbles do to the economy of a country I see as a plus.
There’s also a harsh lesson to be learned on allowing speculations on goods that are “basic necessities”.
Higher education is in a bubble much like the old tulip bubble. In the past forty years, the price of college has dectupled (quadrupled when adjusting for inflation). It used to be easyto pay for college with a summer job; now it is impossible. At the same time, the unemployment rate of people without college degrees is twice that of people who have them. Things are clearly very bad and Senator Sanders is right to be concerned.
The price of education has quadrupled, not the costs. Just fund good public universities and call it a day. Nations that manage to spread education do so by spreading good “cheap” education.
If, for reasons I can’t imagine, getting a degree on Medieval History has a production cost of 100000$, then make a good public online university and call that a day.
I think that if education was deemed a basic necessity good, with governments supplying it at fixed prices for those who can’t afford it, the world would be way better off.
There would be some ifs and how people could qualify for it, but it would definitely be an improvement.
A kingdom having no preconceptions about the state legitimate role in the economy could have just started some tulip farms and hand those to the poor, free of charges. I guess that would lower the price tulips would reach, but given the damage bubbles do to the economy of a country I see as a plus.
There’s also a harsh lesson to be learned on allowing speculations on goods that are “basic necessities”.
The price of education has quadrupled, not the costs. Just fund good public universities and call it a day. Nations that manage to spread education do so by spreading good “cheap” education.
If, for reasons I can’t imagine, getting a degree on Medieval History has a production cost of 100000$, then make a good public online university and call that a day.
I think that if education was deemed a basic necessity good, with governments supplying it at fixed prices for those who can’t afford it, the world would be way better off.
There would be some ifs and how people could qualify for it, but it would definitely be an improvement.