Financial Aid?

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Raia Posted: Sun, Dec 16 2007 1:28 PM

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My question for you today is basically one of principal.

Can a student of economic libertarian thought, who is against basically all forms of government assistance, accept help to pay for college from the government without compromising his believes?  I would love to able to say that I worked and payed my way through college with only minimum help from banks (through loans and such) but, as I am discovering, it is a daunting task.  Debt is seemingly never ending and ever growing and i'm starting to doubt it can be done without placing myself in debt for the next 30 years.  Would accpeting federal help be wrong? New York State help?

Basically, I feel this would make me a hypocrite and I would no longer be able to honestly call myself a Libertarian.  But I also am beginning to think that I simply will not be able to make it through without the help.   What's everyone's opinion here on this subject?

thanks,

GFR

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Stranger replied on Sun, Dec 16 2007 2:11 PM

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If the government were to subsidize automobile production, would it be a good idea for one company to refuse based on principle? That company would be out of business in no time. The reality is that you can't compete against someone who funds himself through taxation. If you want to have a chance, you have to use the same means.

Being for liberty is being for justice. What kind of justice is it if you impose a burden upon yourself that other struggling students do not?

The old urban proverb applies: don't hate the player, hate the game. 

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leonidia replied on Sun, Dec 16 2007 2:53 PM

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 I agree that many tax consumers feel compelled to accept the hand-out just to compete.  But this is why welfarism of any kind is so pernicious.  Even though initially one might be idelogically opposed, once you accept, you become dependent, and pretty soon you expect it.  And when everyone expects it, how do you ever get rid of it?

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Stranger replied on Sun, Dec 16 2007 5:33 PM

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You do not become dependent once you accept the money. You become dependent when everyone else accepts the money and you're left behind with a huge competitive disadvantage.

And really this is the reason why it is so difficult to "reform" the state by eliminating privileges piecemeal. What you are doing is making some people into losers while sparing others.

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Anonymous Coward replied on Sun, Dec 16 2007 10:35 PM

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Yeah, like Stranger was saying, you'd be crazy not to accept it.

It's not like they give you a tax rebate if you don't accept it or anything.

You'll have plenty of chance to pay it back over your working lifetime -- which is the justification for financial aid after all, not to educate the citizens but to bump them into a higher tax bracket to increase the income the State 'earns' from their future labor.