Quote:
Originally Posted by Damien
People voted to do what was needed, not to cut where we don't absolutely need too.
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Hrm nope I wanted to vote for a wholesale reduction in the size of the state, substantial dispersement of powers from central government towards locally elected representatives, accountability throughout with primaries, recall mechanisms and direct democracy with decisions being taken as closely as possible to those they affect and a repatriation of powers from Brussels amongst other things.
Unfortunately none of the political parties have the testicular fortitude for that so I voted for Vince Cable.
---------- Post added at 17:39 ---------- Previous post was at 17:38 ----------
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sparkle
Anyhow, you missed the point in that in this country, the tax burden is already near insurmountable and to add on £9K debt on top is too much.
This country needs to invest in education, and if we don't we'll continue to fall further behind.
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Interesting. Complaining about taxes in the adjacent paragraph to advocating investment in education which would require tax increases.
---------- Post added at 17:47 ---------- Previous post was at 17:39 ----------
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sparkle
On the contrary, its that sort of twisting of words that does yourself and this forum no favours. I was referring to the concept of free education in this country. The fact that the money come from the taxpayer (who incidentally benefits from education) is the way it ought to be, in my opinion.
We get taxed on our wages, the money we have left then gets taxed again at every avenue. The government, as with any government, will grow to fill the space allocated. Because we are quite happy to simply just bend over and ask for seconds, the government has become a swollen behemoth that knows no bounds.
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Interesting. Strongly advocating smaller state but strongly advocating investment in discretionary education.
So if we have a smaller state wouldn't that mean that something would have to fill the gap? Such as people taking responsibility for providing the services that the government did previously perhaps. I have to admit that reducing government support for degrees which are considered not to be especially 'beneficial' to the 'taxpayer' strikes me as a step to reduce the size of government.
It's a bizarre argument. The tax payer should pay because they benefit. Some don't - why should they pay for people to take pointless degrees?
I would be just fine for support for higher education to return to its' earlier levels on five conditions.
1) The support is only applied to courses which are of value to the job market or projected skills needs. Random crap Humanities degrees aren't going to be of particular benefit in filling skills shortages, and indeed the fact that there are such skills shortages within science, maths, engineering, etc, despite record numbers of graduates is an horrific indictment of how little value there is in many of these courses.
2) The support is means tested. If mummy and daddy can pay your fees then pay your fees they will.
3) The degrees provided are of a high quality, all students required to be able to do things like write the word 'fees' without an apostrophe between the final 'e' and the 's'.
4) Bursaries for those who are intelligent enough to do the business but couldn't afford to attend without the support, everyone else can take a maintenance loan or draw on the bank of parents.
5) You drop out without good reason you become liable to repay all governmental support unless you return to study no later the 2 academic years time. The government is investing in your future which will benefit you, not investing for you to urinate it up the wall or smoke it out, as incidentally I did.
Incidentally I went to university for a year. The course was pointless, low quality crap that I had learned during first year of A Levels in the subject and I achieved good results despite doing as little work as possible before dropping out due to being bored, unrewarded, and having had enough of wasting time that could be spent making money and gaining experience dealing with lecturers who were obviously there because they couldn't hack actually working in IT. Still it was probably better than some now where students need remedial English and numeracy training due to the joke that is gaining admission to university.