Judging from a European perspective, I think society as a whole is better off if more people have access to affordable education and don't need to take out a loan to take classes.
I think most Americans (at least on HN) would agree with you.
Of course, there are complications.
In Europe, the effective tax rate is generally much higher, and the fraction of population that is university aged is generally lower. My understanding is that a non-trivial fraction of the population also goes into a trade school (?), which the US does not have in the same way.
In the US, lower taxes+loan is sometimes seen as more equitable (i.e. only those that use something pay for it) than a population wide tax. It is quite the risk you force onto someone young, though.
If you could drop your tax rate by 50%, but had to pay back $80-100k for college, would you take it? Obviously that tax goes to pay for many other things besides education, but the US-average mentality generally leans towards individual choice over broad social programs (with various political parties widely disagreeing).
>If you could drop your tax rate by 50%, but had to pay back $80-100k for college, would you take it?
Well you answered the question already yourself. In the end, I want to live in clean cities with safe sidewalks, and a responsible and community oriented populace.
