You seem very keen on the 1% getting to the best universities and being left at the top of the heap while all the riff raff drop off. Is that what you're trying to recommend?
Of course not. But, it is the case that kids in wealthy families, do get accepted at Universities. But the USA has a lot more Universities than in Australia and so there are plenty of lower ranked Universities where credits can transfer into a State University.
My point about the 3 years was that, yes, Australian Government appears to subsidize higher education. But Australian higher education is no where near the level it is at in the USA. With the exception of Honours. And how many Australians have a chance at Honours? Not many. And then its all up to their supervisor whether they are trained of used as a source of cheap labor. Thus, while it may appear Australians are getting a good deal, in reality they are not getting a good deal. The government is barely supporting higher education and an Australian undergraduate degree will not count as a bachelors in the USA, Japan, etc... It will only count as credit towards a degree.
How is this good for Australia???
Essentially, there is no magic land where it's all free free free. Poor Japanese suddenly start give Australians free drugs. It doesn't work like that. You have to pay. Because Australians have a (seemingly universal healthcare, getting less so each year the boom goes by) they have less money to pay for kids in primary, secondary and higher education. How is THAT a good thing to you???
Worse still, the medical error rate in AU is probably double what it is in the USA. Were talking, really bad. Which is why many Australians want private healthcare, they don't want to take a chance in a public hospital. I know of an Australian girl who has been waiting since July to have her heart surgery in AU. Does this sound like a healthy functioning healthcare system to you? Or does it maybe sound like one under a lot of strain?
Look, we all want to live in a healthy prosperous society. You Statist Authoritarians think this comes through threatening people to do the 'right thing' through State coercion. I think we can find a better moral way.
While completely anecdotal, when I was in AU, I used to visit a sick patient every Saturday until she was better. She had attempted suicide and it was almost a year until she was able to leave hospital. No one had to force me to do this. I did it because I wanted to. This is the funny thing. A number of Australians I knew, didn't think this was appropriate. It was, as if to them, I must have had an ulterior motive. Why would I visit this girl? What could we possibly talk about? I found that way of thinking disturbing. See, I think (I can't say for sure) that because the State is there in AU to supposedly care for people, together with the mass immigration where people rarely know their neighbors, Australians don't really care for one another much. In MI, I grew up in a very poor trailer park. 40 dollars a week. I used to ask for food for Christmas
Which was nice, Captin Crunch Berries
Without the State, people work together. This changes the way you think about yourself and your place in society.
I've lived in 5 different countries. I can see past many social norms. We don't NEED to use violence to provide goods and services to one another. Medicine, education, etc.... BUT, I do agree, at this time, the State is needed to enforce laws. However, those laws should not include rent-seeking through regulatory capture, but instead private property and contract. The rest we will take care of. This insight has been commented on for hundred, thousands, of years. Which is why, when I'm not working, I like to work on peaceful parenting and pedagogy for teaching children basic logic. You know, like songs, games and that sort of thing.
So, it's not that I favor the 1%. I simply think a moral non-violent approach to society is the best approach. Sound money, law and free-trade will take care of any problems we have with the 1%. OR the 99%.
