I read an article in the Guardian on Friday which astounded me. It was, as is normal for the Guardian, written by a lefty commentator regarding the current debate on how we pay for higher education. The usual bleatings – how awful it would be that students would owe so much money after they finish university, that this would make it impossible for the poor to ever become educated, that it is the responsibility of the government to equalise it (of course) and take the small matter of ‘money’ out of the equation.
Does this not strike anybody else as hopelessly naive? If students or their families aren’t going to pay, who is? The taxpayer of course. What if the taxpayer doesn’t WANT to pay for someone else’s bloody physics lessons? TOUGH LUCK…. you were born into a country which does not support your right to decide for yourself on these issues. You will work, all your life, while a sizeable percentage of what you earn is taken forceably from you in order to provide something to someone else. Frankly I find the whole bizarre concept intensely worrying.
Everything worth anything in life is paid for. THAT’S LIFE! I’m sorry that it isn’t convenient for some people, but there ain’t no free lunch. That is the way things are meant to be. Society cannot fund anything for them because society is not a rational independent entity who is able to do so. It can only be the case that some individuals within that society find themselves in a position to TAKE FORCEABLY money from everyone else (under mandate of government and law) in order to fund something for you – even if all of them agree with the concept, they have not handed their money over voluntarily – that would be charity, a MORAL act of the free will. I am not rich, far from it, but if I want a car I will either work and then save, or borrow money and THEN work to pay it back. Same with a house. If I don’t have the money, I don’t get stuff. I will spend my life living within my means. Will the government subsidise me if I want to drive a car and cannot afford it? Of course not. It may not be convenient or desireable, but education is NOT a right.
And the same, my friends, applies to everything that is worth anything in this life. The idea of free university is an abomination – because it is NOT free – it comes at a price, paid using funds which have not been sanctioned in a moral manner. Unsurprisingly, we find at the heart of the Left again not a desire to make society equal, but policies which will create two tiers – those who supposedly ‘have’, and those who supposedly ‘have not’; the haves supporting the have nots until they are so used to living that way that they will never, never, be the haves.
Who do YOU think is getting the better deal?
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John Wright
johnwright@softhome.net
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