A Great Idea Long Past Due
Robert Reich has a hell of an idea. Bob’s a bright guy, great company in a fishing boat and one of my favorite friends to have over for dinner.
Okay, I confess I don’t really know him personally, but if he was in a fishing boat you’d love his banter and maybe he’ll come to dinner one day and become my instant favorite. It’s possible---he was awarded the Vaclav Havel Vision Foundation prize for “pioneering work in economic and social thought” in 2003 and I live in the Czech Republic. That makes Vaclav and me almost neighbors, although he doesn’t come for dinner either.
Reich, at a recent conference, made the outrageously brilliant suggestion that college loans be funded differently from what they are (see article). We seem to be the only advanced country in the world that gives so little encouragement to university education and yet makes it such an inescapable entry requirement to a good job. That puts a huge burden on kids and their families. Worse, in Reich’s view, it steers students…