That was the resolution debated at the most recent
meeting of the Soho Forum in New York.
These are Oxford-style debates, which means the audience is polled before and after the debate. Whichever debater's side changes more minds in its favor is declared the winner.
The affirmative -- namely, that all government support for higher education should be
abolished -- was the runaway winner.
That's not because the audience was mostly libertarians -- remember, the object is to change minds. And Bryan Caplan changed a lot of minds, with arguments we rarely if ever have an opportunity to hear.
I'll be at next month's (June 11) Soho Forum debate with my
eldest daughter. They're a blast.
Because she's my daughter, she learns a lot of stuff that would have been kept from her otherwise, and that she'd certainly never be exposed to either in high school or college.
And I don't just mean that the education system is biased, though it obviously is. Even
when it comes to HOW TO SUPPORT YOURSELF -- you know, trivial things like that -- you nearly always have to figure things out on your own.
If you're exhausted just keeping up with your current job and responsibilities, you may wonder how you'll ever find time to start your online project and break out of that rut.
That's where I come in:
Tom
Woods