UF is going through a tough period. It's not exactly surprising: The economy is in the gutter, so Florida (along with everywhere else) is losing revenue.
And when budget cuts creep in, so too come the self-righteous calls for more taxes to fund education, including a state income tax.
Thankfully for those of us who will probably be paying income tax someday (around 38 percent of wage earners pay no income tax at all), a state income tax is not an option in Florida. Because an income tax is unconstitutional, 60 percent of voters would have to vote on a ballot in favor of higher taxes. Good luck with that.
But even if it was politically feasible, increasing taxes to fund higher education would still be a bad call. Higher education is not a requirement, and no one is forcing you to get a degree. College is a voluntary investment in your own future. It's great to make an investment in oneself, but the government shouldn't force others to pay for it.
Instead of raising taxes and forcing other people to pay for college, it would make more sense to raise tuition and have the people who benefit from college pay the cost. But as soon as you raise tuition, there are cries of "class warfare" and exploiting the poor.
When "class warfare" means making people pay for what they consume, we have lost all hope for society. The average starting salary for a student with a liberal arts degree was over $30,000 in 2005, and much higher for math and science students. So even if tuition gets jacked up to around $6,000 a year, the cost of the investment is still well worth the returns. If students can't get need-based aid or merit scholarship, they may have to - gasp - take out a loan to pay for their education, and then pay back that loan with the additional income they get from their degree.
This is exactly what we expect law, business, medical and graduate students to do, and they usually manage to get by quite well for themselves. For some reason, though, to suggest that undergraduates pay for their own degree is evil, conservative hate-speech.
On the other hand, if you can't get aid or pay your own way and you don't plan to be in a situation where you can repay your loans, then maybe college isn't right for you. Yeah. Somebody had to say it.
The cost of college at public schools is grossly distorted by subsidies. It becomes "the new high school." The subsidies result in overconsumption of college, and make fewer resources available for the students who take their education seriously.
Some subsidy does make sense because there are positive externalities from more educated people, but that only occurs when the education is put to proper use. When people who aren't suited for it attend college, there is no added benefit, but the cost for everyone goes up.
So complain all you like about how crappy UF has gotten during the recession. UF can't offer a stellar education without more money. But don't cry to everyone else to pay for it for you. Most people have better things to do with their earnings than give it to the mostly rich and white students at UF.
Johnathan Lott is a political science and economics sophomore. His column appears on Thursdays.
