Who should bear the cost of public tertiary education?

Encyclopedia of Opinion

Question: Who should bear the cost of public tertiary education?
Position1 of 2›: Tertiary education should be subsidized by the government
Argument1 of 3›: The student loan incentive

Student loans benefit society in the long run by incentivising graduates.

The argument

While student loan defaults can be a burden on society, affordable student loans incentivise educated individuals to work harder. The distinction between those two outcomes is what the argument rests on, and it is a question of scale rather than of debt as such. Student loan default, which is the failure to pay back a loan as promised, occurs when loans are unaffordable: the obligation has grown past what the borrower's realistic earnings can service, so repayment stops being a target to work toward and becomes an outcome the borrower cannot reach however hard they try. In instances where student loan debt is excessive, the thought of carrying that debt can be discouraging, because effort and escape have come apart. Below that threshold the same obligation works in the opposite direction. When utilized correctly, student loan debt can be a tool to motivate the most qualified individuals in the workforce, precisely because it attaches a concrete personal stake to what a graduate does with their training. When students know that they will be carrying debt with them, they will tend to seek and/or create higher-paying jobs, pursuing the more demanding post or starting something of their own rather than settling for whatever is nearest to hand. This benefits society as a whole, because intelligent and highly trained individuals have an incentive to succeed, and the people best equipped to create value have a reason to go and do it. Failure would mean financial ruin for a student, which is what gives the incentive its force, and having a group of qualified and motivated individuals helps drive the economy. Government subsidy is what keeps loans on the motivating side of that line rather than the ruinous one, which is why it should bear the cost of public tertiary education.

Premises

[P1]Student loan default occurs when loans are unaffordable, and excessive debt discourages rather than motivates. [P2] When kept affordable, the prospect of carrying student debt motivates graduates to seek or create higher-paying work, which benefits the wider economy by driving qualified, motivated individuals to succeed. [C] Therefore government should subsidise tertiary education to keep loans affordable, so that debt motivates the workforce rather than ruining students.

Counter-arguments

Although they may be more likely to be paid back as promised, affordable loans are not default-proof by nature. Recessions happen, the economy is not always growing and strong. This can make it extremely difficult for even the most affordable loans to be paid back. Sometimes there just simply aren't enough jobs for graduates, making it very difficult to pay back loans no matter how incentivized the graduate is.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] Graduating with student loans is a financial challenge first and foremost.