by J. A. Stier

Created on: May 20, 2008

Did you know that Annual College Tuition costs a student between six thousand and twenty thousand dollars? Did you know the minimum wage in the United States is less then six dollars per hour? For those of you that do not want to do the math, that means that a person working at minimum wage must work for between one thousand and three thousand hours every year to pay to attend College. That is just tuition. Books, supplies, and living expenses are not accounted for. The sheer demand for College level educations is pushing the price far beyond what working-class families can afford. Long gone are the days when a student could hold down a job at night to pay for his education during the day.

Now, did you know that almost all Billionaires inherited their wealth? Or that a college graduate can make four hundred dollars more then a high school graduate every week? The cost of a College Education is making it something reserved for those born to Upper or Upper-Middle Class Parents. At the same time, the pay difference between a High School Graduate and a College Graduate is making it so that to be Upper or Upper-Middle Class, one must go to College. It's a deadly cycle of poverty, creating a new ruling class with education as its main requirement for entry. Mean while its self-satisfied members comfort themselves with the group fantasy - and that is all it is - that with hard work anyone can make it big here in America.

Scholarships and College Subsidies - Government assistance with College Expenses - can break this cycle, offering education to those who otherwise would have no opportunity for it. For those who would argue against it due to the extra strain on the Tax Payer dollar, consider this; it is far less expensive to assist students for the four years they would attend College then to provide Welfare for the rest of their, and their children's, lives. As the old saying goes, give a man a fish and he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he eats for a lifetime. Many of the other problems the nation faces would also wither in the face of better education. Crime rates would no doubt plummet, and the Health care crisis could be abated. We'd no longer have to pour as much money into prisons, or welfare, or medical services for those who can not provide for themselves. Our work-force would be more productive, our GDP would increase and the distribution of wealth could begin to balance out.

By providing every capable person with a College Education, we can make this nation the place we were told it was when we were children.

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