[judk]

Why don't we want that? We will never escape a little unfairness, and we don't need to. Telling a kid that their only path out of poverty is to be an engineer or schoolteacher, but art historian is not an option -- I would love for that to be the worst of our social problems.

[jcalvinowens]

> We will never escape a little unfairness

Of course not: IMHO, the unfairness in the current system is preferable to the unfairness you describe.

> Telling a kid that their only path out of poverty is to be an engineer or schoolteacher, but art historian is not an option -- I would love for that to be the worst of our social problems.

You're assuming the sole motivation is to make money, which isn't always the case. Some would be much happier as a poor art historian than a moderately wealthy engineer. Who are we to question that?

[orky56]

It would be hard pressed to argue that the government is offering loans for the ultimate happiness of the student. As the article points out, the lender is smiling when giving the loan but the end goal like any other business should be to get the funds back with interest in a reasonable time frame. If someone were to pursue a degree for happiness the government does not need to be in the business of funding that. They should be funding students looking to create a sustainable life for themselves.