You’ve hit the nail on the head. The government has set up a perfect storm of crippling student loans. I’m with you up until the free education part, but I see where you’re coming from.

The reason we got into this mess is because previously, you needed some form of wealth to attend college. The government didn’t like the class divide, and backed federal loans so that anyone could get a loan. Then to address the concern of a student, with no assets, just immediately declaring bankruptcy after his degree, they made it impossible.

Free education would address this, but I’m not so sure that would do more than just adjust the problem. We have free education up through high school, and generally poor neighborhoods have shit education and can’t afford private or to move. I don’t see how that problem doesn’t just expand to colleges.

We already have an issue getting good quality teachers and paying them, that problem will only explode when we take on professor salaries.

I’m a conservative libertarian, so I’d rather see the government get their hands out of it all, or let the local governments deal with it. I know that’s not ideal, but I’d rather see the problems reset and then look for solutions. We have such a large stack of band aids right now, its tough to say what will happen when we start removing them, or adding different ones.

Reminds me of Reddit in 2008 when I joined. Legitimate communities forming and finding their way. Wasn’t super intuitive how to use or what to do, but something special.

Reddit has since just transformed into something almost unrecognizable, but its tough to beat the size and reach it’s built.

On thing Lemmy is going to have to worry about is bots. I’m hoping the decentralization is a good solution to both monetization and bots. We shall see.