The Shallow And Selfish Logic Behind Student Demands Is Embarrassing

As pretty much everyone is aware by now, there is a lot of talk about university tuition and who should pay for it. I have to admit that I’m not overly impressed by the arguments being put forward by students in support of their contention that the government, which would ultimately mean the taxpayer, should pick up the tab. I doubt very much critical thinking beyond vested self-interest has gone into their conclusion.

In Quebec, students have been rioting and breaking the law in what can only be described as a hissy-fit by spoiled, self-absorbed adolescent minds. They prance around in mobs in the streets, damaging the property of others, breaking laws and disrupting the right of other students to continue to attend class. They refer to this as democracy in action and justify it with a number of arguments in support of their cause.

The first argument goes something like this. Because society benefits ultimately from an educated workforce, society should pay the cost of educating that workforce.

There is some truth to the idea that society benefits from an educated workforce but if society is the only beneficiary and is to bear 100% of the cost, then the state should have the right to determine which programs it requires students to study for its future benefit. After all, if the state is paying because it will benefit, then the state should be permitted to determine just what it requires in order to realize the full benefit of its investment.

I doubt this will be too popular with students who seem to confuse benefit to society with getting their own way and it has been tried before but the Soviet Union barely survived 70 years before imploding. It is difficult, nonetheless, to understand why the state should be compelled to pay 100% of the cost for someone studying Social Practices in Art.

It would seem, if we accept the argument that those who benefit should pay for the benefit, that some sort of compromise is in order because it is clear that both the state and the student benefit. The state benefits from an educated, productive workforce (for the most part) that pays taxes. The student benefits from having greater opportunity for a better job and income.

Those two benefits can actually be compared in financial terms. The average Canadian pays almost 45% in combined taxes including income, sales and other taxes. This means that the average Canadian keeps about 55% of their income for their own benefit. 

If both the state and the student are to pay their ‘fair’ share, this would mean that the state should pay approximately 45% and the student 55% of the cost of their tuition. Clearly that isn’t the case. The state currently pays between 70-75% of the cost of tuition in all provinces except Quebec, where it pays approximately 85% of the cost. I would suggest, therefore, that students either start appreciating the support they already receive or in the alternative, take some night classes in math and we’ll sit down together if and when they graduate and reapportion the actual cost/ benefit ratio more fairly.

The second argument is that Canada is a signatory to the UN Declaration on Education which some students interpret as meaning all education should be free. It is unfortunate that these particular students don’t have the attention span to read anything much longer than a Twitter tweet or a text message. If they did, they would discover that the declaration states that ‘access’ to post-secondary education will be made available based on merit and that primary and secondary education will be free. There is nothing in that declaration about providing free post-secondary education to anyone, anywhere.

The third argument is that a university education is a right. When I first heard this one I really began to wonder what, if anything at all, was actually being taught in university, certainly critical thinking isn’t part of the curriculum. Rights are something that are bestowed on all, they are universal. When they are something that benefit only a few at the expense of others, they are called privileges or entitlements and we have too many of those already.

Everyone has the right of access to education if they can qualify academically but that doesn’t mean they also have the privilege of having someone else pay for it.

The argument continues the idea that providing free post-secondary education will increase attendance. Again, students have been too lazy or are incapable of doing any analytical research. The fact is that in those jurisdictions where tuition is the highest, so is per capita enrollment in college. In Quebec, which has the lowest tuition cost in North America, per capita enrollment in post-secondary education is the lowest on the continent. Clearly, when something is absolutely free, it loses its value to many.

The most often repeated argument remains my favourite; “It’s hard.”

Welcome to the real world. Life can be hard at times; get used to it! If students find it difficult having to earn their own way they're in for a rude awakening when they graduate. Wait until they get a real job and discover that their employer doesn’t give a rat’s rear end whether or not they find their job hard, want to spend part of the day on Facebook or need time off to hang with their friends. 

When you earn something rather than have it handed to you, you tend to appreciate it more. Taking responsibility and facing the tough challenge of paying your fair share of a college education prepares you for living in the real world, rather than the cocoon that was paid for by mommy and daddy up until now.

The argument of some students that it isn’t fair that they should have to graduate with a student loan debt doesn’t mean that they should be entitled to transfer that debt load onto someone else. The decision to attend university is a choice. Part of making that choice is figuring out how to pay for it. The ultimate responsibility for that decision is on the person who chooses to attend college. 

Life comes with a heavy amount of responsibility, so does freedom. 

We have a society that spends billions to provide assistance to the poor and the unemployed. It provides ‘universal’ access to healthcare and a guaranteed government pension at age 65. It subsidizes post-secondary education and maintains the infrastructure that includes the opportunity for students to spend as much time as they do online and on their smart phones. The people in many countries would sell a kidney for benefits like those in Canada instead of selling it just for an iPhone as one Chinese student did recently.

Students who whine about having to repay student debt should give their heads a shake. Canada, like most democracies, is saddled with a huge debt. In fact, every working Canadian’s share of that debt today is approximately $40,000. Taxpayers are already paying off debt that provided some of the benefits that students complain aren’t enough. There is a fundamental concept called ‘ability to pay’ and this country has exceeded its ability to pay for all of the entitlements expected and demanded by too many. We have been borrowing money for decades to finance unrealistic expectations and the demand by some students for even more entitlement is not only irresponsible, it’s flat out stupid.

All of this makes me wonder two things. What in the hell is actually being taught in universities these days that would result in such adolescent and ill-informed thinking and secondly, will today’s students be happy to see a bigger chunk of their future income going to yet more taxes to pay for the next generation of self-absorbed entitlement seekers?

They’ll answer yes to that today but once it’s their money in their bank account, I doubt they’ll be all that happy to part with it. They are, after all, a generation that has been living off other people’s money for quite awhile now….and by their own admission, they aren’t happy when life is hard.

Thousands have protested and marched to end oppression and to achieve equality and civil rights for minorities, They followed people like Gandhi, Martin Luther King and Lech Walesa. Thousands have died in Syria to fight oppression and to obtain what students in Canada take for granted and spit on. It is embarrassing as a Canadian to have to admit that our young people are so shallow, self-absorbed and bereft of any real values that the best they can come up with is marching and rioting over what amounts to a fifty cent per day increase in tuition.

I doubt their cause will ever achieve the historical significance of the civil rights movement but then, what hissy-fit ever did? The real tragedy is that they lack not only the intellect to figure it out but the values to be ashamed of their behaviour.

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