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Student Debt Owed By 40 Million People

Good Essays

I. $1.2 trillion. It is the United States student debt owed by 40 million people, according to the article posted on the New York Times last year by Susan Dyanrski. A. The number is huge and significant. But does it mean free public college tuition will help solve the problem? II. Free public college has been a controversial topic as Bernie Sanders advocates this issue on his campaign. A. People have been talking about how free public college tuition can bring a bright future to the United States. B. However, they don’t realize its hidden effects when they don’t look at the low public college tuition with overloaded students, which can be used as a model to measure the impact. III. As a student at Baruch where the college tuition is …show more content…

1. If the tuition continues to be free in the postsecondary school, then the questions come in: Where will the government get the money? 2. The problem is that free college isn’t free at all. It just transfers the financial burden from an individual student to the taxpayers. B. In Europe, many countries have already offered free public college, such as Germany, Denmark, or Norway. However, residents in those countries pay higher taxes than in the United States. 1. As you can see, it is the chart from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) 2016 Report. It shows the tax wedge of a single individual in 2015 in different countries. 2. The total tax wedge is expressed as a percentage of labor costs. The countries offering free public college are in the circle. Compared to the United States whose tax wedge is 31.7 percent, the countries I mentioned earlier have higher taxes. 3. Germany is one of the well-known countries for offering free public college to both its residents and international students. It has a significant percentage of tax wedge, 49.4. 4. To help you better understand how the free public college can affect you guys who will become the taxpayers in the future, let’s assume you are 25 now. You already have a Bachelor degree from Baruch and have a job. Your monthly earning is $4,927. Deducted from 31.7 percentage of tax wedge,

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