Do show this i shall ask you a simple question then a scenario then ask you the same question again.
Do you think tertiary education should be free and should there be incentive to for certain degrees?
scenario
A mate of mine just graduated from a 3 year bachelor of science. He will only have to pay half his HECS back, he is still about 15k in debt. He is now doing a 2 year masters in pharmacy and thanks to a commonwealth supported place he will only pay back 14k instead of 50k. He is struggling to find a place in Sydney within his small budget and if he doesn't find a place he will be commuting by train for about 4 hours a day.
So in total his education will cost bout 80k to the government and he will pay back 30k of it. More then some, less then most. The government will be out of pocket 50k, or is it.
The average sciencetist gets 90k to 100k a year. the min tax paid on 90k income is about 20k. So just within 3 years the government will be 10k in the black. Or will it....
My mate will pay for things, sell things and makes his employer money, all of which will be taxed through GST, business tax, etc. Plus, thanks to his Masters in Pharmacy he is almost guaranteed a job, so he will not be getting centerlink payments, so the government saves money. He might buy private healthcare, again saving the tax payer and the government money. So in fact the government could be in better off by 35k a year.
An investment of 80k could be making a return of 35k a year. Seems a bit crazy doesn't it. Well it is. We are forgetting a major investor in this degree. The degree holder. 4 subjects, 8 of studying a week for each. 3 months of uni a year, 3 years. At a small sum of $20 an hour, that's about $50 000 worth of work.
This 50k investment is free for the government and yet it still gets the return on it. Making 35k back from a total 130k investment on both the degree holder and the government. So within 3 years the government is making a profit. This means that they will have more money to spend on roads, hospitals, defence or Medicare or they can lower the tax for everyone.
So
Do you think tertiary education should be free and should there be incentive to for certain degrees?
