Argumentative Essay: Free College Lessens The American Dream

With all the student loans and debt today, any type of free college plan sounds incredible(Palmer). College at no cost sounds pretty appetizing, but would lead to many disasters. Free college lessens the American dream and will create more Federal debt. Everyone seems to want more handouts today, but in reality our country was intended for raising up hardworking Americans who earn their way through life no matter what path they take. Free college would negatively affect our hard working American dream, our worth, federal debt, how colleges work, and private colleges.
First, free college will lessen the American dream. Some may think that free college would create less financial pressure on students if it was free. Although, free college
Even though our debt is a huge problem, people still dismiss it and support the shared cost idea free college would create. Free college is not actually free. Everyone would share in the cost, including the 70% of the people who did not attend college. Just because the students are utilizing other people’s money does not make college free(Hoar). Why would 70% of the U.S. population who did not go to college want to pay for someone else to? Everyone would share in the cost and be paying more money to the government for the rest of their lives. If free college was passed in the future, there would be nothing free about it because after a student graduates, he or she will have to pay for other college students to go for the remainder of their lifetime. Our taxes should be directed towards federal debt and spending less than what our country brings in. Hillary Clinton’s plan for free college would cost around $450 billion. Our country cannot afford that with a $20 trillion debt hole Americans have already dug(Hoar). A plan that would hike up our country's debt is not a clever idea. America needs to spend less and save more in order to drive down the burden the U.S. carries. The U.S. would dig a deeper hole. Like U.S. healthcare the doctors or the patients do not care about price. Free college would be the same way because there would be no price discipline(Hoar). If the U.S. were to put Hillary Clinton’s free college
By way of contrast, people think that private colleges make too much money off their students and creates unfairness. When in fact, private colleges can not contend with what free public college will offer. According to McCluskey, "It would likely kill many private colleges that can’t compete against 'free,' while increasing separation between elite schools and everyone else.”(Abdul-Alim). Students would not even think of private colleges and universities if there were free college opportunities at public in-state colleges. Students who had private college as an option would most likely drop that option to go to school for free. There is no way to compete with free like McCluskey stated above. Many private colleges and universities will be affected. The National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities(NAICU), would go extinct because they can not compete with “free” and half of all U.S. colleges and universities are private, nonprofit institutions(Abdul-Alim). If Clinton’s plan got passed many jobs would be lost from dropping enrollment from private institutions. A whole organization, NAICU, could possibly be wiped out in the future. Enrollment will drop in private institutions. About three-fourths of the growth in public college enrollment would come from overall increases in college enrollment, while the other fourth would come from declines in private college enrollment, the