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Friday, March 29, 2024

Americans don't understand true meaning of American dream

Vice President Joe Biden visited Florida State University on Monday to talk about rising college costs and the various efforts the Obama administration is undertaking to tackle them.

During Biden's visit, a student asked him if increasing government aid and subsidies have been contributing to the increasing tuition costs Biden was speaking about. The vice president's response was in the affirmative: Government meddling in the funding of students' college education has led to increased tuition.

It's an inescapable effect of government meddling in the free market. We've seen it happen with the housing market.

The dream of owning a home is exploited by the government through laws and regulations that are enacted to encourage home ownership among those who desire a home of their own but cannot afford it. Home values rise and the need for financing increases.

What happens? The system crashes. Taxpayers are left to carry the costs and the economy suffers. The fact is that the current availability of financial aid should be a cause for concern in that it appears to be the same game with different players.

Students have the dream of a college education. Parents can't afford to help and students cannot find work to pay for the tuition. So the government enacts laws and regulations that provide funding for subsidies and guarantees loans to individuals regardless of which school they attend, what their major is and whether or not, in the future, they will have the ability to pay off the loan. Tuition costs rise and the need for aid increases. What happens then? The system will crash. Taxpayers will be left to carry the cost and the economy suffers.

The reality is that responsibility is lacking on the part of both the government and the student. The government is too bulky and awkward to evaluate every loan application and survey the feasibility of investing in an individual's education. Individual students fail to evaluate the benefits of an education at a particular institution and enroll at schools where tuition exceeds the value of career opportunities that await graduates. Students graduate with overpriced degrees that they will not be able to pay off. This is similar to homeowners who buy expensive homes with loans they will be unable to pay off just for the societal status.

The problem lies in a fundamental misunderstanding of the American dream. Owning a home is not the American dream. Earning a college education is not the American dream. The dream is the pursuit of one's goals and the pursuit of happiness. Rather than an equal outcome, it means an equal opportunity to rise above one's background toward a quality of life that one's ancestors could only dream of.

That's the dream. You have not failed if you do not own a home. You have not failed if you don't have a college education. You only fail when you give up on pursuing your dreams.

Austin Swink is a political science sophomore at UF.

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