Hence the “ free” in my sentence.
People often forget that college is heavily subsidized here as well.
i prefer our system.
I actually don't. College is a terrible investment for a huge segment of the population, the ROI is actually negative in some cases. Not negative within a window of ten years or 20 years... completely negative. Forever.
College in the US was never supposed to be a vocational system and it performs extremely poorly in that function. In the US, centuries ago, colleges were intended to deliver a rounded liberal arts education to the sons of wealthy gentlemen. Their families already had money and purpose, college was supposed to be a finishing school.
We've perverted that original function, and conflated it with the American Dream, resulting in the idea that everyone should go to college, and that a college education is necessary in order to be successful. This is complete bullshit and it's failing miserably across the board here in the USA.
In Europe, as CD pointed out, they start separating folks into different tracks much earlier in their educational program. They freely acknowledge that not everyone should go to college, and they provide secondary education tracks to prepare the public for vocational training and eventual jobs as electricians or plumbers or service industries.
Fewer people in Europe waste money and time getting a college education they don't want, don't need, and will never use, in their eventual professional career.
