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"A TERRIBLE WASTE OF TAXES". That's Arnold Kling on the great monkey wrench government subsidies through into the price signals of the market for university credentials. The big loosers? Taxpayers, students and untenured wannabee faculty. The big winners? Tenured faculty and the executive bureaucracy of the university. Worth quoting:

at federally-subsidized colleges and universities, students are enjoying their high-end lifestyles at taxpayers' expense. Since the vast majority of students, even at state universities, come from the top half of the income distribution, this represents a regressive social policy, in which taxes paid by the less-affluent are used to fund the consumption of the more-affluent.

There is a lot more to the article -- a thoughful piece on an important topic.

UPDATE: Duke U. is giving free iPods to all incoming freshmen. Posted by Greg Ransom | TrackBack