Yep, where I am now it is the same way... it is free, but competitive. The US medical system is a little crazy, the AMA artificially limits how many medical students there can be in the country at any one time, and also how many doctors can have licenses in the USA. It is all designed to create a shortage of doctors that forces their salaries higher. It is under the excuse of ´quality´.. but I have worked in hospitals in about a dozen countries, and aside from equipment, the education of doctors is not that different.
It seems to me that society has an obligation to educate itself, and to prepare it's citizens to be productive, contributing members of that society. It's an expense of being a civilized culture. We spend money on common defense, enforcing our laws and court systems, fire protection, etc. etc. Why would we not accept the responsibility of educating ourselves? and....I am DEFINITELY not a socialist.
There is already a ton of money available - grants, loans, scholarships, etc. Much of it is need-based, some of it merit-based, some of it based upon demographics, etc. You can get lots of money for college from military service. We already spend 68% of our money on entitlements, plus another ~ 5% on debt service. If we had little or no debt and were running an annual surplus, perhaps a bit more $ could be allocated to the above mentioned educational programs. But we aren't. The idea that the federal govt should provide free college for everyone is not realistic.
This is how all politicians are. They tell you what you want to hear so you'll lean towards them and vote. But your votes don't matter. It's just to make them look good and for you to fall for the lies. Nothing changes once they're in office.
If there is "a ton" available then the entire student population must be morons as they are clearly not finding it. Average debt for a medical degree is well over $100,000. Plenty of other countries, including my own, have free or near free education. I see no obvious downside to the US going the same route. Ditto socialized medicine. Ones education and health should not be contingent on wealth or whether you employer thinks contraception is a sin etc. Socialized systems also, contrary to what one might expect given the roll of holy "competition", are usually more cost effective. No country on Earth spends as much of their GDP in health care as the US, for extremely lackluster results.
Healthcare costs are rising dramatically in the US since this ACA garbage was pushed on us. Why is it that all of the rich folks from other countries come to Houston and other places like UCLA medical for their more important medical procedures if the US healthcare is so "lackluster"? You foreigners don't get it - the majority of us don't want to be like you. We don't want our government controlling and micromanaging our lives. Our federal govt was originally set up to do little more than provide a national defense - and that's now only 15% of our govt. We're different, always have been. None of your countries have been able to touch us in things like innovation, entrepreneurship, wealth, military might, etc. We've only started going downhill as more and more among us have set out to make us more "European". We cannot afford these "free" things. And your European nations are falling further and further off your own fiscal cliffs, and have been long before we started down that road ourselves. Foreigners are certainly entitled to opinions on how we should run our country, just as any blithering fool is entitled to blither on in vain.
As far as the taxpayers are concerned, free education is more affordable than free healthcare, cause in many cases, society gets the money back. In other words, a doctor or engineer makes a lot of money, which allows him to pay society back via taxes. However, as I was saying, free educational money should have strings attached. One of them being the promise of majoring in at least one subject which is in high demand.
I just don't see it being realistic for most or all in this country to expect to get a free college education - particularly when many people are not college material, and when you look at what we borrow, spend, and owe already. And if anyone could be a doctor or engineer, we'd have many, many more of them - even without "free" education.
Who will pay for the free stuff, again? Hard workers from income generators and small businesses who pay large taxes? Gone were the days when our grandfathers in their day worked hard to earn a living to further their education!
To me it's always about a country's principle ideology and priorities. In some countries, education provision is viewed as a responsibility and not a privilege, and that principle is reflected in other parts of society and social care. The US obviously has a different template to the Nordic countries, for example. Not everyone agrees with having to pay so much for education there, but that's part of a broader ideology on society which no doubt provides positive trade offs in other parts of society. At least I hope it does...