Summary: No Such Thing as 'Free' It's very intriguing to listen to the various politicians as they appeal to their intended audiences regarding various concerns. Oftentimes, their solutions are actually just thinly disguised agendas. A good example of this is the prospect of so-called “free” college for all. Recently, Julia Freeland Fisher wrote <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/03/opinions/free-college-opinion-freeland/">an opinion piece</a> for CNN about the high cost of free college. She noted how, over the course of Hillary Clinton's campaign, a bevy of ideas have been floated regarding improving higher education in America. One idea that has really struck a chord is the prospect of eliminating tuition at state colleges and universities for families making less than $125,000 per year. It sounds wonderful on the surface, and young people have been quick to jump on the bandwagon without considering what the hidden agenda might be. The biggest problem with this solution is that it focuses reform on the wrong side of the affordability equation. Free college may allow more students to afford college but it does nothing to make higher education more affordable. That's a very important distinction to understand. Examining Root Causes Rather than ratcheting up aid to meet ever-increasing price tags, we'd be better off addressing the root causes by examining the higher education business model. When we do this, we discover a stockpile of embedded inefficiencies and warped incentives. According to Fisher, the biggest problem is that higher education institutions pursue three distinct and incongruous business models that cause a surge in overhead and direct labor costs. The higher costs are inevitably passed along to the students without actually increasing the value of their degrees. We tend to tolerate these broken business models in spite of the fact that while higher education costs are going up, across the board, employers are increasingly frustrated with what colleges and universities are producing. Even though 96 percent of chief academic officers believe they're doing a good job of preparing students for employment, only 11 percent of business leaders agree that graduates have the necessary skills for success. Subsidizing tuition isn't going to solve that problem. There are also hidden agendas found within the financial services industry. The solution in all areas of life begins with taking ownership of our own future. This means learning to distinguish between truth and error and to apply newly acquired wisdom in our own lives. This will help <a href="http://liveabundant.com/events/" target="_blank">secure a brighter future</a>, not only for us, but also for our children and grandchildren. Start by <a href="http://liveabundant.com/free-analysis/" target="_blank">visiting with a wealth architect</a> today. *Life insurance policies are not investments and, accordingly, should not be purchased as an investment.
