>Wah, wah, wah ;-) We should pack you up, get you a haircut, and send you around to all the people who think President Obama is a socialist ;-)

OK, except the haircut. You don't have that much money to which I'd agree to do that. But then, if we negotiate long enough, the point may become moot :).

>It is generally believed a college education is a sound investment that pays for itself over the course of a working career. Also, anyone who doesn't want to take out a loan to bridge the financing gap doesn't have to. There is no gun to their head.

Exactly. The difference then is in the haves and havenots... I mean, those who have the gap to bridge and those who don't.

When it was my turn, I got two of our girls through college and there was no loan... except that we bought that house, but then that mortgage was paid off in three years (two of which overlapped with their college time). Could be because I wrote interest calculating code for years, and knew how deceiving individual figures can be. By my calculations, I saved about $21K (from a horrible fate they were facing - being taken out of my pocket).