@ed1322211 said:

I am sorry but I could never vote for bernie based on the fact that he is trying to offer free college education. First off, it is not free. It is at the extent of the taxpayers of this country. Why should the rich and successful have to fund college education. The youth today feel way too entitled and just want everything handed to them. Most successful people have worked very hard to get to that point in their careers and shouldn't have to be giving it away because someone wants to go to college for free.

There was a time in this country when public college tuition was mostly free. This expanded higher education opportunity to all citizens. It's not a handout, it's an opportunity. People still have to work very hard to get accepted into college and graduate, but the opportunity to do so without being saddled with debt for the rest of your life means that more people can participate and become successful. Which in turn creates more economic participants, which creates more demand for goods and thus more employment and growth. The most prosperous years of the postwar era were achieved through higher marginal taxation at the top. It doesn't mean you can't be successful and wealthy, but it means that it doesn't come at the expense of other people's opportunities to succeed. Capitalism is great at creating growth, but it must go hand-in-hand with redistribution in order to ensure everybody has a chance to succeed and thrive. The level of wealth inequity we now have is simply not a good economic scenario now matter how you slice it, and it is the result of decades of corporate welfare and tax shelters for the ultra-rich.

It is no longer possible to make a good living without some sort of higher education. There should be a free public option, just as there is with K-12. The funding would come from a tax on speculative Wall Street transactions. As far as I'm concerned, those people can make do with one less vacation house or yacht so that everyone has a chance to get a good education.