How much should tuition cost?
So melted_snowball commented that the German system of having no tuition doesn't work that well because it destroys incentive. After making some dumb response, I started thinking: what should tuition cost?
At one point I had an answer to this, but maybe it is not sensible: tuition should cost the amount of money you could make in 4 months at minimum wage, working full time. That way an undergraduate could work during the summer and have enough money to cover tuition in the fall and winter.
Why minimum wage? Because I want universities to be accessible to all, not only those who can get paid a lot. (Note that I strongly disbelieve that this is the case now, at least in Ontario. And yes I know that tuitions are higher elsewhere.)
Why four months and not six or eight? Because when a person is in school full time they should have the option of concentrating on their studies. Some people would choose to work, but that should not be mandatory.
What about books and housing? I would not include these, but maybe that is dumb.My thinking is that this would allow most people to attend some university without getting into too much debt (which is not the case now, and which I happen to think is immoral and damaging to society).
That gives a bound. Furthermore it gives a bound that ties the amount university professors make to the amount people working at Tim Hortons make. That ties together the incentives of rich people and poor people, which in my opinion is one of the best things you could do.
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