Should the government pay for the first two years of community college for all us citizens

First I would like to return your thanks, thank you for engaging in this debate. I also apologize for taking such a long time to post my argument. I think we can all see how free college would be beneficial to the person going to college, if it were actually free. The problem with this line on thought is that college is not free, the students who receive government funding will end up paying for other students to go to college via their tax dollars(trough out the remainder of their lives). Assuming that the student payed as much into the system as they pulled out, it seems like there is no net benefit to the student, but I think that there is. To be clear I am not saying that these students would put the same amount in as they took out, but that the benefits I am referring to would be enjoyed even if the students put in as much in as they to out. One of The benefits of free college is that it lowers the opportunity cost of going to college for the student. Assuming that a students family is not paying for the students college, the student only has two options. The first option is taking out student loans, which are almost never forgivable(this is a huge liability to the student), and charge interest on the loans that despite popular opinion are not that low, direct subsidized loans ranging from between 4 to 6 percent. The average a student has a ten year payment plan and an average of $26,000 in debt, which cost 36 to 41 thousand dollars once it has been payed back. This brakes down into monthly payments around $250 which can make it difficult for students to take jobs that have a low beginning wage even if these job offers experience and good growth opportunities. The only other option is for the student to get a job and work his/her way through college. the problem with this is that the student will have to split his/her attention between college and work which will make it take longer for the average student to get his/her degree while the student is working his/her way through college he/she will probably make something close to the minimum wage (around $10) to replace the $26000 of student loan debt the student would have to work for 2500 hours which is two years of working 25 hours/week this would probably delay the student graduating by one or two years which even if they got a some what entry level wage (let say $35,000 a year) that one to two years would cost the student some were between $9,000 and $44,000 in lost earnings. During my last argument, I made quite a few assumptions in order to make and clarify my points, for example, I assumed that a student working to pay off student loans would be working at a minimum wage level and that working would slow the progress of the student getting a degree. If you disagree with any of the assumption I have made, please let me know and I will explain why I think they are representative of the real world. Another benefit to society is based in large part on a benefit experienced by the students receiving the funds. many four year colleges spend quite a bit of money on things like new football stadiums and commons areas that provide no additional educational value to the students. community colleges are more focused on making acquiring a degree as cheap as possible, with some community colleges charging as little as $600 per credit hour(out of state tuition). This brakes down as 18000 annually assuming the student takes 15 credits per semester, rather than than the $35,000+ yearly tuition for four year institutions. Making community colleges free as the potential to get student to make the more financially responsible decision to go to a community college. This save students money, Which means they more money available to spend which is good for the economy (this line of reasoning also goes for the opportunity cost argument). Finally to address your concern about free community college diluting degrees. I have heard your specific argument, so I am going to what to hear a more in depth argument before I fully respond. as a whole I don’t think that this is as big of a deal as most people make it out to be although I am not sure that the value of a degree would not drop, I don’t think that if it did it drop enough to undermine a degree to the point that the degree would become a bad place to invest time and energy. sources (these are figure I found on google, I am using them only to get ballpark figures. these are just the first thing that popped up on google). http://www.usnews.com... https://www.credible.com... https://www.google.com... http://www.cicmoney101.org...