From our 'you can say anything you want in a survey' file comes this weeks results from the association of student unions who have discovered that student loans are stopping people having families.
I know it's a long bow, but do remember these are people that would have university free
for everyone and the rest of us picking up the bill which would be god knows what
as any number of people enrolled for a variety of courses as they used to do when I was at school to "discover" themselves.
Making students at least pay a part of their education has been a revelation to the entire system.
It's not unlike getting your kids to part fund whatever it is they want with their pocket money.
The moment you have a financial stake in anything your whole perspective changes.
The counter argument has, is and probably always will be "But education benefits us all" which is true but only partly. Primarily a person gets educated to benefit themselves first.
And besides, even with the fees the way they are... You're only paying 25% of the actual cost... The tax payer still picks up the other 75%.
Further evidence that fees have not kept people away from tertiary study are the numbers, the bums on seats. There have never been more people studying, more places to study and more things to study.
The great hope I had when they introduced fees was that slowly people would understand that anything in life that's got value has to have a level of investment and education is no different.
But as in most things in life if you ask people in a survey whether they would rather not pay or whether it impinges on their life or whether it makes life harder... Guess what they're going to say?
Would you like lower taxes? Do you think food is too expensive? Would you like to spend more time with your kids? Do you feel the pace of life is too fast? Do you worry about the amount of sleep you get? I could give you a hundred questions I already know the answer to.
In the story about the student loans I saw one young lady didn't want kids until she was debt free, good on her, there's nothing right or wrong about that because it's an individual's choice.
Another said they didn't want kids until they'd bought a house, good luck to them!
So the headline was 'Student loans are resulting in students putting off starting a family'
with the inference being we need to blame loans.
The reality is people make their own choices and should be left to it, without the associated political baggage.
