And my popcorn inventory is disappearing fast!!

I'd love to see multi-decade studies following the thousands of subjects over their adult lifetimes.

Are you sure it's not 1 in 6.44?

I don't know, ask ChatGPT.

Why would I want to pay down a 3.3% debt when I can make 10%?

If new borrowing were to cease entirely today (i.e. if the government were running a slightly-in-the-black budget with enough money to pay off debt as it matures), the existing debt would be retired bit by bit as existing debt reaches maturity and are paid off.

If they run a budget that is merely balanced without enough to pay off maturing bonds, they will have to borrow at current interest rates to pay off the maturing bonds.

You do raise an interesting point: If the GOVERMENT can get 10% on a safe investment while continuing to pay off low-interest-rate bonds, it shouldn't rush out to buy back the bonds at a discount on the open market. It will need to look closely at whether it makes more sense to buy back the bonds at a discount or whether ti makes sense to invest elsewhere then pay off the bonds when they mature.

But either way, as a citizen (or non-citizen permenent resident) I have a moral obligation to future generations to pay off that debt, or at least keep it stable (vs. some reasonable metric, like % of GDP).

Government loans (up to a per-semester maximum) can cover tuition, books, and the cost of living. Remember, most full-time students are either working part-time McJobs or aren't working any paid job at all, and they still have to pay rent (dorm or otherwise), eat, and pay other living expenses.

Online-only classes weren't a thing in '92, but correspondence classes were. I assume you weren't taking classes by correspondence. If you were, it might have been *possible* to game the system, at least at some schools. But because few if any 4-year schools offered correspondence classes much less an all-correspondence option, it wasn't possible to game the system this way "at scale" back then.

Sign me up. Better yet, sign yourself up: I recently wrote my lawmakers asking them to RAISE my taxes and the taxes of everyone at my income level and higher, to make sure our (USA's) national debt is eventually paid off without making anyone in America starve to death simply because they are poor. I'm inviting you to do the same.

Do I *LIKE* the idea of paying more taxes? No, not at all. But it sure beats having starving neighbors or having the next generation face national bankruptcy.

In the meantime, I DO drive a less-fancy car and I DO give to charities that help make sure my neighbor doesn't starve. I invite you and everyone reading this to do the same, or, if you can, do more.

Please explain.

How long? In most US states, in-state tuition is granted if you have lived in the state for a year in most cases. Check with a school in your state if you need particulars.

My point was that "free" - meaning paid for by all taxpayers whether they are taking classes or not - undergraduate college tuition is actually a good thing for society, just as "free" K-12 schooling is a good thing.

The bit about it being free for locals was a concession to the reality that if one state offered free tuition to all comers nationwide there would be a rush of students from other states, which could cause problems if not carefully managed.

Have a notary public or school official verify your ID for enrolling.

"make college free for most people."

Like we do for 12th grade already?

Sounds like tax dollars well spent to me, providing it is at least as rigorous as 12th grade and the students are real and from the taxing district paying for the school. Think "in-state tuition = $0".

The only difference is at some point between now and the end of the universe, FutureWare[TM] will happen. If it doesn't, then it was VaporWare[TM] after all.

Not sure if it renders land uninhabitable, but time and again it's been shown that polaric energy can kill an entire planet.

"Hey kid, you were right about one thing. I was lying. I don't eat children."

Gemini AI: "This file, gemini.ps, is an implimentation of Google Gemini as a PostScript file. It takes advantage of the fact that PostScript is Turing-complete."

gemini.ps: "I am an implimentation of Google Gemini as a PostScript file. I take advantage of the fact that PostScript is Turing-complete." <-- only much slower, probably.