Sir, – If, as Kevin J Denny writes (May 8th), our degrees are worth an extra €320,000 in terms of lifetime earnings, this should be great news for those who do not have degrees.
In the interest of fairness, our graduates should, with immediate, back-dated and ongoing effect, be subject to additional taxation, to reflect their relative affluence. Those without degrees would be given substantial rebates.
Of course this will not happen. The reason is that the impetus behind student loans is not to bring about more social equality, or to resist inequality, but to shift the burden of financing higher education from the present generation to the next one. – Yours, etc,
PAUL O’BRIEN,
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Dublin 8.