Discuss the relative advantages and disadvantages of providing the Essay

Discuss the relative advantages and disadvantages of providing the service of 'education', either free to consumer (entirely sub - Essay Example Therefore, this means that society can avail benefits overall in terms of economic growth, social cohesion, democratic benefits, law and order (Friedman, 1995). Because of this neighborhood effect, both public and private sector are involved in the provision of education. Both these sectors gain and lose by providing for education to society. We will explore these advantages and disadvantages for both sectors in detail below. Public sector or government should provide for education because it will provide government with long-term benefit in terms of higher income and hence higher tax revenues to finance public services such as healthcare, etc. In addition to above advantage, government gains from education provision multiplies as it has to spend less on social security or welfare payments in the form of unemployment benefits or health benefits as individual can himself afford to pay for his expenses by earning. Crime researchers found that education reduces the crime rate by both ju veniles and adults. The two main causes of crime reduction because of education could be either behavioral mechanism or better financial stability. By attaining education, an individual might be able to increase his earning and therefore, reduces pressure to commit crimes and escalates opportunity cost (Barr, 34-36). The major reason of government involvement in provision of education is to increase economic growth. This occurs when education results in an increase in human capital in the labor force which soars labor productivity and thus, leads to higher level of output. Another way in which education increases economic growth is by enhancing â€Å"innovative capacity of the economy† (Hanushek & Wo?mann, 2007). This refers to â€Å"knowledge of new technologies, products, and processes which promotes growth. In addition, it can facilitate the diffusion and transmission of knowledge needed to understand and process new information and to implement new technologies devised b y others, again promoting growth† (Hanushek & Wo?mann, 2007). The above point is substantiated by research done by economist that each year of schooling is associated with .58 percent increase in GDP points (Hanushek & Wo?mann, 2007). Government’s motive to provide for education is to achieve economic growth, which could ultimately results in increase in international competitiveness by producing in bulk, and exporting those products to rest of the world. Appreciated exchange rate is also an outcome of international competitiveness. In order to create equal distribution of income and wealth, government of any country is obliged to provide free education to all its citizens. This would not only reduce income disparities but also result in reduced poverty rate through income effect, which is a great concern of any government. Furthermore, social cohesion is also an obvious outcome of education. This occurs when common cultural experience boost communication with different people both in current and future time. There is also strong evidence that higher education is associated with higher political participation, voluntary work, and community affairs. These reasons are binding enough for government to provide education service (Barr, 34-36). Although there are multifarious advantages from government’s free service of education to its citizens, there are numerous costs which government has to bear as result of its provision. This cost could range in the form of financial