thecpphorse

It's unexpected. Nobody ever* wanted to assign an initializer list to a named variable.

[*] pretty much

As you say, it is academic competition that leads to what American teens call the "free ride".

I am from the US and the government also paid for my education entirely, no strings attached. I could have studied Byzantine erotica if I had wanted. This is not a US vs world issue.

Why should lenders not be punished for financing the useless degree? After all the availability of easy financing drives up the price of the useless education.

Remember, the "moral hazard" spoken of in financial bailouts is that the lenders aren't being punished for taking bad risks.

Ok.

  auto i{42}; // std::initializer_list<int>

Yes, but never use {} initialization with auto.