Chart Shows the Outrageous Rise in College Tuition Cost Over the Years
“if higher education wasn’t an adjunct of the Democratic Party, surely the left would be charging the industry with consumer fraud and price gouging”
When it comes to the debate over student debt, one thing often gets overlooked. Colleges and universities have raised their tuition prices at an outrageous pace over the years.
Via Powerline:
The Daily Chart: College Bloat After the Loan Decision
Harvey Mansfield once quipped that the Democratic Party is a coalition of college professors and morons, which prompted “Lucretia” to remark on a podcast that it is impossible to tell the difference. But if higher education wasn’t an adjunct of the Democratic Party, surely the left would be charging the industry with consumer fraud and price gouging. The left likes to talk endlessly about the soaring cost of health care, but the cost of higher education has risen more than any other sector of our economy over the last 40 years, because government has turned higher education into a giant subsidy-capture machine.
Take a look at this:
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Comments
Interesting that they used 1980 as the baseline. My first year as a full-time student at State. Tuition was just over $100 for the whole semester.
Books were already a racket by then, though. Somebody had spotted the way a captive audience could be exploited and as the notion that college was the key to a better life took hold, *everyone* started getting in on it
As the tuition climbs, the value of college drops like a rock.
Corollary:
as inflation climbs, the value of the dollar drops like a rock
You may wish to consider the following “homeschool” curriculum, if you are in your teens or early 20s. I know that it can work, because I’ve witnessed it. You’ll save a ton of money. And compared to your peers you’ll have far more career options within ~3-5 years.
(1) Become fluent in a 2nd language. For example, perhaps Spanish. Start online. A few hours per day.. Commit to eventually passing the DELE or SIELE C-level exam. You want to have the option of attending college or working in your 2nd language. This can be done. It takes some time but it can definitely be done.
(2) Learn how to do something anything that’ll get you paid. Waiter. Bartender. Au pair. ESL teacher. Commercial driver.
If you start (1) and (2) above by age 16 or by age 20, then by age 20 or 24 you will be:
(a) more mature than others your age;
(b) more employable;
(c) more experienced in real-world work setting.
Best of all, you can choose college overseas in your 2nd language. Or just go to work either overseas or in the U.S. Opportunities will present themselves. At worst you can always attend college back in America if you want to.
There are lots of options/variations on this basic idea.
Again, I know that it can work because I’ve seen it work more than once.
p.s. — if you attend college outside the U.S. it almost always costs far , far less money – do your own research – look around.
The Bride has three great nieces and one great nephew who were home schooled. Before they were teens they could maintain an adult level conversation on most subjects.
.
Plus, I’d bet they knew that only women can give birth.
Without having to consult or enroll at Princeton.
Best wishes to you and the Mrs.
Parents: we have money & told our son we would pay for his college but he had to pick a degree where he would have a skill that allowed him to make a decent wage. He is now a registered nurse going for CRNA program (we gave him the tuition for graduate school for a graduation present)…
We near unlimited dollars (federal student loans) are funneled into a finite sector (colleges & universities) runaway inflation is predestined in that sector.
I graduated college 50 years ago, at what may have been the peak of American prosperity and standard of living. From my study of labor economics at that time, college actually resulted in negative return to lifetime income, such that a unionized auto worker who began employment after high school would have a greater lifetime income than a college grad who started working four years later. Much soon changed beginning with the first oil embargo later that year, but it would be fascinating to see the ROI on college education with the vast increases in enrollment and tuition since then.