Welcome login | signup
Language en es fr
OccupyForum

Forum Post: Why is Education So Expensive Today?

Posted 12 years ago on Dec. 20, 2011, 8:54 a.m. EST by mee44 (71)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement

"At one time very few Americans borrowed to go to college. My father, for example, worked his way through the University of Connecticut by waiting on tables each summer. Without help from his parents he graduated without a penny of debt. Today, UConn students can't work their way through because tuitions are sky-high.

However, high tuitions are no fluke. They exist as a direct result of government-guaranteed student loans. Without such loans, tuition could not rise beyond a students' or their families' ability to pay. Because students have almost unlimited access to credit, universities are able to raise tuitions without the limits market discipline would otherwise enforce.

Any item for which consumers receive a subsidy to buy will naturally be more expensive with the subsidy than without it. It's ironic that as a direct result of government-subsidized student loans, students now need those loans to pay tuitions that, in the absence of such programs, they could have afforded to pay in cash. It is a good example of a government "solution" to a problem of its own creation."

From: Crash Proof 2.0, By Peter Schiff, Page 215

22 Comments

22 Comments


Read the Rules
[-] 1 points by Misfit138 (172) 12 years ago

"Why is Education So Expensive Today?" Supply and demand. 40 years ago, you didn't need a college (or high-school) degree to land a decent job. That is not the case today. Today you need a degree to get a crappy job just to be able to work up to a good job. With all of our trade deals sending jobs out of country, the only way to stand out is to have more education, but even then it only gets you so far.

[-] 1 points by DKAtoday (33802) from Coon Rapids, MN 12 years ago

It is as simple as follow the money.

[-] 1 points by tasmlab (58) from Amesbury, MA 12 years ago

When a 17 or 18 year old looks at the prospect of going six-figures in debt for school, they have their high school counselor and teachers, their parents, the bank, the university, and the government all saying 'go for it!'

Preposterous!

[-] 1 points by DKAtoday (33802) from Coon Rapids, MN 12 years ago

Another example of the greedy taking advantage of charging (as they call it) what the market can bear.

Publicly institutions of higher learning claim that they need more income to keep-up with today's demands for increasingly technical outlays.

I think it would probably be a good idea (as the saying goes) to follow the money. It goes in, now where does it come out?

[-] 1 points by Libertarianliving (149) 12 years ago

Guaranteed loans caused much of the high tuition. That and the fact that there is far too much emphasis in the job market places on whether or not a person has some bought and paid for degree. Instead of employers using sophisticated testing methods, personality evaluation, PERFORMANCE evaluation to choose who to hire, they look for a "degree".

[-] 1 points by bensdad (8977) 12 years ago

Capitalism WORKS!
.....................for the capitalists.
As long as you had

Schools that wanted to make a lot of money
Politicians who did not want to raise taxes to keep education cheap and public

Republiclans who wanted to decimate the power of unions and government

Democrats who let them do it

Its the same as the private prisons and private armies
Capitalism works fro the rich

OR

it can be regulated to work for America
Ask TR or FDR or IE

[-] 1 points by GirlFriday (17435) 12 years ago

Actually, starting about the middle of the 1980's the shift began from government to consumer. This is why it has dramatically increased over time. Now, it is big business.

A lot of jack-offs should be pleased as punch.

[-] 1 points by Gillian (1842) 12 years ago

The demand for education increased dramatically after the 70's. Heck, I attended a community college for 125.00 plus books for full time ( 12 credit hours was considered full time and any credits beyond that were free/no charge) every quarter for my first two years. I was able to support myself on 30 hours a week at a job related to my field of study. I lived in my own apartment. When I transferred to a 4 year school, the rates of course increased but were still reasonable- around 50 or 60 dollars a credit hour and I was able to get grants to pay for my tuition and books. When I graduated I only owed 2500.00 - which I borrowed my senior year so that I could quit my job and really focus on school full time. Applying for college was always a pain in the arse but most everyone knew that if they didn't get accepted to their ' ivy league' choice that they could get into one of the other more popular state universities. Today, the competition is greater even at those catchall schools. SO, they capitalize on that demand. The demand is so great, that it's easy for a student to over-educate themselves right out of a job. For example, a PhD today isn't as valuable as it was 10 plus years ago and so a higher education doesn't guarantee a better income in many cases. My husband ( in the 80's) had to go to grad school to get his PhD in order to earn a decent income in his field and to teach at the Uni. But, today, that same degree can actually land you in the unemployment line. One of the things that many of my ' wealthy' friends parents did in those days ( early 80's) was to borrow money from the Education Authority in our state ( even though they didn't need it) and THEN invest that money. It used to make me SO MAD! But, that's just another way that people abused the system and why the system is not as available to those who need it. Student loans today are structured very differently than in the 80's as well. A person cannot even file bankruptcy and clear that debt. Ironically, if a person today becomes delinquent on their loan payments, they can be fired at their job or if they are seeking employment, they will most likely be denied due to that delinquency. How heinous is that? Education is not a luxury anymore..it's a necessity and as we all know, anything necessary for our well being is going to be ruled by greedy banks and corporations and our American government is really nothing more than a corporation.

[-] 1 points by AFarewellToKings (1486) 12 years ago

"Education is not a luxury anymore..it's a necessity ". That's been the mantra for the last 25 years. Seemed to work because all the production jobs were disappearing anyway. Now the luxury seems to be staying debt free. For knowledge sake, you can go online and learn virtually anything.

[-] 1 points by Gillian (1842) 12 years ago

That mantra did work then because when women entered the work force, companies realized that they could get ' 2 birds for one stone' and ultimately paid men less than when they were the sole bread winner. When women entered into the work force, many divorces ensued as women realized they could pursue their dreams and become financially independent. But, the high divorce rate resulted in two people needing to earn more money and at that time, education was the way to do that. Additionally, divorced or not, women realized that in order to be paid more money that they needed to pursue other careers besides teaching and being a secretary. So, they educated themselves which then led to men also needing to be more educated in order to compete in a larger work force. We've ( in a round about way) over educated ourselves right out of the work force because now there are too many educated people, too many folks on the same playing field, too many chefs in the kitchen, etc.. The result of all this education is that there is no one specialized in a trade today and the ones that we do have are not very exceptional at what they do. Jobs that involve a trade have been given to immigrants and jobs that are more appropriate for an educated person are too limited and our labor force was outsourced. It's an entirely different world today than 20 years ago. Once upon a time, having an education automatically meant that you were paid more and received more frequent advancements. But, those days are long gone because essentially everyone in the middle class, upper class and even lower class is expected to get an education in order to make a reasonable wage. Heck, even the manager of a burger joint needs a degree.

[-] 0 points by mee44 (71) 12 years ago

Greedy banks and corporations?

Howzabout greedy union teachers, tenured professors and the University Administrative Staff?

[-] 1 points by Gillian (1842) 12 years ago

There should be a teachers union and I know first hand because I was a teacher. First of all, I made hardly a decent income for the number of hours that I had to work each day and week. After I calculated how much time I was putting in , I was only earning about 10 dollars an hour. Teachers do not have bankers hours. I had to pay for my own paper and other supplies that were necessary. I don't know a decent teacher today that doesn't struggle with limited teaching resources. Most teachers are there because they care and love teaching. Otherwise, there is no real perk to that profession at all. I LOVE teaching but I quit because it was ridiculously stressful and I was so sick and tired of dealing with the broken system. The union provided many things like a teachers credit union which was a bonus. Tenured professors earned their tenure. I don't know any professor that doesn't struggle for years with the pressures of publishing and other BS in order to earn that status. They deserve it after all they endure. The admin staff? Now, that's another story altogether and depends on which admin staff you're referring to. Let me shed a little light on how money is wasted at Unis. For one thing, the donors have their own stupid, silly, ridiculous agendas. For example, Mrs. Smith may want to donate a million dollars to the school but wants her money to be used to renovate the tea room and hence, the school ends up with a million dollar tea room- a completely ridiculous and unnecessary project but nonetheless, her name will be associated with that room and the school forever. Mrs. Jones wants a rose garden next to the pond and she wants the gardeners paid well so they will care for it. She donates a million for that project. Keep in mind too that although mrs. Jones can't even care for her own roses at home, she's considered the expert and manages the project. Another issue is that the State contractors are the biggest waste of money ever! I blew a fuse when I found out what my school paid to have one of our tiny parking lots graveled. The school paid at least 20 times more for that job than you or I would have paid to have that same area graveled and they only do this to justify raising taxes and their annual budget for the following year. Ultimately though..the greed lies in the hands of banks and corps who are associated with the schools on some level. There's all sorts of backroom deals all the time and oh, let's not forget sports. After all, professional athletes can earn millions of dollars a year just for tossing a ball around. So, we must always ensure that they are given priority!! My gosh, look at how the Penn State fans reacted to the termination of a pedophile. Have they no integrity at all? Too many Americans are pretentious ego driven, competitive, aggressive mindless morons. Most funding/donations really have little to do with education and more to do with image and justifying budget increases. .

[-] 0 points by mee44 (71) 12 years ago

No, there should be no teachers union. Teacher ratings should be based on merit and not under the constant "protection" of a union. If you perform, you'll be rewarded. If not, you should be out. Unions do everything to circumvent personal responsibility and pay for performance and it's why our education system (K-12) has slid right into the crapper over the last several decades.

[-] 1 points by Gillian (1842) 12 years ago

I thought that forcing teachers to teach to the SOL standards/guidelines ensured that teachers were doing their job. This doesn't always benefit the student of course but it does hold teachers accountable for doing their job. The other issue is that if too many teachers students fail SOL standards than I believe that the entire school is penalized. Not sure about that though. They didn't have SOLs when I taught school. We used SRA

[-] 1 points by ineptcongress (648) 12 years ago

i will note that the consumer has access to credit/is government subsidized for housing and medical care (medicare/aid)--that's why they're out of control expensive too.

[-] 0 points by mee44 (71) 12 years ago

Correct! There's no feedback mechanism that says "Your school is to GD expensive. I'm going somewhere else."

Thus, the schools charge as much as they want to.

[-] 1 points by FrogWithWings (1367) 12 years ago

The same genetic mutations that result in genderless infants being born every day in the United States has also resulted in students that are very difficult to teach out of their Xbox mentality?

Just guessing is all.

[-] 0 points by NewEnglandPatriot (916) from Dartmouth, MA 12 years ago

They tout that you will make a million more in a lifetime if you get a high-end education. Tell that to others that are still paying off the loans, and do not have the dream jobs. IT was to create another line of debt and inflation.....Another ponzi scheme at its finest. College was affordable, now is out of control. Inflation across the board is the problem. Somebody had to pay the six figure salaries to the chancellors , administration.. In the end those who do not attend, work and build street experience over lifetime, and do not end up with the perpetuating debt. I am not talking community college, major university/law school/med school. Those are the dead ends.

Watch this and learn....

http://geraldcelentechannel.blogspot.com/2011/05/college-conspiracy-featuring-gerald.html

[-] 1 points by Gillian (1842) 12 years ago

I agree about the dead end education. I also think that it's absolutely heinous that having an athletic team will determine how much funding those schools will receive which ultimately benefits only the admin. Have you watched the PBS documentary on College, Inc.? It's very interesting and accurately portrays today's current education system in our country. http://video.pbs.org/video/1485280975/

[-] 1 points by Confusedoldguy (260) 12 years ago

Very true. If government started making loans available to buy gasoline, guess which direction prices would go? Classic case of unintended consequences.

[-] 0 points by DunkiDonut2 (-108) 12 years ago

Rich liberal democrat professors fill young minds with liberal agenda mush. The young tikes fresh from high school are filled with crap that makes them think they are much smarter than they really are. The college children love the professors because they think the professor is treating them like adults. All the while the children thrive on this love and demand more liberal crap. The parents want the mush brains out of the house and encourage the child to get huge student loans. The professors make $150,000 a year teaching the class for 5 to 7 years. Repeating the same thing over and over. The professor gets a huge pension and the student gets a huge loan.

[Removed]