“The sticker price of my Syracuse University education was $1,400 in 1971, my senior year. That is $8,600 in today’s dollars. The current sticker price at Syracuse is $43,000.” – from a blog post responding to this article:
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/who-speaks-for-the-suffering-upper-middle-class/
So a college “education” today costs 5x of what it did back in the early seventies in adjusted dollars? That is fucking nuts. Do people in college learn 5x as much as back then? The obvious answer is a resounding “No.” Actually, a “Fuck, No” would be more accurate. It’s more likely they learn about a fifth as much instead.
And just what are the arguments that colleges make to justify these ludicrous tuition prices? Well, if you listen closely you can just make out that there are practically none. Colleges and Universities are simply acting as rational participants in the marketplaces would. They keep raising prices because people keep paying them even if they don’t believe that they’re getting good value for the money. In today’s world of credentials over ability, a college education has become the new high school diploma and the current belief in most of society is that you won’t be able to get a “good job” without a degree. Sadly, a college education provides no real guarantee of getting a “good job”:
Students who graduated into the Great Recession have struggled to find work that fits their learning. But according to research released on Monday, millions of college graduates over all—not just recent ones—suffer a mismatch between education and employment, holding jobs that don’t require a costly college degree.
The study, from the Center for College Affordability and Productivity, says that nearly half of all American college graduates in 2010—some three years after the recession began—were underemployed, holding relatively low-paying and low-skilled jobs.
According to a report on the study, “Why Are Recent College Graduates Underemployed? University Enrollments and Labor Market Realities,” out of 41.7 million working college graduates in 2010, 48 percent—more than 20 million people—held jobs that required less than a bachelor’s degree. Thirty-seven percent held jobs that required no more than a high-school diploma.
https://www.chronicle.com/article/Millions-of-Graduates-Hold/136879
This bubble will pop, but probably not before another Great Depression sized financial disaster hits the U.S. that resets the entire economy, and maybe leads to the possible break-up of the country.
Whores and Ale 