11–20 of 213 posts
My partner and I - both well-educated and well-employed professionals - sketched out our long-term financial plan recently. The only way we envisioned owning property would be to build our own a considerable distance away from our small city's center. That alone proved to be a significant part of our budget, which is already under considerable pressure from student loans and car payments. We estimated the expenses fo…
Solutions -- 1) Wait for the bubble to pop and see if prices reach a new equilibrium. 2) Double-down on current solutions, i.e. more subsidies. 3) Impose a head tax on everyone a la Obamacare.
Also, how would a head tax improve the cost of education?
[1]http://college.usatoday.com/2015/08/20/report-federal-aid-ri... [2]https://fee.org/articles/student-loan-subsidies-cause-almost... [3]http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2015/09/08/student_loans...
I have friends who would be mechanics, Peace Corps volunteers, electricians, or plumbers if they hadn't instead gone to a private 4-year institution, pressured to attend the best schools possible because they did well in high school. The permanent solution for this is either adjusted student loans or free community colleges, or some combination of the two. People on the opposite side of this issue I've talked to have often expressed concern that the bachelor's degree will basically become devalued if everyone has access. My response is always "it already IS devalued, but hardly anyone has access". It's near impossible to get a job in a desirable field without a college degree and relevant experience, but it's also prohibitively expensive to get a degree. Where will the 22 year olds with $100,000 worth of debt working at McDonald's going to be in 30-50 years? I have friends who in their early 20s are recognizing it's worth accruing more debt at even higher education in hopes of getting a job that will make the investment worth it.
> Unless we make college affordable for people of all financial means, opportunity through higher education will be a false promise.
But this is half of it, right? Plenty of people who walk out of colleges with no debt still can't find a job because the market is changing so much. As today's jobs move towards automation, I think most here can agree that current careers will change forever (frequently on HN the conversation steers towards more technological jobs). What I don't frequently see posted here is that automation will free up creative jobs where going to college is a necessary path. Writers exposed to other young writers can become inspired for life, especially given the opportunities. This turned into sort of a soapbox and is mostly anecdotal, but I think most would agree a national conversation needs to be had about this.
My partner and I - both well-educated and well-employed professionals - sketched out our long-term financial plan recently. The only way we envisioned owning property would be to build our own a considerable distance away from our small city's center. That alone proved to be a significant part of our budget, which is already under considerable pressure from student loans and car payments. We estimated the expenses fo…
My partner and I - both well-educated and well-employed professionals - sketched out our long-term financial plan recently. The only way we envisioned owning property would be to build our own a considerable distance away from our small city's center. That alone proved to be a significant part of our budget, which is already under considerable pressure from student loans and car payments. We estimated the expenses fo…
Sorry if I misunderstood, but you're not having kids because you might not afford to send them to college? Edit: I just wanted to point out that the sticker price is usually not what people pay for college. Grants are very common and so are scholarships of various kinds and sizes. But beyond all that, you can opt-in to this repayment plan https://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/education/higher-education... which caps the…
The biological window gets smaller by the day. Why bother?
My partner and I - both well-educated and well-employed professionals - sketched out our long-term financial plan recently. The only way we envisioned owning property would be to build our own a considerable distance away from our small city's center. That alone proved to be a significant part of our budget, which is already under considerable pressure from student loans and car payments. We estimated the expenses fo…
I just can't believe that will happen. The millennial generation has been burned HARD by higher education. I'm guessing the demand for expensive programs loaded with amenities that provide little value will plummet by the time their kids come of age.
I expect huge growth in low-frills low-cost technical programs.
Also, the insane cost of higher education is mainly propped up by easy access to loans that are practically impossible to discharge via bankruptcy. If this ever changes (and there will be a lot of political will to when millennials are the main voter base) expect the price to practically collapse overnight.
Here's a possible solution also from personal experience: I went to high school in Texas and about 70% of the top students went to University of Texas at Austin because a) very good school (top 10 in CS) b) at least at the time, you got in automatically by being in the top 8% of your class, which isn't that hard in huge Texas schools c) not cheap but not $40k a year.
Most parents realized this was a likely outcome for the kids early on (or pretty much expected them to go there) and started to save up money since their child was born. The result was the most unstressful college application process I've seen!
Of course, not everyone lives in a state where the flagship public college is a top 10 in CS and many other majors, nor can everyone save up 18 years before the kid goes to college, but some can make it happen.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sorry if I misunderstood, but you're not having kids because you might not afford to send them to college? Edit: I just wanted to point out that the sticker price is usually not what people pay for college. Grants are very common and so are scholarships of various kinds and sizes. But beyond all that, you can opt-in to this repayment plan https://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/education/higher-education... which caps the…
We aren't going to have kids we can't support. Right now we absolutely cannot, and even in five years time things will still be looking relatively tight. We might be able by then to scrape together a down payment on a mortgage, or have a child, but not both. The biological window gets smaller by the day. Why bother?
My partner and I - both well-educated and well-employed professionals - sketched out our long-term financial plan recently. The only way we envisioned owning property would be to build our own a considerable distance away from our small city's center. That alone proved to be a significant part of our budget, which is already under considerable pressure from student loans and car payments. We estimated the expenses fo…
My impression from my peer group is that most people from my generation that went to college take on significant debt to do it. Isn't this basically the normal path people take to pay their way through college? (I didn't go.) Having kids is obviously a deeply personal decision and don't think I'm second-guessing you, but college funding is probably not a dispositive concern.
My partner and I - both well-educated and well-employed professionals - sketched out our long-term financial plan recently. The only way we envisioned owning property would be to build our own a considerable distance away from our small city's center. That alone proved to be a significant part of our budget, which is already under considerable pressure from student loans and car payments. We estimated the expenses fo…
And that's how we get Idiocracy.