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Why Is College in America So Expensive?

theatlantic.com

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Re: Why Is College in America So Expensive?

#171

Post by mirimir »

Domenic_S wrote: post #3

I didn't see this discussed in the article, but IMO the main driver is the availability of student loans. When the government guarantees loans, you can lend whatever you want! The price of a TRIPLE occupancy dorm + 7 day meal access is $14,813.29/YEAR at UC Davis. The "meals", if they haven't changed in the last decade, are Sodexo garbage. And don't forget a "year" doesn't count the summer, or winter break.

Yes, easy money is what allows institutions to raise prices so dramatically. But it's not just student living expenses that have ballooned. As the article notes, non-teaching staff (administrators, lawyers, marketers, etc) account for much of the price inflation.

Re: Why Is College in America So Expensive?

#172

Post by sheepmullet »

fzeroracer wrote: post #105
jaxtellerSoA wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> As bizarre as it sounds, I think if you stripped subsidies and the effect of near-universal availability of student loans out of the equation But the lefties will cry "You're discriminating and making it harder for poor people to get an education". So it will never happen.

Or, we can go the tried-and-true European route of making higher education free instead of all this stupid experimentation for the sake of a 'free market' which results in disaster for some of our most vulnerable citizens.

> Or, we can go the tried-and-true European route of making higher education free

We aren’t Europeans.

What makes you think it would work with our culture?

And if it can work then let’s get a state or two to prove it.

California easily could and has the most left-leaning culture.

Re: Why Is College in America So Expensive?

#173

Post by pjscott »

uhtred wrote: post #70

Because the game is rigged. Citizens without debt are a danger to the established order. Why else are young people encouraged to get into tens/hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of debt, for a degree in something vague like "business", just to become recruitment consultants. After that they are encouraged to buy a big house (in other words take on a huge mortgage), and 3 cars. Debt keeps citizens chained down and…

How would the Established Order coordinate this? That's an awful lot of people who all have to work together to make the conspiracy function, and there would be a big temptation for rich people to shirk their oppression duties and just free-ride off the efforts of others.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free-rider_problem

Re: Why Is College in America So Expensive?

#174

Post by jayd16 »

topkai22 wrote: post #132

In summary, the reason (from a spending perspective) presumably non-profit colleges are so expensive in the US is that US colleges spends 2x/student as much on staff and faculty as many OECD counterparts. College faculty, staff, and administrators form a large constituency that will be campaigning to keep spending (private, public, or otherwise) up, which campaigners for lower higher-educational spending will need to…

If the free market is the answer why aren't there a swath of good and cheap private options?

Re: Why Is College in America So Expensive?

#175

Post by dnomad »

chimeracoder wrote: post #88
oh-kumudo wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

College is essentially free for many european countries, that is what I think sufficient level of subsidy

> College is essentially free for many european countries, that is what I think sufficient level of subsidy Most of the countries which people usually talk about here - France, Germany, Spain, etc. - have significantly lower matriculation and graduation rates than the US does.

No they don't. Where do you even come up with such obvious nonsense?

Re: Why Is College in America So Expensive?

#176

Post by tropo »

Domenic_S wrote: post #3

I didn't see this discussed in the article, but IMO the main driver is the availability of student loans. When the government guarantees loans, you can lend whatever you want! The price of a TRIPLE occupancy dorm + 7 day meal access is $14,813.29/YEAR at UC Davis. The "meals", if they haven't changed in the last decade, are Sodexo garbage. And don't forget a "year" doesn't count the summer, or winter break.

Sodexo, like Aramark, is whatever the facility owner wants it to be. I've seen everything from a dreadful chicken nuggets to wonderful slabs of cod and pork. The facility owner decides.

Re: Why Is College in America So Expensive?

#177

Post by sheepmullet »

kingaillas wrote: post #145
mbrumlow wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was before the government got its hands in it. Before guaranteed loans students had to be verified based off their merritt to get a loan. Lenders took a real risk and had incentives in the person being successful so they would have hopes of the loan being paid back. This was near perfect as schools could not not charge more than lenders would risk. Thes solution in this case is to remove the government guarante…

Another solution would be to let students discharge their debit via bankruptcy. Surely you wouldn't want that terrible government distortion to the free market remain in place? This system is also near perfect as lenders would evaluate their risk and have incentives in the person being successful. This works very well, as we saw from how mortgage lenders and credit rating agencies worked 10 years ago. >let the free m…

> in which case that buyer does without. Which is not acceptable for education

Why is that not acceptable?

If companies only hired for the skillset they actually required a huge number of people would happily drop out of higher education.

I’d say the majority would.

Re: Why Is College in America So Expensive?

#178

Post by jandrese »

Domenic_S wrote: post #3

I didn't see this discussed in the article, but IMO the main driver is the availability of student loans. When the government guarantees loans, you can lend whatever you want! The price of a TRIPLE occupancy dorm + 7 day meal access is $14,813.29/YEAR at UC Davis. The "meals", if they haven't changed in the last decade, are Sodexo garbage. And don't forget a "year" doesn't count the summer, or winter break.

Assuming that you live on that for roughly 9 months that's $1,645/month. Assume 90 meals for the month and call the apartment $500/month ($1500 total for the 3 students, which seems to be about what an apartment runs in Davis) that's about $12.75/meal. That's a bit high for cafeteria food, but not outrageous.

You could definitely save money by living off campus and cooking your own meals, but probably not as much as you would like. It also means you have a commute to campus, which is a drag.

Re: Why Is College in America So Expensive?

#179

Post by kansface »

fzeroracer wrote: post #102
frebord wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Ultimately, college is expensive in the U.S. for the same reason MRIs are expensive: There is no central mechanism to control price increases. “Universities extract money from students because they can,” says Schleicher at the OECD. “It’s the inevitable outcome of an unregulated fee structure.” Why do people always reach for central control, when we have the ultimate mechanism of price control as a core part of our…

The free market does not work in all situations. There's a reason why our healthcare is an absolute disaster compared to any other first world country, why our college is far more expensive, why our drugs cost more etc And it ain't because of cost control. Every time we loosen the reins a bit and let the 'free market' take the wheels, we see things get a lot worse for Americans as a whole. Especially when you have gi…

> The free market does not work in all situations.

Sure, but you did not enumerate a single free market. I'd wager the US healthcare industry is far and away the most regulated market in the entire world. We know that regulation protects the big players at the expense of their would be competition and drives up profits. Colleges are hardly any better, and ISPs are nearly all monopolies granted by municipalities in exchange for kick backs of various sorts. The government has interfered with every industry in this list via direct/indirect regulation, grants, guaranteed loans, or tax incentives. Lets go ahead and throw in housing in our list, too.

Re: Why Is College in America So Expensive?

#180

Post by sheepmullet »

jayd16 wrote: post #174
topkai22 wrote: post #132

In summary, the reason (from a spending perspective) presumably non-profit colleges are so expensive in the US is that US colleges spends 2x/student as much on staff and faculty as many OECD counterparts. College faculty, staff, and administrators form a large constituency that will be campaigning to keep spending (private, public, or otherwise) up, which campaigners for lower higher-educational spending will need to…

If the free market is the answer why aren't there a swath of good and cheap private options?

There are good and cheap alternatives. My community college was 1/3rd the cost of college.

The problem is students don’t understand what they are getting themselves into.

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