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Tuition costs have risen 710% since 1983

statecraft.beehiiv.com

21–30 of 771 posts

Re: Tuition costs have risen 710% since 1983

#21

Main cause: Government-backed student loans. While it is technically the student paying, in reality the money is going (indirectly) from the federal reserve to the universities. Everyone loves free government money... The fact the student may never pay off those loans (and hence the government foots the bill) is the cherry on top.

If it is 'free', then why are students in debt and liable for it? (and don't confuse the issue with current debt relief bill. The current bill has not been in effect since 1983, it is trying to give relief for this situation, not causing it).

It's free for universities who can rest easy knowing that if students don't pay then it doesn't affect them.

Re: Tuition costs have risen 710% since 1983

#22
post #6

Main cause: Government-backed student loans. While it is technically the student paying, in reality the money is going (indirectly) from the federal reserve to the universities. Everyone loves free government money... The fact the student may never pay off those loans (and hence the government foots the bill) is the cherry on top.

Got a source for that claim?

Googling it provides a quick-answer box that states this claim and provides a source:

https://www.google.com/search?q=what+percent+of+student+loan...

92% Federal student loans make up the vast majority of American education debt—about 92% of all outstanding student loans is federal debt. The federal student loan portfolio currently totals more than $1.6 trillion, owed by about 43 million borrowers.

I think it's then pretty fair game for a forum comment to then suggest there's a causal relationship between "an entity that can print the currency that denominates the debt is backing the debt" and "this drives the price of the thing up due to easier access to funding for it".

Re: Tuition costs have risen 710% since 1983

#23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How cheap TVs are is unreal. I was looking at the display TVs at Target and the largest one was only about a grand, maybe a touch less. Ridiculous how big of a panel, complete with "smart" OS and etc, you can get for (Mind you, I know "largest" doesn't mean most expensive usually - indeed the most expensive TV was "only" 65" but was still Capitalism has certainly worked really well for this one specific consumer good…

It probably helps that smart TVs provide one of the most lucrative environments for selling ads... although tbh I don't know if the hardware manufacturers get any kickback on that, but the people who develop the software where ads are shown almost certainly do.

They all develop their own smart tv functionality, originally at least. That was how they captured that ad revenue. The Vizio CEO actually stated the margins were non-existent but made up on the smart tv garbage.

There obviously is a different arrangement when you have companies like TCL putting in Google TV.

Re: Tuition costs have risen 710% since 1983

#24
post #10

Makes sense when you have student loans backed by the federal government. If an 18 year old with no money and no credit history gets accepted into a qualifying university, she will be able to receive a loan since the bank knows that the government will protect their investment if she fails to pay them back. So now young people have this easy access to credit, and universities can greatly increase tuition and fees wit…

Worse than just "backed by the federal government," the loans are basically protected by the government. Being one of the small list of things you can't bankrupt out of, the risk in giving out the loans has been fully pulled from the lenders.

It is frustrating to hear the discourse over the inappropriate students that are taking on too much debt, all the while ignoring the lenders that are taking on too much risk. At least, they would be taking on too much risk, if they hadn't captured the market so effectively.

Re: Tuition costs have risen 710% since 1983

#25
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Got a source for that claim?

Common sense? Government (taxpayers) underwrite unlimited amounts to uninformed buyers paying informed sellers. I am a seller (college boss), and I can boost my own income, and I know I have no competitive pressure to keep prices down, so why not increase the college budget and spending, hence justifying tuition increases.

Because it is not 'free'. It puts students in debt.

You are boosting your income by exploiting students through usury.

Lets say there is no government, then where was the 'competitive' pressure? How does government loans take away competition? Did they close schools to eliminate the competition?

Re: Tuition costs have risen 710% since 1983

#26
post #10

Makes sense when you have student loans backed by the federal government. If an 18 year old with no money and no credit history gets accepted into a qualifying university, she will be able to receive a loan since the bank knows that the government will protect their investment if she fails to pay them back. So now young people have this easy access to credit, and universities can greatly increase tuition and fees wit…

If only governments could make…laws to restrict the price of University. Or…could limit the maximum loan size thus encouraging Universities to not charge more than that.

Re: Tuition costs have risen 710% since 1983

#27
From 1991 to 2013, federal student loan issuances increased from $20 billion to over $100 billion (in 2013 dollars). And federal tax expenditures related to education increased from $2.5 billion to over $30 billion.

Growing tuitions are a predictable consequence of the federal government subsidizing higher education systems that they don't control (unlike state funding of state universities). The feds should impose price controls on any institution that receives federal funding (including from federal student loans): https://prospect.org/education/case-for-higher-education-pri.... Otherwise, costs will predictably skyrocket.

Re: Tuition costs have risen 710% since 1983

#29
post #10

Makes sense when you have student loans backed by the federal government. If an 18 year old with no money and no credit history gets accepted into a qualifying university, she will be able to receive a loan since the bank knows that the government will protect their investment if she fails to pay them back. So now young people have this easy access to credit, and universities can greatly increase tuition and fees wit…

Private high school costs have also gone up astronomically and there are no federal loans for them.

[0] https://educationdata.org/average-cost-of-private-school

Re: Tuition costs have risen 710% since 1983

#30
I couldn't tell from the article or the chart: is that sticker price of tuition or actual paid price? Because those 2 things are _very_ different. It is true that in either case, tuition has outpaced inflation, but I'm skeptical that actual paid tuition has increased by _that_ much.
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