Tuition costs have risen 710% since 1983 • Hacker News Board

Re: Tuition costs have risen 710% since 1983

#281

Post by didgeoridoo » Mon, Jul 10, 2023, 6:18 PM UTC

tempsy wrote: post #110

FireBeyond wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This for federal loans. But the government has "protected" all loans - private education loans are also unable to be discharged by bankruptcy, for example.

yeah, and we're talking about federal loans here. the government is not on the hook if a student defaults on a private loan. the critique was that tax payers were somehow on the hook for most undergraduate costs when $31k over 4 years barely pays for rent at this point.

The CBO estimates that the government is indeed “on the hook” for about 93%[0] of ALL student loans, despite not necessarily being the originator or servicer.

There essentially is no such thing as a “private” student loan anymore.

[0]: see sibling investopedia link

Re: Tuition costs have risen 710% since 1983

#282

Post by pixelatedindex » Mon, Jul 10, 2023, 6:18 PM UTC

Xeronate wrote: post #230

willcipriano wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most people desire not being poor over most other things.

There are a lot of ways to make money. Picking a job based on money is a good way to be absolutely miserable. My parents pushed me towards making money my entire life and there is nothing I regret more than following that advice. Every day I wake up dreading going to work and it seeps into every aspect of my life.

Presumably you have enough money now to switch to something that makes you happy?

Personally, if you’re going to be miserable anyway (as most Americans are these days), it’s probably better to be miserable with money than without money, lol

Re: Tuition costs have risen 710% since 1983

#283

Post by Consultant32452 » Mon, Jul 10, 2023, 6:18 PM UTC

taeric wrote: post #24

eschulz wrote: 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…

The simple solution is to remove student loans from that small list you mentioned.

But then, how do you secretly replace the billions in bribes to your friends in the universities?

Re: Tuition costs have risen 710% since 1983

#284

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Jul 10, 2023, 6:18 PM UTC

Xeronate wrote: post #230

willcipriano wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most people desire not being poor over most other things.

There are a lot of ways to make money. Picking a job based on money is a good way to be absolutely miserable. My parents pushed me towards making money my entire life and there is nothing I regret more than following that advice. Every day I wake up dreading going to work and it seeps into every aspect of my life.

[deleted]

Re: Tuition costs have risen 710% since 1983

#285

Post by 300bps » Mon, Jul 10, 2023, 6:18 PM UTC

Harvard has 2,000 students per year and a $50 billion endowment.

That is enough to refund $500,000 to every student they've had for the past 50 years.

Why are universities hoarding so much money?

https://www.highereddive.com/news/how-20-largest-college-end...

Why are universities hiring so many administrators in relation to professors and students?

https://www.usnews.com/education/articles/one-culprit-in-ris...

Re: Tuition costs have risen 710% since 1983

#286

Post by codedokode » Mon, Jul 10, 2023, 6:19 PM UTC

raz32dust wrote: post #168

codedokode wrote: post #148

Could it be because in capitalism, the seller tries to take as much money as possible from buyer and the price is not related to expenses? Let me give an example that can illustrate this: a typical mobile plan from Verizon in US costs $45/month and gives you 15 Gb of traffic. At the same time in Russia one can get 30 Gb for $9/month. Are expenses for maintaining a cell network 5 times higher in US? Unlikely. It is ju…

I was with you until "It is just customers in US are richer and are ok to pay more for the same service." How did you reach that conclusion? The other reason (which seems more likely to me) is that it is because the free market is not functioning because of monopoly/duopoly created by regulatory capture.

Also, regarding houses and land prices, there is no monopoly, but the prices are extremely high in large cities. So "it is a monopoly" doesn't sound like an explanation, but "charge the buyer as much as they can afford and a bit on top of that" is more realistic. And as for education, there seems to be no monopoly too.

Re: Tuition costs have risen 710% since 1983

#287

Post by crote » Mon, Jul 10, 2023, 6:20 PM UTC

jayd16 wrote: post #130

Night_Thastus wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's unfortunate, but to me this feels like half of the root of the problem. One half is easy access to loans, the other half is student debt relief programs. Between the two, colleges know they can charge absurd prices and pocket the money. It's awful, and I wish someone was doing something to stop this. It cannot go like this forever.

I think the solution is to just grant some money to schools and cap tuition costs. The current incentives are just so misaligned. Its only half the problem because you'll still see inflated housing as well but at least its something.

Or just go all the way and make education free, paid for using tax money - with a fixed per-student payout of course.

Re: Tuition costs have risen 710% since 1983

#288

Post by stingraycharles » Mon, Jul 10, 2023, 6:20 PM UTC

eschulz wrote: 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…

Purely out of interest: what do they do with all that money? Does it increase the quality of education and/or research?

Re: Tuition costs have risen 710% since 1983

#289

Post by SoftTalker » Mon, Jul 10, 2023, 6:20 PM UTC

GartzenDeHaes wrote: post #36

taeric wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> lenders that are taking on too much risk The lenders are taking no risks since these loans cannot be discharged through bankruptcy. There are also very large late fees and penalties that can triple (or more) the amount owed.

I mean, you can't get blood out of a turnip. If the borrower has no money to pay, they aren't going to pay, bankruptcy or not.

Re: Tuition costs have risen 710% since 1983

#290

Post by therealmarv » Mon, Jul 10, 2023, 6:21 PM UTC

If you look at the whole World: It's a country specific problem. There are even English speaking graduation programs with international degrees abroad from top universities everywhere. To give some examples study in Sweden, Denmark, Germany etc and spend nearly no money on tuition. Factor the cost of living in and it's overall still cheaper than studying in the US. And I have no doubt that people grow personally (beside the education side) if they spend a good amount of time in another country. It's just not super easy and super obvious to think out of the box.