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Tuition costs have risen 710% since 1983

statecraft.beehiiv.com

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Re: Tuition costs have risen 710% since 1983

#62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Good faith reading is that he means its risk free to the school, because they get paid up front even if the student doesn't graduate, much less earn enough to pay back his loan.

Re: Tuition costs have risen 710% since 1983

#64
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.

Common sense is often wrong. I haven't found any reliable source yet that even mentions the availability government loans as being a driving factor. Based on the limited research I've done over the last few minutes, the main drivers appear to be:

1. A large increase in demand for College. I could imagine this may be, in part, due to more accessible student loans. But it appears that many factors have come into play, and the main one is the perception that you cannot get a liveable wage in this country without a college degree.

2. Less funding from state governments

3. Increased spending in administration and student services unrelated to education.

Here are the sources I've read through so far. https://www.bankrate.com/loans/student-loans/why-is-college-... https://manhattan.institute/article/a-new-approach-for-curbi...

Re: Tuition costs have risen 710% since 1983

#65

The only service category that has outpaced higher education is hospital services. https://www.aei.org/carpe-diem/chart-of-the-day-or-century/

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…

The US medical industry is the opposite of capitalism. Heck, most of our budget goes to Medicare and Medicaid.

Re: Tuition costs have risen 710% since 1983

#66
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.

Right, this is what I meant by them having captured the market.

Re: Tuition costs have risen 710% since 1983

#67

The only service category that has outpaced higher education is hospital services. https://www.aei.org/carpe-diem/chart-of-the-day-or-century/

I wonder why...

https://www.opensecrets.org/federal-lobbying/top-spenders?cy...

The medical cartels need to be destroyed.

Re: Tuition costs have risen 710% since 1983

#68

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.

>the other half is student debt relief programs ...which student debt relief programs? Afaik there are no widely used student debt relief programs.

https://www.consumerfinance.gov/ask-cfpb/what-is-pay-as-you-...

Re: Tuition costs have risen 710% since 1983

#69
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And interestingly both have predominantly grown in "administrative" costs

Who knew providers would raise prices with wild abandon when demand is firmly inelastic and debt without default risk is liberally provided? /s Hopefully states experimenting with universal higher education legislation makes some improvement possible: https://apnews.com/article/minnesota-legislature-college-tui... ("Minnesota lawmakers reach deal for free college tuition") Note for this article that private colleges…

Demand isn’t fully inelastic. Many people are forgoing college that would’ve gone 20 years ago. It’s not huge yet, but it is happening.

The rest of your point stands though.

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