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I think the problem is that there is no downward marker pressure on college costs (for some puzzling reason there). It seems like American students are willing

I think the problem is that there is no downward marker pressure on college costs (for some puzzling reason there). It seems like American students are willing to pay higher and higher tuitions. This is the root of the problem. If we had 0% interest loans, we might have students paying even more for college than now. Why can't these kids just think about the debt they're getting into?

rayiner 10y ago
Kids can't think rationally about debt because their parents and teachers have overinflated the importance of everyone going to college and have actively discouraged critical thinking on these issues.
- petre 10y ago
  So send them to college elsewhere? in Canada? Europe?
  - paulmd 10y ago
    That's actually a thing now. A significant number of students are going to Germany, getting a subsidized education, and never coming back to the US. Brain drain is not an overall plus for the US economy. We shouldn't want our best and brightest settling overseas - except insofar as we want to do right by our posterity, and the US education system is obviously not doing right by them.
  - tptacek 10y ago
    Many of them can do as I did and go straight from high school to the work force. Others can go into apprenticeships in the skilled trades. Still more to community and vocational colleges to learn business management or accounting. The fastest growing profession for 4-year college graduates is "HR professional". Come on. You don't need a college degree to be an HR rep, or to be a sales account manager, or to work in a purchasing department. That's something like 60% of the white collar jobs in a typical corporation, which we pretend that you need to spend $150,000 on a Russian Lit degree to competently execute.
    - deleted 10y ago
      [deleted]
westpfelia 10y ago
Because its pounded into their heads that if they dont go to college then they have no chance at making it successfully in life. So taking on 5-10 years of debt for 40-50 years of success is seen as worth it.
hueving 10y ago
>Why can't these kids just think about the debt they're getting into? When you're 17/18, it's really hard to grasp how hard it will be to pay off the loans. Especially when society tells you that you will be a loser if you don't go. This comes directly from teachers, which have been an authority figure in the child's life up to that point.
aidenn0 10y ago
Inflation-adjusted costs of educating a student are largely unchanged in the past 30 years; per-student government subsidies are incredibly low compared to 30 years ago, largely due to the increasing number of students enrolling in college.
matwood 10y ago
> Why can't these kids just think about the debt they're getting into? Some other people in this thread have mentioned that it's because parents have beaten into kids heads how important college is. That may be in part true, but I think a bigger truth is that people are simply bad with money. College is not the only debt many people have. Look at things like credit card debt[1], and car loans. The populace as a whole makes poor financial decisions every single day, so why would college be any different? At least college can be looked at as a type of investment, unlike that new car or PS4. [1] https://www.valuepenguin.com/average-credit-card-debt https://www.valuepenguin.com/average-credit-card-debt

rayiner 10y ago

Kids can't think rationally about debt because their parents and teachers have overinflated the importance of everyone going to college and have actively discouraged critical thinking on these issues.

petre 10y ago
So send them to college elsewhere? in Canada? Europe?
- paulmd 10y ago
  That's actually a thing now. A significant number of students are going to Germany, getting a subsidized education, and never coming back to the US. Brain drain is not an overall plus for the US economy. We shouldn't want our best and brightest settling overseas - except insofar as we want to do right by our posterity, and the US education system is obviously not doing right by them.
- tptacek 10y ago
  Many of them can do as I did and go straight from high school to the work force. Others can go into apprenticeships in the skilled trades. Still more to community and vocational colleges to learn business management or accounting. The fastest growing profession for 4-year college graduates is "HR professional". Come on. You don't need a college degree to be an HR rep, or to be a sales account manager, or to work in a purchasing department. That's something like 60% of the white collar jobs in a typical corporation, which we pretend that you need to spend $150,000 on a Russian Lit degree to competently execute.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]

westpfelia 10y ago

Because its pounded into their heads that if they dont go to college then they have no chance at making it successfully in life. So taking on 5-10 years of debt for 40-50 years of success is seen as worth it.

hueving 10y ago

>Why can't these kids just think about the debt they're getting into? When you're 17/18, it's really hard to grasp how hard it will be to pay off the loans. Especially when society tells you that you will be a loser if you don't go. This comes directly from teachers, which have been an authority figure in the child's life up to that point.

aidenn0 10y ago

Inflation-adjusted costs of educating a student are largely unchanged in the past 30 years; per-student government subsidies are incredibly low compared to 30 years ago, largely due to the increasing number of students enrolling in college.

matwood 10y ago

> Why can't these kids just think about the debt they're getting into? Some other people in this thread have mentioned that it's because parents have beaten into kids heads how important college is. That may be in part true, but I think a bigger truth is that people are simply bad with money. College is not the only debt many people have. Look at things like credit card debt[1], and car loans. The populace as a whole makes poor financial decisions every single day, so why would college be any different? At least college can be looked at as a type of investment, unlike that new car or PS4. [1] https://www.valuepenguin.com/average-credit-card-debt https://www.valuepenguin.com/average-credit-card-debt