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I've heard as much. For context, I'm only 27, unmarried without kids, and just trying to think ahead :)

by sp527 8y ago

dv_dt 8y ago
Ah, good for you for planning ahead! Then my advice is save early and consistently, and look into Bernie Sanders or other progressive politicians. I'd rather be paying higher taxes for very low cost to free public universities than the current system - I think that's much more economically efficient. The current structuring of public universities is actually a drag on our economy. It's a financialized extraction of wealth from most income-earning people of any class, and reduces economic activity by pulling working cashflow out of the real value-producing portions of our economy and into the banking/finance sector. This is said as a parent with a kid going into college soon. None of what I've advocated for there probably lands soon enough to make a bit of financial difference for me, but maybe for you.
- sp527 8y ago
  Haha I wish I was a less cynical person when it comes to political reform. I don't quite agree with Sanders' approach because I think it's very hard to make his numbers work without meaningfully detracting from aggregate economic performance. But I also think there are far better measures that can be taken and I'm not sure he ever mentioned (some) of them: (1) adjust federal student aid/loan programs to prevent manipulation; that unregulated money has actually done more than to inflate college costs than almost anything else, (2) eliminate medical industry price gouging through regulation, particularly around Medicaid, Medicare, and ACA spend and perhaps more directly if legally viable, (3) incrementally (as opposed to wholesale) widen the social safety net from the bottom up in a fiscally responsible way, which is precisely how ACA was structured and deployed imo, (4) cut military spending dramatically. Maybe one day we can get to a place where this is possible. Of course none of that helps any of us in this particular wealth/income gray zone :) Good luck with the college financing though! Hope you figure out something that works.
  - dv_dt 8y ago
    One (1): Direct public university funding would be a mechanism to regulate college costs by putting budget level strings on it which is more of a direct control rather than roundabout via loans. It also puts better market pressure on tuitions at private colleges. Right now, Harvard for example has a large enough endowment that students could go there free indefinitely, but they still charge a tuition that then gets in-part funded by government backed student loans. That makes no sense to me at all. The rest of it, I think I'm in agreement with and think that the Progressive side of Democrats and independent groups are the only ones seriously after that...
nextos 8y ago
Oxford, Cambridge and UCL are relatively inexpensive if you manage to secure some scholarship. Some Scandinavian, French, Swiss and German universities are excellent. Scandinavian ones are quite inexpensive at foreign rates.

I've heard as much. For context, I'm only 27, unmarried without kids, and just trying to think ahead :)

by sp527 8y ago

I've heard as much. For context, I'm only 27, unmarried without kids, and just trying to think ahead :)

Ah, good for you for planning ahead! Then my advice is save early and consistently, and look into Bernie Sanders or other progressive politicians. I'd rather be paying higher taxes for very low cost to free public universities than the current system - I think that's much more economically efficient. The current structuring of public universities is actually a drag on our economy. It's a financialized extraction of wealth from most income-earning people of any class, and reduces economic activity by pulling working cashflow out of the real value-producing portions of our economy and into the banking/finance sector. This is said as a parent with a kid going into college soon. None of what I've advocated for there probably lands soon enough to make a bit of financial difference for me, but maybe for you.

sp527 8y ago
Haha I wish I was a less cynical person when it comes to political reform. I don't quite agree with Sanders' approach because I think it's very hard to make his numbers work without meaningfully detracting from aggregate economic performance. But I also think there are far better measures that can be taken and I'm not sure he ever mentioned (some) of them: (1) adjust federal student aid/loan programs to prevent manipulation; that unregulated money has actually done more than to inflate college costs than almost anything else, (2) eliminate medical industry price gouging through regulation, particularly around Medicaid, Medicare, and ACA spend and perhaps more directly if legally viable, (3) incrementally (as opposed to wholesale) widen the social safety net from the bottom up in a fiscally responsible way, which is precisely how ACA was structured and deployed imo, (4) cut military spending dramatically. Maybe one day we can get to a place where this is possible. Of course none of that helps any of us in this particular wealth/income gray zone :) Good luck with the college financing though! Hope you figure out something that works.
- dv_dt 8y ago
  One (1): Direct public university funding would be a mechanism to regulate college costs by putting budget level strings on it which is more of a direct control rather than roundabout via loans. It also puts better market pressure on tuitions at private colleges. Right now, Harvard for example has a large enough endowment that students could go there free indefinitely, but they still charge a tuition that then gets in-part funded by government backed student loans. That makes no sense to me at all. The rest of it, I think I'm in agreement with and think that the Progressive side of Democrats and independent groups are the only ones seriously after that...

nextos 8y ago

Oxford, Cambridge and UCL are relatively inexpensive if you manage to secure some scholarship. Some Scandinavian, French, Swiss and German universities are excellent. Scandinavian ones are quite inexpensive at foreign rates.