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>In a few months we are completely re-examining the utility of taking out a student loan that many cannot pay back in their working lifetimes. Actually this ha

>In a few months we are completely re-examining the utility of taking out a student loan that many cannot pay back in their working lifetimes. Actually this has been true for many decades, not just the last 10-20 years. The issue is exasperated due to massive unemployment because of the mismanagement of covid19. There will be no 're-examining' because there is so much bloat that votes. Countless administrators that actually vote for their interests, at the expense of the students. It's systemic and just like police reform, it's not going to be an easy and fast change. When renovating the system, there are losers and those losers will fight you tooth and nail to prevent progress. It's partly why I like creative models like Lambda School. There is a massive opportunities for business(es) to help fix this gap but...again, incentives are not static. A business helping you get a high skilled job, might want cheaper labor, so they flood the market with more workers, which reduces the collective in that field. In conclusion, these issues are massive/systemic. It's entrenched to society and protected by stakeholders. Effectively making change happen won't be easy and we may be creating a 'wake-a-mole' type environment where we solve today's problems and gain two problems tomorrow.

xiaolingxiao 6y ago
Could you speak about administrators that vote for their own interests. I always suspected this is the case, have you seen it first hand or is close to it.
- heimatau 6y ago
  > Could you speak about administrators that vote for their own interests. So, given the rising costs of Health Care and College both situations are good examples of this. The rising 'costs' are more people in administration. This could be blamed on regulation among other issues (greed). As for voting in their self interests, I live in California now. University of California is the #1 employer in this State. This doesn't happen by chance. It happens due to stakeholders. Many people in this States want an 'easy' and 'stable' job. The easiest way to do this is require more red tape (regulation/'initiatives'/etc), in the name of 'progress' and then now you just created a 'stable and easy' job to make sure certain quotas are reach. Professors and students lose out due to admin workers are more aggressive on making the government enrich their interests.
jhbadger 6y ago
Not that many decades. For example, I was an undergraduate in 1988-1992. I never had any student loans nor did my parents pay for my tuition. They made it a point of principle that we pay for our education ourselves by working part time, as they themselves had done. But that just isn't possible today. When I went to (public) university, the tuition was under $2000/semester. These days it is over $10000. Wages have gone up since then, but not 5X.
- heimatau 6y ago
  > Not that many decades IMHO since removing the gold standard (1970s), this problem came up. I'm glad you have been able to but that possibility was shrinking every year. Less and less people were able to do what you did, starting in the 70s. Financial college administrators kept up with inflation whereas jobs didn't. Income didn't. Expenses took a little time to catch up with inflation as well. So, that might've been why for your situation. It wasn't extremely prohibitive but the issue compounds every year.

xiaolingxiao 6y ago

Could you speak about administrators that vote for their own interests. I always suspected this is the case, have you seen it first hand or is close to it.

heimatau 6y ago
> Could you speak about administrators that vote for their own interests. So, given the rising costs of Health Care and College both situations are good examples of this. The rising 'costs' are more people in administration. This could be blamed on regulation among other issues (greed). As for voting in their self interests, I live in California now. University of California is the #1 employer in this State. This doesn't happen by chance. It happens due to stakeholders. Many people in this States want an 'easy' and 'stable' job. The easiest way to do this is require more red tape (regulation/'initiatives'/etc), in the name of 'progress' and then now you just created a 'stable and easy' job to make sure certain quotas are reach. Professors and students lose out due to admin workers are more aggressive on making the government enrich their interests.

jhbadger 6y ago

Not that many decades. For example, I was an undergraduate in 1988-1992. I never had any student loans nor did my parents pay for my tuition. They made it a point of principle that we pay for our education ourselves by working part time, as they themselves had done. But that just isn't possible today. When I went to (public) university, the tuition was under $2000/semester. These days it is over $10000. Wages have gone up since then, but not 5X.

heimatau 6y ago
> Not that many decades IMHO since removing the gold standard (1970s), this problem came up. I'm glad you have been able to but that possibility was shrinking every year. Less and less people were able to do what you did, starting in the 70s. Financial college administrators kept up with inflation whereas jobs didn't. Income didn't. Expenses took a little time to catch up with inflation as well. So, that might've been why for your situation. It wasn't extremely prohibitive but the issue compounds every year.