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A few points... Your CPI point is nonsense. The graph compares the growth of expenses to other consumer products. So subtracting CPI from the college costs a

A few points... Your CPI point is nonsense. The graph compares the growth of expenses to other consumer products. So subtracting CPI from the college costs and then comparing that number isn't comparing apples to apples. The fact that the Government is pushing money into these universities from both sides does not justify high costs. Even with Government Subsidies going directly to the University and Government grants going directly to students we still have a situation where Student Loan debt has passed Credit Card debt in this country. Adjusted for inflation Student Debt is up 50% in the past decade. Since when do costs automatically go up with Income? If Exxon decides to double their prices because people's incomes have doubled would you think that was acceptable? Despite its importance to society education is still just a product with a cost and a profit margin. If it's cost is going up exponentially its because someone is making a lot of profit. Edit: Just to drive home the point. The average salary for a University Professor is $118,054. The average length of an academic year in days 187. So your average professor is making $631 a day NOT including benefits. (Source: http://bit.ly/gyfAz2 http://bit.ly/gyfAz2)

ihodes 16y ago
Maybe I should have been more clear; the costs of education go up concurrently with with CPI. CPI is used as a general measure of inflation. If you're not taking that into account, you're measuring the change in nominal, not real dollars. That's much less useful. My point about income increasing was meant to show how the burden of college has not increased significantly to those who are paying the full costs. The fraction it is of their income has decreased or remained roughly the same. If the issue is that people aren't getting their money's worth out of the investment that an education is, then that's one problem. On the other hand, if the $25k of debt is worth more than $25k + inflation (measured by CPI ;) + opportunity cost, then it's worth it. >If Exxon decides to double their prices because people's incomes have doubled would you think that was acceptable? If the market would bear it, why shouldn't they? >If it's cost is going up exponentially its because someone is making a lot of profit. I don't speak for all colleges out there, but at least many of the smaller liberal arts colleges that command these very high prices of ~$50k/yr, the costs of education are indeed increasing. Instead of vapidly speculating that "someone" is making a large profit because, prima facia, costs are increasing, take a look at the improvements in education since the first half of last century. Things are changing. No longer is education a matter of a room and a professor. It is more costly to provide.

ihodes 16y ago

Maybe I should have been more clear; the costs of education go up concurrently with with CPI. CPI is used as a general measure of inflation. If you're not taking that into account, you're measuring the change in nominal, not real dollars. That's much less useful. My point about income increasing was meant to show how the burden of college has not increased significantly to those who are paying the full costs. The fraction it is of their income has decreased or remained roughly the same. If the issue is that people aren't getting their money's worth out of the investment that an education is, then that's one problem. On the other hand, if the $25k of debt is worth more than $25k + inflation (measured by CPI ;) + opportunity cost, then it's worth it. >If Exxon decides to double their prices because people's incomes have doubled would you think that was acceptable? If the market would bear it, why shouldn't they? >If it's cost is going up exponentially its because someone is making a lot of profit. I don't speak for all colleges out there, but at least many of the smaller liberal arts colleges that command these very high prices of ~$50k/yr, the costs of education are indeed increasing. Instead of vapidly speculating that "someone" is making a large profit because, prima facia, costs are increasing, take a look at the improvements in education since the first half of last century. Things are changing. No longer is education a matter of a room and a professor. It is more costly to provide.