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My anecdote is as valid as your anecdote. Life got cheaper over the past 15 years, not counting changes in family size. I used to have insurance co-payment, a

My anecdote is as valid as your anecdote. Life got cheaper over the past 15 years, not counting changes in family size. I used to have insurance co-payment, a deduction from my paycheck, and an unreachable out-of-pocket maximum. All of that has changed. I used to pay about $1200 rent for a crummy house in a dangerous neighborhood. Now, with a paid-off mortgage, I pay just $266 for property tax on a house that is 3109 square feet on 0.39 acres. Childcare is my wife, so $0 then and now. Income tax remains $0 due to child deductions. Sales tax is about 7%, relatively unchanged. Education is a new expense compared to 15 years ago when nobody was in school. If I look back more than 20 years instead, to when I was in college, I can see that college has gotten cheaper. Tuition is a tiny bit lower, but the big change is that tuition and books for the first couple years are now free if you get it done in high school. That cuts the price in half. This is not to say that I pay less. I now have a huge family. Things are cheaper, but I'm buying much more.

coolgeek 6y ago
> My anecdote is as valid as your anecdote In this case, technically true is not the best kind of true. If we generalized both of your anecdata to either - health insurance and housing got cheaper for everybody, or - health insurance and housing got more expensive for everybody which would be more accurate? > If I look back more than 20 years instead, to when I was in college, I can see that college has gotten cheaper Again, that is not generally the case. In fact, the growth in education costs has substantially exceeded the inflation in most other sectors
- souprock 6y ago
  I'm not so sure college has gone up in price, all things considered. The sticker price is much higher, but people aren't usually paying sticker price. Discounts (scholarships) are much more available. Stuff like dual-enrollment has spread across the country. AP is now widely available.
  - coolgeek 6y ago
    Just so we're clear, here, you've already gone from: > I can see that college has gotten cheaper to > I'm not so sure college has gone up in price You seem to be good at finding system hacks for your own, and/or proximal cases. But you continue to generalize your own experience(s) in a way that almost certainly doesn't broadly apply. Here is Google's first link for "student loan total debt history": https://educationdata.org/average-student-loan-debt-by-year https://educationdata.org/average-student-loan-debt-by-year Some stats from that: - Student loan debt at graduation has increased 76% since the Class of 2000, a growth rate that outpaces the rate of inflation by 41% - After adjusting for inflation, the average student loan debt at graduation has increased 326% since 1970 - Since 2003, the national total student loan debt balance has grown by 602.5% Of course, tuition prices and student loan stats are different things. But the loan stats make it hard to argue that there is much discounting - in general - of tuition prices

coolgeek 6y ago

> My anecdote is as valid as your anecdote In this case, technically true is not the best kind of true. If we generalized both of your anecdata to either - health insurance and housing got cheaper for everybody, or - health insurance and housing got more expensive for everybody which would be more accurate? > If I look back more than 20 years instead, to when I was in college, I can see that college has gotten cheaper Again, that is not generally the case. In fact, the growth in education costs has substantially exceeded the inflation in most other sectors

souprock 6y ago
I'm not so sure college has gone up in price, all things considered. The sticker price is much higher, but people aren't usually paying sticker price. Discounts (scholarships) are much more available. Stuff like dual-enrollment has spread across the country. AP is now widely available.
- coolgeek 6y ago
  Just so we're clear, here, you've already gone from: > I can see that college has gotten cheaper to > I'm not so sure college has gone up in price You seem to be good at finding system hacks for your own, and/or proximal cases. But you continue to generalize your own experience(s) in a way that almost certainly doesn't broadly apply. Here is Google's first link for "student loan total debt history": https://educationdata.org/average-student-loan-debt-by-year https://educationdata.org/average-student-loan-debt-by-year Some stats from that: - Student loan debt at graduation has increased 76% since the Class of 2000, a growth rate that outpaces the rate of inflation by 41% - After adjusting for inflation, the average student loan debt at graduation has increased 326% since 1970 - Since 2003, the national total student loan debt balance has grown by 602.5% Of course, tuition prices and student loan stats are different things. But the loan stats make it hard to argue that there is much discounting - in general - of tuition prices