4 ms·

How old? Did you attend college before the weight of it's cost was left to the student to bare? Anyone who attended college a couple decades ago benefited heav

by Clent 2y ago

How old? Did you attend college before the weight of it's cost was left to the student to bare? Anyone who attended college a couple decades ago benefited heavily from a subsidized system and now refused to pay it backward. There is a reason these people have been classified as a selfish generation and this is merely one aspect of it. What mental gymnastics allowed people to reap the rewards of cheap education and casually condemn anyone who follows that same path to economic ruin. Keep in mind this is uniquely an American problem with uniquely American excuses.

randomdata 2y ago
> How old? Old enough that the data was already abundantly clear that it wasn't worth the amount being charged. The only justification was for access to the dating pool college offers, which may have been worth something, but not debt-inducing amounts. With Tinder competing on much the same ground these days, it suggests that it isn't worth any more than maybe $50 per month, tops. > Did you attend college No, of course not. The numbers didn't make any sense. Had I attended college, I no doubt would have ended up like my friends who did: Struggling financially. Why should I bail them out? They had their fun in their 20s while I was busy building wealth. I would like to have my fun now. But you want me to sacrifice again so that they can continue to have fun? > Anyone who attended college a couple decades ago benefited heavily from a subsidized system Those who attended college a couple of decades ago are the millennials (the group referred to in the original comment). Have we already forgotten that millennials are well into their 40s now? How does this fit into the conversation, exactly? I'm not sure I quite understand the applicability.
- beej71 2y ago
  I'm apparently older than you, and when I want to college it absolutely made sense to go. I had $2k in debt when I graduated with a BS and MS, and I paid that off the moment it started accruing interest. Instead of begging people not to go to school, maybe we should be rolling prices back to what they were when I went, inflation adjusted.
  - randomdata 2y ago
    Made sense to, or just wasn't as crippling? Even if college were well and truly free, the opportunity cost of spending your time in college is still on the order of around a million dollars these days. That's a lot of bread to justify.
    - beej71 2y ago
      It wasn't crippling at all. I got paid way more because of it. The place I got my first job had higher salary for a masters, so much higher that it paid the entire cost of my masters in less than a year.
      - randomdata 2y ago
        > I got paid way more because of it. I can believe it, but that doesn't really tell us anything and I suspect you are being cagy here on purpose. The bulk of the cost of college isn't the out of pocket expense, it is the opportunity cost. Your time focused on college is time you are not doing something else. Thanks to the properties of compound interest, your time is most valuable when you are young. By a huge margin. So any time not spent making money when you are young can become financially devastating rather quickly. So, yes, obviously you needed to be paid way more just to begin to break even. You wouldn't be able to afford to take the job otherwise. But to break even isn't worth it from an economic point of view – especially given the high risk involved; you could have just as easily ended up unable to find a job. Sure, maybe you gained something out of the experience as a hobby, and there is certainly something to be said about that, but is really beyond the topic at hand. I mean, if you went to college when you were in your 50s, then okay. In that case, being paid way more has the potential to start to trump the cost of time lost, but when going to college in your 50s you are, again, not exactly in tune with the topic at hand.
        beej71 2y ago
        I don't know that you're right on this. I could argue the opportunity cost of high school was a million bucks, too. Or grade school. Or preschool. Clearly it breaks down _somewhere_. But is that before or after a Master's? I don't have the data. The United States is chock full of examples of people who worked through their college years and are dead broke. So I don't think "skipping college equals a million bucks" is a conclusion that's remotely close to a sure bet, especially if college is offering valuable advanced training. (Edit: college now costs a goddam fortune compared to when I went--that changes the calculus.)

by Clent 2y ago

randomdata 2y ago

> How old? Old enough that the data was already abundantly clear that it wasn't worth the amount being charged. The only justification was for access to the dating pool college offers, which may have been worth something, but not debt-inducing amounts. With Tinder competing on much the same ground these days, it suggests that it isn't worth any more than maybe $50 per month, tops. > Did you attend college No, of course not. The numbers didn't make any sense. Had I attended college, I no doubt would have ended up like my friends who did: Struggling financially. Why should I bail them out? They had their fun in their 20s while I was busy building wealth. I would like to have my fun now. But you want me to sacrifice again so that they can continue to have fun? > Anyone who attended college a couple decades ago benefited heavily from a subsidized system Those who attended college a couple of decades ago are the millennials (the group referred to in the original comment). Have we already forgotten that millennials are well into their 40s now? How does this fit into the conversation, exactly? I'm not sure I quite understand the applicability.

beej71 2y ago
I'm apparently older than you, and when I want to college it absolutely made sense to go. I had $2k in debt when I graduated with a BS and MS, and I paid that off the moment it started accruing interest. Instead of begging people not to go to school, maybe we should be rolling prices back to what they were when I went, inflation adjusted.
- randomdata 2y ago
  Made sense to, or just wasn't as crippling? Even if college were well and truly free, the opportunity cost of spending your time in college is still on the order of around a million dollars these days. That's a lot of bread to justify.
  - beej71 2y ago
    It wasn't crippling at all. I got paid way more because of it. The place I got my first job had higher salary for a masters, so much higher that it paid the entire cost of my masters in less than a year.
    - randomdata 2y ago
      > I got paid way more because of it. I can believe it, but that doesn't really tell us anything and I suspect you are being cagy here on purpose. The bulk of the cost of college isn't the out of pocket expense, it is the opportunity cost. Your time focused on college is time you are not doing something else. Thanks to the properties of compound interest, your time is most valuable when you are young. By a huge margin. So any time not spent making money when you are young can become financially devastating rather quickly. So, yes, obviously you needed to be paid way more just to begin to break even. You wouldn't be able to afford to take the job otherwise. But to break even isn't worth it from an economic point of view – especially given the high risk involved; you could have just as easily ended up unable to find a job. Sure, maybe you gained something out of the experience as a hobby, and there is certainly something to be said about that, but is really beyond the topic at hand. I mean, if you went to college when you were in your 50s, then okay. In that case, being paid way more has the potential to start to trump the cost of time lost, but when going to college in your 50s you are, again, not exactly in tune with the topic at hand.
      - beej71 2y ago
        I don't know that you're right on this. I could argue the opportunity cost of high school was a million bucks, too. Or grade school. Or preschool. Clearly it breaks down _somewhere_. But is that before or after a Master's? I don't have the data. The United States is chock full of examples of people who worked through their college years and are dead broke. So I don't think "skipping college equals a million bucks" is a conclusion that's remotely close to a sure bet, especially if college is offering valuable advanced training. (Edit: college now costs a goddam fortune compared to when I went--that changes the calculus.)