Inflation is a thing. If she was born in 1946, she would have gone to college around 1964. Which means that her tuition would have been about 7600 dollars today. That’s still lower than the average in-state tuition by about 2000 dollars, but just putting that into context. However, minimum wage in 1964 was 1.15/hr, which means it would have taken about 16 weeks at full time minimum wage to pay for one semester tuition vs the 33 weeks it takes today. That’s a much better metric of comparison. It would take over a year to pay for a year of school now vs half a bit over half year before.
How does housing and food factor in too though, that’s only one portion of expenses. Entertainment costs far more for example, lots didn’t even really have entertainment than books.
Entertainment costs far more for example, lots didn’t even really have entertainment than books.
This is a bizarre statement. People have had entertainment since society has been a thing. It may not always look like what you do, but it has always been around, and yes, it was more than “books”.
That average person going to school could afford and access? Books and OTA cable were the usual options, now most of that even costs money. Most actually just drank, which of course isn’t a healthy nor really an option we should factor.
A podcast I was listening to today suggested that food is more affordable now than it was 50 yo. I don’t know if that’s true, but it would seem possible given all the science lowering costs for producers (additives, artificial ingredients, preservatives).
I often wonder how inexpensive produce would be if GMO crops weren’t demonized. I know the USA has several varieties of GMO fruit and veg on the market, but it’s availability is so scarce, and many countries still outright ban any bioengineered organism.
According to https://educationdata.org/average-cost-of-college-by-year the average tuition for a public 4 year school in 1963-1964 was $243 or just under $2500 today.
It should also be noted that a semester itself is about 16 weeks.
So if you worked 16 weeks full time in the summer and 32 weeks part time during your 2 semesters, you’d have 4 weeks left in the year. At absolutely minimum wage, if you lived with your parents, that’s a fairly heavy workload, but perfectly feasible to do.
Now, to pay for 2 semesters, you need to work full time for 66 weeks a year. Can you work full time while going to school? Can you manifest 8 extra weeks of full time work in a 52 week year? Can you even get a full time minimum wage job without your employer cutting hours to deny benefits?
If the boss was born in '46 this is true, but she’s a lot more likely born at the later end of boomers, since '46 would age her at 78. I’m guessing she’s at or below retirement age, not well above it
If the boomer is 60, it would only cost $2,267.87, adjusted.
If they’re 65, it would have been 3,245.61.
The numbers I got for tuition today: $41,540 at private colleges $11,260 at public colleges (in-state residents) $29,150 at public colleges (out-of-state residents)
I just checked the university I went to. It looks like since the 50s, tuition has basically doubled every 10 years. I graduated 20 years ago, so it’s roughly 4x what I paid. So yeah, if a boomer graduated 40 years ago at $750 a semester, that would track to $12,000 a semester now. Sounds about right.
If the trend continues, she can bitch at my kids for being lazy in 10 years for not being able to work off a $24,000 a semester tuition by flipping burgers part time.
We have turned college into the biggest monetary slavery the world has ever seen. I have to believe it had something to do with prepaid college programs; it seemed to coincide with them.
When I went to college in 1980 I got grants. Free money. I wasn’t a great student, mostly B’s.
What the hell happened when they guaranteed student loans, then made bankruptcy not an option, then stopped including them in credit reports for getting loans, and stopped giving the loans responsibly so they let people over borrow who had no means to pay it back?
What happened was colleges saw the opportunity to make tons of money, guaranteed from the US GOVERNMENT, and without conscious enslaved an entire generation just when we needed them the very most.
Because this small generation is weighed down by the burden of the elderly boomers, the largest generation ever getting old, counting on the economy generated by this generation to keep them alive.
It’s sick.
If student loans were treated as normal loans (e.g. not guaranteed and absolvable via bankruptcy) we’d have boomer prices. The purpose of the student loan scam is to create debt slaves that propagate the bureaucratic managerial class.
You can say thanks to the authors of the 2005 Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act. Amongst them being Senator Joe Biden. A bill that he defended back in 2020 during his campaign claiming that he “improved it”.
Both Republicans and Democrats want to have slaves, Dems just provide a longer leash.
Both Republicans and Democrats want to have slaves
Welcome to the corporatocracy. Education is just another category of the service industries
Access to higher education wasn’t an issue before all these laws were put into place. People didn’t “need” a college degree like they do now. The whole policy from it’s inception was not necessary. Now college is basically a ticket to the bureaucratic white collar world that produces nothing. (e.g. bullshit jobs)
Sounds closer to my generation’s prices that boomer prices. My parents are boomers. They paid like $250/semester. Cheaper for community college.
The moment you see any dollar amount from the past you need to ask “is that adjusted for inflation” and if it isn’t you need to put it in an inflation calculator. This process needs to be second nature because otherwise you will get a very wrong idea about how much something actually cost. And post covid inflation is already skewing mental prices from just a decade ago.
I literally have a shortcut to usinflationcalculator dot com on my home screen. Because I always check for inflation. Always.
If the boomer was 60, it would still only cost $2,267.87.
If they’re 65, it would have been 3,245.61.
Tuition today: $41,540 at private colleges $11,260 at public colleges (in-state residents) $29,150 at public colleges (out-of-state residents)
Sure, inflation is a thing, but the difference in dollar amount is still staggering.
I feel very lucky to be in the UK. I get to go to imperial for less than the cheapest offerings in the USA.
Ofc, though the problem when talking to anyone older about inflation then they’ll think that the cost just increased at the same rate as inflation. But the problem is that tuition in particular is one of the fastest rising costs that has blown through inflation many times over. By showing someone the present value of their tuition against current tuition they’ll be able to realize that it outpaced inflation and it is much less feasible to work yourself through college while working.
Yes, per semester. You can get away with way less if you go to a community college or online school.
Having gone to community college and a private college, the difference in class quality is great, but not over 10 times greater. Maybe three times greater? The state school classes I audited were zero to 1 times better to be honest.
The moment you see any dollar amount from the past you need to ask “is that adjusted for inflation”
Don’t forget to adjust the prevailing minimum wage for inflation while you’re at it. $750/semester while earning $7.25/hr hits much differently than $7500/semester while earning (checks notes) oh wait, it’s still $7.25/hr.
And yet, you didn’t share the result of your calculation, because it would highlight just how pointless your comment was lmao