Good afternoon, everybody! Today's topic is going to be a bit more opinion centered, mine in particular. This topic is going to be about the cost of college/university. A lot of my American readers may understand. College/university is disgustingly expensive. I personally feel that it shouldn't cost so much for college or university, which is one of the basic qualifications for a good job. I think this is a joke, a cruel joke at average income and low-income families that want a higher education for their children when the time comes.
College education is the gateway to good income jobs to provide for someone. Granted, some jobs can be achieved with only a high school diploma, but they mostly aren't very good jobs. Excellent paying jobs like doctors, lawyers, therapists, etc. require degrees, which are obtained through university or college. In the world we live in, we need money to have practically anything. In order to get a good amount of money to support yourself or your family you need a good job, and in order to have a good job, you need a college degree, or to have at least graduated from college. Now let me introduce a scenario in which a young adult is thinking about going to a college, let's use Yale as an example. I know that's a bit of a stretch for some, but you are more likely to get hired for a great job based on the college you attended.
This question helps to expand your understanding: "Would you rather have a surgeon that graduated from an Ivy League school, or a surgeon that graduated from an unknown college?"
Anyways, imagine this young adult has no help to pay for tuition, for the sake of this scenario this child is an orphan. So, with no parents to help aid in the cost of tuition, where does this poor unfortunate soul turn to. The "last resort" as I like to call it, is a student loan. The problem with these loans is that the people who receive them are most likely going to spend their entire life paying this back.
These loans pay for tuition, cost of living, and school supplies. They can be helpful to some but imagine having to pay thousands of dollars out of your pocket, with interest! The minimum wage in some states is $15 an hour, and this is where the math comes in.
The average workday is 8 hours, so 15 times 8 is $120, and multiplied by 365 is 43,800. Below is a chart from Forbes that will determine how much will be paid.
This chart even displays the number of years it will take to repay this loan. Imagine having to take 20 years to pay your student loan debt!
So, what are we even paying for anyways? Why does it cost so much to go to college? There are a lot of reasons — growing demand, rising financial aid, lower state funding, the exploding cost of administrators, bloated student amenities packages.
Over building of campus amenities, a model dependent on high-wage labor, and the easy availability of subsidized student loans.
I could spend this entire article talking about why college is so costly, but I have a major focus on how this is negatively impacting the youth and future generations. As the years go by things explode in price. For example, back in the day you used to be able to get a variety of things like candy, food and drink for a couple of cents. There have been numerous articles on this issue, but with the inflation of product costs, the wages rise as well.
I find it insane that back then in the 1930's, you could buy this assortment of chocolate for only 5 cents, and in the present, chocolate assortments go for about $10.
This is even more insane, according to CNBC: "In 1971, tuition at Harvard University cost students $2,600 annually. For the 2016-2017 school year, students had to fork over $43,280 for tuition, and more than $60,000 total including room, board and fees. That makes the cost today almost 17 times as much as in 1971—a markup of more than 1,550 percent."
I find this drastic change scary. Like, how much are my future children going to be paying just to get a higher education? I bet many parents were worrying about that as well, but who know that the annual tuition for an Ivy League school like Harvard started at $2,600!?
It is outrageous! It's not just colleges, inflation has made prices of many amenities go up, no surprise there. These companies sure know how to milk the fact that some of these things they are selling are widely needed. This goes for things like food, water, shelter, and yes, education.
This is where we get into inflation and its significance in the cost of college, among other things.
Inflation is both easy and difficult to understand, I found that out the hard way. Despite all the head scratching as I struggled to make sense of the "Greek" that was laid out in front of me, I found something I did understand, and that I can explain to you the reader as well.
There are 2 major factors in the present-day inflation. The pandemic, and Russia's war on Ukraine.
According to KCRA.com: "In the spring of 2020, as COVID-19 spread, it was like yanking the plug on the global economy. Factories around the world shut down; people stopped eating at restaurants; airlines grounded flights. Millions of people were laid off as business disappeared practically overnight. The unemployment rate in America shot up to nearly 15% from about 3.5% in February 2020."
It was the sharpest economic contraction on record.
At the same time, there were emergency stimulus measures to keep financial markets from tanking. The central bank slashed interest rates to near zero and began pumping tens of billions of dollars every month into the markets by buying up corporate debt. In doing so, the bank likely prevented a full-on financial meltdown. These events contributed to inflation. By the summer of 2020, the demand for consumer goods began to pick up again.
" Congress and President Joe Biden passed a historic $1.9 trillion stimulus bill in March that made Americans suddenly flush with cash and unemployment assistance. People started shopping again. Demand went from zero to 100, but supply couldn't bounce back so easily."
But what about the war on Ukraine?
Where does that play into inflation? Well as it turns out, we the citizens of the United States, contribute to the vast amounts of money being sent to Ukraine. The government has money, of course, but they have to get money from everywhere, in any way they can. The U.S. is one of Ukraine's largest defense partners, and that means the government, and the public, have to help them.
Long story short, inflation plays a big role in the cost of education, as well as what it take to run a school.
So, in conclusion, I think it is a bit unjust that going to college also means the draining of your life savings. The cost of college is a main reason why some Americans hesitate to pursue a higher education. To sum it up no college means no good job, and not having a good job means not having income, and that eventually leads to homelessness, which the United States, is somewhat notorious for.
I think that a higher education should be entitled to all Americans, not just the vastly wealthy.
Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed!
As always have a good day🏙️/night🌃!
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(Stay tuned for the credits/further reading)
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