College used to be affordable. What happened? w/Ellen Schrecker The Chris Hedges Report

[xocetaceans]

[getagrip_already]

1. Tldr......

But one of the things I notices as my kids applied was that schools have clearly spent millions on the experience factors, as opposed to education.

By that I mean they have fitness centers that rival pro sports teams, theaters that are multi media stadiums, dorms that rival hotels, and food services that leave nothing unmet.

Yet class sizes are large, health and mental wellness services are poor, and the core academic facilities are more glitz than substance.

Yeah, I'm yelling "when I was a kid"...... what are ya going to do about it? Now get off my lawn.

[TheRealNorth]

2. Republicans in the '90's started making the argument....

Why should we continue to subsidize colleges? Those kids can take loans out and pay them back when they are making huge 6-figure salaries.....

Of course, a lot of majors that people go to college for are not making they type of money.

[Warpy]

3. That's because in the 70s and 80s they pursued wage suppression

through inaction on the minimum wage during and after double digit inflation, union busting, and fiscal policies that shoveled wealth out of the working and middle classes and toward the already wealthy, all aimed at inflating the stock market to the detriment of everything else, especially the ability of people to educate their children and/or save for retirement.

We old lefties pointed out how insanely cruel and short sighted these policies were but we're lefties and nobody listens to us.

[xocetaceans]

4. Plus replacing living wages with widened access to credit cards gave them another route to make...

...further financial gains at expense of the public. So, being able to save was replaced by easy access to credit cards.

That paints all the conservative/libertarian/RW hand-wringing which is roughly summarized by the exclamation "If only they understood finances and how to budget...!" as exactly what it is, gaslighting.