Originally Posted by
gut
Yup.
A perfect example of this is American colleges right now. As soon as government backed loans showed up, tuition skyrocketed into the hellhole where it is today.
Maybe you could get a government backed second mortgage now to pay for the kids college! Government at work!
College tuition is a huge scam. It has rocketed up at insane rates over the past 30 years, even at public state schools. You're exactly correct -- the government backed loans caused an unnatural inflation in tuition rates.
There is absolutely no reason that tuition in 2021 should be any higher than 1990, other than inflation-adjusted (which is only about 2x).
I attended UCSB from 1990-91 for $1800 for the entire year. Can you imagine, even if we double that to $3600 for 2021 dollars?
A big problem is that state colleges have their own budgets, so their goal is to raise money, not serve the public. If these were operating from a general state budget, where they don't reap direct rewards from higher tuition and nickel-and-diming students, then they wouldn't do this shit. So if the government is willing to back insane student loans, the colleges are happy to take it. As a side effect, parents paying for their kids' tuition also get fucked, even though loans don't even directly play into it.
I would love for this to be reformed, and for there to be some kind of oversight regarding in-state tuition for public colleges. The private colleges can obviously charge what they want, but they've been able to jack up rates because the public ones have jacked up theirs.