Financial Disparity

[billy backstay]

No wonder the young people entering the workforce after High School, Trade School, or College can't afford to work and live in the USA...


Warren Gunnels
@GunnelsWarren
·
15h

Average Weekly Wages 1973: $873 2022: $813

Median Home 1973: $30,200 2022: $433,100

Monthly Rent 1973: $108 2022: $2,002

Tuition and Fees at University of California 1973: $150 2022: $13,104

Boomer: But why can't the slackers pay for college & pay off their loans like we did?
.

 

[veni vidi vici]

No wonder the young people entering the workforce after High School, Trade School, or College can't afford to work and live in the USA...


Warren Gunnels
@GunnelsWarren
·
15h

Average Weekly Wages 1973: $873 2022: $813

Median Home 1973: $30,200 2022: $433,100

Monthly Rent 1973: $108 2022: $2,002

Tuition and Fees at University of California 1973: $150 2022: $13,104

Boomer: But why can't the slackers pay for college & pay off their loans like we did?
.

Live within your means and save

 

[Sol Rosenberg]

Education costs are a feature, not a bug. Education is for the children of the Best Americans. The rest should be kept uneducated and desperate enough to work for subsistence wages to pick themselves up by their bootstraps.

The Origin of Student Debt: Reagan Adviser Warned Free College Would Create a Dangerous “Educated Proletariat”

In 1970, Roger Freeman, who also worked for Nixon, revealed the right’s motivation for coming decades of attacks on higher education.

theintercept.com

 

[justsomeguy!]

No wonder the young people entering the workforce after High School, Trade School, or College can't afford to work and live in the USA...

Why did you feel the need to capitalize "high school", 'trade school" and "college"?

 

[billy backstay]

Why did you feel the need to capitalize "high school", 'trade school" and "college"?

I dunno? Why does that bother you??????
.

 

[justsomeguy!]

I dunno?

You don't know. That, I get.

 

[veni vidi vici]

Gee …. All of a sudden students graduate from college with debt and have a hard time making ends meet.
Just as it has always been!

 

[d'ranger]

This has been a developing issue to me for I dunno, 30 years? Likely the #1 reason for the rabid support of TFG although they don't realize why they are upset. Like climate change it's just to big to comprehend. Weird that oligarchs in Russia = bad, oligarchs in the US are admired.

 

[Steam Flyer]

This has been a developing issue to me for I dunno, 30 years? Likely the #1 reason for the rabid support of TFG although they don't realize why they are upset. Like climate change it's just to big to comprehend. Weird that oligarchs in Russia = bad, oligarchs in the US are admired.

No no, Russian oligarchs are also good, if you are one of those people who would rather be Russian than Democrat.

 

[Peter Andersen]

Why did you feel the need to capitalize "high school", 'trade school" and "college"?

Billy didnt go to college

 

[Peter Andersen]

No wonder the young people entering the workforce after High School, Trade School, or College can't afford to work and live in the USA...


Warren Gunnels
@GunnelsWarren
·
15h

Average Weekly Wages 1973: $873 2022: $813

Median Home 1973: $30,200 2022: $433,100

Monthly Rent 1973: $108 2022: $2,002

Tuition and Fees at University of California 1973: $150 2022: $13,104

Boomer: But why can't the slackers pay for college & pay off their loans like we did?
.

Summer lifeguards were in very short supply this year. Even municipalities were paying training, certification, and $20 +/hour x 40 hours.
Private clubs even more. Then tack on private lessons $50/hour. All you can book. Tax free
I was making $2.50/hour Freshman summer
BTW, your numbers are cherry picked bullshit.

There is still free or cheap college for those who serve in the military.
Plenty of people work full time jobs plus full time college
First two years local community college than transfer is a cheap option
Living at home is an option
Many companies in the trades will sponsore trader school and training.
Almost anyone can go to college of they have the desire. They always have. Regardless of income at the time.
Excuses and handouts are for the rest of them

 

[Not My Real Name]

Why did you feel the need to capitalize "high school", 'trade school" and "college"?

Could be worse. He could have abused double quotation marks to emphasize the point.

 

[billy backstay]

Could be worse. He could have abused double quotation marks to emphasize the point.

I have always seen those terms capitalized, and again, WTF cares??
.

 

[Swimsailor]

Summer lifeguards were in very short supply this year. Even municipalities were paying training, certification, and $20 +/hour x 40 hours.
Private clubs even more. Then tack on private lessons $50/hour. All you can book. Tax free
I was making $2.50/hour Freshman summer
BTW, your numbers are cherry picked bullshit.

There is still free or cheap college for those who serve in the military.
Plenty of people work full time jobs plus full time college
First two years local community college than transfer is a cheap option
Living at home is an option
Many companies in the trades will sponsore trader school and training.
Almost anyone can go to college of they have the desire. They always have. Regardless of income at the time.
Excuses and handouts are for the rest of them

And there it is. I was wondering when the RWNJ'S would chime in thinking their anecdotes were somehow indicative of the larger problem supported by actual data.

Lifeguarding and teaching private swim lessons? Listen to yourself as you say that to yourself slowly. And do your own math. After a 40 hr week and a few private lessons, when will said lifeguard go to school?

 

[d'ranger]

I always enjoy the career and financial advice so freely given by our long term poster and failure at the above. Flannel Boy rocks.

 

[mikewof]

Gee …. All of a sudden students graduate from college with debt and have a hard time making ends meet.
Just as it has always been!

It is different now though. The cost of college has shot up relative to inflation, as the academic industry uses tuition to cover operating costs, while they use endowments and property revenue to fund expansion. Then, human resources managers and corporations got selective about hiring people who didn't have even useless degrees ... college education seemed to create more compliant employees than trade schools and on-job training.

The debt is bigger then ever with predatory lending and excessesive interest rates. But then, the Boomers inherited one of the biggest windfall inheritances in history from the Post WWII wealth and money is little concern for them, as they drive up prices on their own stuff, and fund their Millennial childrens' lifestyles.

That leaves this new Gen-Z mess in roughly where it left their Gen-X parents. This won't get fixed, as evidenced by the Band Aid fix of the $10k student loan nonsense. But there will be a weaponized, anarchic, post-punk generation of young adults who won't do what they are told and end up remaking this country the way they want. And there will be nothing that the Boomers or Millennials will be able to do to stop them, while any Gen-X survivors will be too drunk or stoned to give a shit.

The American academic industry created this mess, and they will not emerge unscathed. They will burn through their property and endowments with Z just to give out free tuition in an effort to keep students enrolled and stay viable in the international academic space. They knew full well that they were graduating students who would spend a lifetime in their debt and they did it anyway because they lost sight of their place in the economy.

You want a business opportunity? Get a war chest to buy real property from universities. They will end up having to sell some of it at market price.

 

[veni vidi vici]

It is different now though. The cost of college has shot up relative to inflation, as the academic industry uses tuition to cover operating costs, while they use endowments and property revenue to fund expansion. Then, human resources managers and corporations got selective about hiring people who didn't have even useless degrees ... college education seemed to create more compliant employees than trade schools and on-job training.

The debt is bigger then ever with predatory lending and excessesive interest rates. But then, the Boomers inherited one of the biggest windfall inheritances in history from the Post WWII wealth and money is little concern for them, as they drive up prices on their own stuff, and fund their Millennial childrens' lifestyles.

That leaves this new Gen-Z mess in roughly where it left their Gen-X parents. This won't get fixed, as evidenced by the Band Aid fix of the $10k student loan nonsense. But there will be a weaponized, anarchic, post-punk generation of young adults who won't do what they are told and end up remaking this country the way they want. And there will be nothing that the Boomers or Millennials will be able to do to stop them, while any Gen-X survivors will be too drunk or stoned to give a shit.

College campuses have all had stylish makeovers ,resort style student rec centers and eateries. Times have changed as colleges compete for the guaranteed income.
Caveat emptor
The hard way

 

[BeSafe]

The American academic industry created this mess, and they will not emerge unscathed. They will burn through their property and endowments with Z just to give out free tuition in an effort to keep students enrolled and stay viable in the international academic space

Good post but I'm seeing the end game a bit differently.

I think the US Higher Educational system will continue to be frequented, just not by Americans. That's the logical answer. The number of student visas dropped under Trump (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F_visa) but are back up under Biden (https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/f1-student-visa-us-qualifications-46706.html). Faced with schools collapsing due to poor economics or letting foreigners with money fill those slots, its a no-brainer. I don't see a reckoning. I see status quo.

That'll then lead to more well trained foreign students ultimately applying for citizenship and more smart doctors being channeled to the heartland. Yea, Gen Z will be flushed but there's enough folks with money in the world who see the US and the "NAFTA Alliance" as their best chance for a future.

Its good to be king.

 

[mikewof]

Good post but I'm seeing the end game a bit differently.

I think the US Higher Educational system will continue to be frequented, just not by Americans. That's the logical answer. The number of student visas dropped under Trump (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F_visa) but are back up under Biden (https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/f1-student-visa-us-qualifications-46706.html). Faced with schools collapsing due to poor economics or letting foreigners with money fill those slots, its a no-brainer.

That'll then lead to more well trained foreign students ultimately applying for citizenship and more smart doctors being channeled to the heartland. Yea, Gen Z will be flushed but there's enough folks with money in the world who see the US and the "NAFTA Alliance" as their best chance for a future.

Its good to be king.

Definitely for graduate schools (though I have noticed a lot of Physicists simply return to China and India for better job offers rather than stay in the USA).

But graduate schools don't pay the bills for these universities, they more often use the small reserves as a low-cost labor force to teach the cash-cow undergrads. And foreign undergraduate students? There will be some, but the USA is no longer the "king" of this space because we let profits stop efforts to open source our educations. Compared to India in particular, we are twenty years behind their open source model. If these international parents have the money to send their kids to an expensive USA boutique school, they might also choose to buy their kid a nice car and an apartment and keep them nearby in one of the schools that are ripping through the academic industry with awards and lots of publications. The USA no longer owns the high ground in many of these areas.

 

[SloopJonB]

No wonder the young people entering the workforce after High School, Trade School, or College can't afford to work and live in the USA...


Warren Gunnels
@GunnelsWarren
·
15h

Average Weekly Wages 1973: $873 2022: $813

Median Home 1973: $30,200 2022: $433,100

Monthly Rent 1973: $108 2022: $2,002

Tuition and Fees at University of California 1973: $150 2022: $13,104

Boomer: But why can't the slackers pay for college & pay off their loans like we did?
.

"Why can't we get staff?"

"Are they just too lazy to work?"

I do question that '73 weekly rate - I wuz there and back then $10K/Year was the "you have arrived" income level. Nobody made $45K/Year except celebrities and a handful of famous lawyers.