I also worked my way through college at a local state university, from 85-90. Tuition was $1800 per year for me, and minimum wage was approx $3.50. I worked 15hrs/week min wage during school, and worked construction for $10/hr every summer, 40hrs per week.
My son is now going to the same university. Tuition is $14,000 per year, and minimum wage is $7.25 an hour. Like I did, he lives at home and commutes to save money.
So it took me approx 514 hours of work at minimum wage to pay my yearly tuition. It would take my son approx 1931 hours to pay his. 3.75X more. He’s young, energetic and ambitious, but he can’t work 56 hours a week during school and 150 during the summer and still do well in school.
Millenials are deserving of their fair share of criticism, but we can’t ignore the math. The federal government has greatly distorted the market by pumping money into education. And don’t even get me started on the price of textbooks these days...
Excellent post. That explains clearly the problem. Costs are 3.75 times more, and much more in many places, and the costs are clearly out of reach of minimum wage with the problem being taxpayer monies pumped into the system.
Exactly, see post 77.
Anyone saying they can do it just like always is BLISSFULLY unaware of the fiscal realities of is very very bad at math.