College is too Expensive, Except When It’s Not
Where higher education is actually underpriced is in the top-tier schools. That may sound offensive, but price is determined by what people are willing to pay, and the top twenty-five or so schools in the country could charge even more than they do.
That’s from Nicholas Lemann in The New Yorker, who argues that a college education is expensive because we place so much value on it—except for the top colleges, which are actually a bargain because we all want to go to there. Lemann was (is) the dean of my school at Columbia, and I think he’s saying he wished he charged me more money to complete my graduate program. Maybe that’s why I get a letter from the school every month asking me for a donation. Hey, let me pay back my student loans first, and then I’ll give you a nice donation!
Those damn kids, taking advantage of their options!
as someone who just graduated with a master’s from a super fancy top ten private research university that charges a pretty penny, and is now flailing about in the cut throat labor market right now, this is bullshit- but it’s a nice illustration of how the concept of supply and demand can be retrofitted to support any sort of odious price point, especially now considering how imbalanced wealth is distributed in this country. making the argument that there are people willing and able to pay x amount for a scarce good doesn’t prove the quality of that good or the necessity of the good, it just illustrates that there is market distortion. and supporting the idea of the government’s role in propping up the tuition market is likewise a crap argument, because it’s actually a subsidy for the schools, not the students- and as we all know, the debt load carried by most college graduates often makes them unable to participate in many of the key areas that underpin our economy, namely investing and real estate. a crushing debt load is a great way to keep a labor market loose and a workforce willing to settle for less, but that’s really a whole other discussion.