Check out what readers had to say about Executive Editor Heather Anderson's latest column, "People Helping People Is Not a Free Ride." The following comments were originally posted on cutimes.com and CU Times' Facebook page:
"To be fair, comparing the relative burden of college in the early 1990s versus today is kinda like comparing apples and oranges, considering the fact that the cost of college has increased at approximately 2.5 times the cost of inflation. As with mortgages, the federal guaranteeing of student loans has artificially pumped up the cost of education to many times its value, and, as a result of this market distortion, default will be pretty much the only option for an increasing portion of people until the education bubble pops. But with federal money propping it up, and marginally financially-literate 18-year-olds entering into what is often a lifetime of debt peonage, odds are the situation is only going to get worse and projects like Strike Debt will look ever more appealing.
"Since 1985, the overall consumer price index has risen 115% while the college education inflation rate has risen nearly 500%. According to Gordon Wadsworth, author of The College Trap, '…if the cost of college tuition was $10,000 in 1986, it would now cost the same student over $21,500 if education had increased as much as the average inflation rate, but instead education is $59,800 or over two and a half times the inflation rate.'
Recommended For You
"Blunting these increases is a rise in federal student aid, including tax credits and deductions. And nearly two thirds of undergraduates now receive some sort of grant aid and student loan borrowing is on the upswing. But loans must be paid back, so the pain of payment is only delayed."
- Matthew Cropp
Burlington, Vt.
"Marvelously stated as usual, Heather! Note that every success story like yours shines a magnified spotlight on the whiny, lazy, sense-of-entitlement, morally bankrupt attitudes of Siegel and his ilk. Problem is, the more entitled a culture becomes, the less they attempt to rectify their ever-increasing poverty. They won't be happy until 'unequal distribution of wealth' becomes 'equal distribution of poverty.' Come to think of it, that will be someone else's fault too."
- Bill Board
We want to hear from you! Send your letters to Heather Anderson at [email protected], or visit our website or Facebook page to leave a comment and be considered for publication in a future issue.
© Touchpoint Markets, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more inforrmation visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
