How student loans destroyed America

I don't believe that student loans destroyed American.... I blame air conditioning.

None the less, this is an excellent piece analyzing how student loans didn't do anything but line the pockets of the education infrastructure while saddling students with a life time of debt.........

The Facts

The colleges have been increasing the cost of tuition by far more than the increase in the Consumer Price Index for over three decades. This may not be hot news to many people, but the graph below shows by just how much.

Average Annual Percentage Increase in Inflation-Adjusted Prices 1979-2009 - Source: The College Board, Trends in College Pricing 2009; Annual Survey of Colleges.

The coloured bars show the percentage above the Consumer Price Index that tuition fees have risen on average each year. So if we take the (lowest) increase of “four year” tuition and fees at public colleges and universities between 1979 and 1989 (the dark blue bar), we will see that every year tuition fees increased by an average of 3% above the Consumer Price Index. This might seem like quite an insignificant amount, but compound 3% per annum over a decade during which the CPI increased by 82% and the total increase in fees during the period is an unjustifiable 137%.

The Last Twenty Years

Effectively, colleges in the 1980´s felt it was okay to increase tuition costs by 67% more than the rise in our incomes and the cost of living. And, because they got away with it in the 1980´s, they did it again in the 1990´s – only this time by more! Consequently, when the new millennium started, they thought “What the Hell!” and really got down to screwing students.

In the period from 1999 to 2009, the Consumer Price Index rose by just 28.50% over the decade. College tuition fees over the same period rose by 104.20% – more than four times the cost of living!

Once again, another liberal pipe dream that never did anything but hurt the very people the program was designed to help.

Read the whole thing.....