re: U.S. Economy Has Been in a “Silent Depression” For 20 Years

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300 bucks a semester in tuition was completely unaffordable? That’s pathetic.

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People didn't make very much money either.
I graduated from high school in 1971 and was fortunate that my parents could send me and my younger brother to college. I enrolled at Auburn and tuition was $150/qt. I knew a few guys that worked nights and weekend and could save enough to cover tuition and other bills and parents helped with the rest. Never knew anyone who borrowed money for school
Every male in my high school class that didn't go to school and went into the work force were drafted within a year. Most of these guys were from large families with both parents working and they just couldn't help.

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3 grand over 4 years was out of reach? Goddamn yall must have been lazy as frick.

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Another unspoken truth is student loans were effectively unsecured debt for decades. Up until the 90’s people would take student loans and then just walk away. Until the law was changed it wasn’t unusual for people to blow off payments entirely.

But, UVA isn’t really the best example. I bet GW or Gtown was easily 5x UVA for instate and double that for out of state, not to mention room/board was definitely more than tuition.

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It is interesting commentary about luxuries and necessities flipping in relative expensiveness. However, I think food and energy are way less of household budgets than they used to be.

I think this thread does ignore some inherent hedonic aspects that seem undeniable. For one, cars are more expensive, yes. But they also are way better and safer now. My dad practically had a second life as a mechanic on our two cars when I was a kid. Now, it's very rare to have problems that would make the car undriveable.

Healthcare is also vastly more expensive now - but also there have been massive gains.

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Homes are also much larger than they used to be

He stole that from Jeff Snyder but yes we have

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Homes are also much larger than they used to be

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And with much better and safe technology.

Everyone always bemoans some supposed drop off in quality everywhere but it's absurd.

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We’ve never recovered from the post-9/11 monetary and bureaucratic policies.

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I would add that the covid fiasco and ensuing government spending programs certainly added fuel to the fire.

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For one, cars are more expensive, yes.

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Vehicles are actually in line or even below general inflation. They might have outpaced inflation recently (ie post covid) but they aren’t in the same universe as things like housing, healthcare or education.

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I did 4 years in the military. Now then, WTF did you do?

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I worked and had scholarships.

My parents, aunts and uncles paid their way through college with summer jobs. Wasn’t too difficult for them seeing as a 2 months waiting tables was more than enough to fund their tuition and room and board at the flagship state university.


Hell the summer after he graduated undergrad my dad bartended for 3 months which was enough to pay for 3 years of law school tuition at LSU.

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Auburn and tuition was $150/qt

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People didn't make very much money either.

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Minimum wage was 1.60 an hour back then.


So roughly 500-600 hours worth of work to go to school for a year. So if your worked minimum wage for June through August you made enough to pay tuition for the whole year plus a little extra.

If you didn’t go to university back in the 70’s or 80’s, it wasn’t because it was too expensive. Minimum wage jobs were enough to go to your state’s top public school.

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You realize you can look this shite up right?

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Yeah. Sorry I missed this yesterday. You'd specified "highly-regarded." The $15K quote was for the Ivies, Duke, Stanford, etc. But you're right. The schools you noted are well regarded. They are also out-of-state.

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In the 1988 academic year, the estimated total cost of attendance for an out-of-state undergraduate student at the University of Michigan–Ann Arbor was approximately $15,680.

This estimate includes:
Tuition and Fees: $10,192
Room and Board: $5,488

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So costs of attending college for a Louisiana resident IRL are not remotely near singular in-state tuition rates you tossed out for UT, UofM, UVa, etc. Not now. Not in the 1980s. Not in the past half-century. Further, you failed to consider room, board, books, etc. It's the kind of sloppy, half-cocked analysis an American bent on complaining about his generation's lot in life would be expected to produce, I guess.

All of which escapes the point, though.

The point is, at whatever the cost, kid's in your Dad's generation whose families couldn't afford college, found ways other than accumulated debt to attain their degree. Many of those same paths are available today. It's ashame the folks in situations you're lamenting did not avail themselves of debt-mitigating opportunities while simultaneously pursuing degrees offering terrible ROI. It really is. But c'est la vie.