Megan McArdle at The Atlantic.com, writes:
But while I’m sympathetic to students finding it harder to attend college, I’m not sure what they think is supposed to happen. There’s no money.
Not exactly. This forthright editorial from the Wall Street Journal points out that there is indeed money, but it’s flowing into the hands of state retirees. One police chief is said to take home $284,000 a year! He could pay the inflated tuition of a number of students himself.
We’re at the beginning of a battle between the geezers and the twerps. It’s not clear how it’s all going to work out, but I think the young punks can kind of just sit this one out. The retirement costs are going to soar even faster than the expansion-addled brains of college presidents can imagine. If that’s not enough, the health care costs for other old folks will also explode as the doctors keep prescribing more and more. Whatever the kids want will seem cheap.
To make matters worse for the students, their needs are at odds with their professors and the retirees. The states are forced to fund health care for the old and retirement deals for state workers. That leaves nothing left over for the current crop of students. So they lose.
In the Vietnam era, the leaders of the universities could be sympathetic to the needs of the students because they weren’t in conflict. Now, every new chemistry lab or semester vacation from teaching comes from the hide of some poor undergraduate. I don’t know how this one will play out, but I wonder if the professors really think through their actions when they take their kids off to protest. One of these days those impressionable kids might just figure out the game.
But I think the whole system will come crashing down even sooner because these retirements costs will be impossible to fund. Adding a few flat screen tvs to the dorm lounge will look cheap.
Related posts:
- Cal Bezerkley Student Asks for Protests
- Retirement, Health Care and College Loans?
- The Battle between Young and Old Hits Pittsburgh
- Uh oh. Pell grants running low.
- Ah memories
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