High Inflation

[angie_nrs]

Our son wanted to go to a fancy State University with his friends. I told him most of those kids won't be there next year b/c they aren't going there for the education. Most of them wanted a fun place to party. I was fairly certain at that time my kid just wanted to be with his friends. Being the mean mom that I am, I told him he could take the same core classes here at home at the Community College that I would help pay for (in addition to his scholarships) if he got a B- or better in every class. After he got his cores, I would consider paying for him to go to the university that he wanted to go to. He went to college for just over a year and decided he wanted to work instead of go to school b/c he didn't really know what he wanted to do with his life at 18. I understood that. I have had several different jobs/careers in my life. I learned something from all of them.

The cost of going to a university is just ridiculous! I have gone to both college and university. Without a doubt, my college education was superior. The class sizes were smaller, the teachers seemed more interested in student achievement, and I had no issues understanding the professors. I remember being in a Chemistry class at the university. The auditorium was packed and the instructor had such a thick accent that nobody could undertand what he was saying. It was a waste of time to even show up to class. The university put that class in a time slot where they knew most students had to take it in order to fit their schedule. Otherwise, nobody would sign up for it.

As far as inflation as it refers to higher education......if student loans were capped or were otherwise more difficult to get, it would slow down the money flow to the university. That's the only thing that's going to bring costs down. It's sad that the students don't put much thought into that loan beforehand, b/c if they did, we wouldn't have the outrageous cost of school and the huge student loan problem that we have now. So, when idiots like Warren think the taxpayers should pay off everyone's student loans it just ticks me off! What are you going to give me for working through school and working extra in the summers to pay as I went? Nothing??? Yeah, that's typical.

 

[Sentry18]

I told him most of those kids won't be there next year b/c they aren't going there for the education. Most of them wanted a fun place to party.

My community has two colleges. The larger university has perhaps 15,000 students. Yet when they have graduation ceremonies in May they have about 1,500-1,600 people graduate. Even if you presume it takes some people 5 years to get their undergrad degree and some just go straight to grad school, it seems like that number should be a whole lot bigger. Of course no one advertises how many drop out, get kicked out, or leave to go to a community college/tech school.

But it is common for my department to assist campus public safety with rowdy drunken 18-22 year olds.

 

[Supervisor42]

Why some inflation is necessary.
(Yes, I know this sounds ridiculous)

The Fed's 'target' rate for inflation is 2%.
Any inflation below 2% they consider 'deflation'.
Why not 0%?
Prices would be stable. How could that be bad?
Two very important reasons:

1. The government borrows money by issuing government bonds that pay, (you guessed it) about 2% interest.
If there is 2% inflation, it effectively costs them nothing to borrow money.

2. As inflation gradually moves prices up, wages go up.
When they do, people pay a higher percentage of their wages in taxes (especially if they get bumped into a higher tax bracket).
This is how government gets a 'raise' without raising taxes.

If inflation moves very far outside of the 2% window, bad things happen for the government.
If it goes above 3%, it costs the government a lot more to borrow money.
If it goes below 1.5%, wages decrease and they see a big cut in tax revenues.
As long as the people in government that are monitoring inflation and making tweaks to keep it in check are not stupid, it won't be a problem.
*Oh yeah, there's always November.