US Authoritarianism

How does housing and food factor in too though, that’s only one portion of expenses. Entertainment costs far more for example, lots didn’t even really have entertainment than books.

According to https://educationdata.org/average-cost-of-college-by-year the average tuition for a public 4 year school in 1963-1964 was $243 or just under $2500 today.

Problem is I had to buy somewhere between two and five tuitions worth of education just to get one.

It should also be noted that a semester itself is about 16 weeks.

So if you worked 16 weeks full time in the summer and 32 weeks part time during your 2 semesters, you'd have 4 weeks left in the year. At absolutely minimum wage, if you lived with your parents, that's a fairly heavy workload, but perfectly feasible to do.

Now, to pay for 2 semesters, you need to work full time for 66 weeks a year. Can you work full time while going to school? Can you manifest 8 extra weeks of full time work in a 52 week year? Can you even get a full time minimum wage job without your employer cutting hours to deny benefits?

If the boss was born in '46 this is true, but she's a lot more likely born at the later end of boomers, since '46 would age her at 78. I'm guessing she's at or below retirement age, not well above it

If the boomer is 60, it would only cost $2,267.87, adjusted.

If they're 65, it would have been 3,245.61.

The numbers I got for tuition today: $41,540 at private colleges $11,260 at public colleges (in-state residents) $29,150 at public colleges (out-of-state residents)

If student loans were treated as normal loans (e.g. not guaranteed and absolvable via bankruptcy) we'd have boomer prices. The purpose of the student loan scam is to create debt slaves that propagate the bureaucratic managerial class.

If the boomer was 60, it would still only cost $2,267.87.

If they're 65, it would have been 3,245.61.

Tuition today: $41,540 at private colleges $11,260 at public colleges (in-state residents) $29,150 at public colleges (out-of-state residents)

Sure, inflation is a thing, but the difference in dollar amount is still staggering.

The moment you see any dollar amount from the past you need to ask “is that adjusted for inflation”

Don't forget to adjust the prevailing minimum wage for inflation while you're at it. $750/semester while earning $7.25/hr hits much differently than $7500/semester while earning (checks notes) oh wait, it's still $7.25/hr.

And yet, you didn't share the result of your calculation, because it would highlight just how pointless your comment was lmao

State university tuition in the 90's was about $1500 a semester. I worked a summer job for $6.50/hr and was able to earn about $1000 (before taxes) in a month. I didn't work for the rest of the summer because I still wanted a bit of a summer break :) But it is absolutely possible back then to work a little part time, then full time in the summer to pay for college. Then you can bootstrap yourself into a career.

Right now, jobs don't really pay any much more, but tuition is 10X or more. Unless parents pitch in, Its impossible for young people to get higher education w/o going into massive debt. I say go into trades and self-employment, it may be a better option nowadays!

A private university today costs an average of $23,000 a semester.

Don't forget the 1996: ANTITERRORISM AND EFFECTIVE DEATH PENALTY ACT

I was able to look it up for my Canadian university, somewhat. Every year they issued the Calendar which included a section called tuitions and fees. It can be slightly complex to read depending on the degree you're going for.

https://www.ucalgary.ca/pubs/calendar/archives/index.html

They have all the years it's been digitally available in the link above. I suspect you could go to the campus library and find older publications to go back further.

Generally you're looking for "Undergraduate" and "Fees". Depending on the year it's a PDF, or a table in html.

If you're not used to reading it it can be painful and more complex the more recent it gets. Plus you need to sometimes know terms unique to that university.

I. E. If they say Shulich they are referring to the Engineering program. If they say Haskayne they are referring to business. Most of the other programs are referred to by proper name, I. E. Music, Law, Medicine, etc.

Most programs are 5 courses per semester though some may have you do 6 in the odd semester if you want to graduate in 4 years (alternatively you take longer, like my 4.5 years to get my B. SC, or fit them in in spring or summer)

Generally you can assume a single course is 3 units, and a single semester will be 5 courses, if the table you're looking at is showing you the price per 3 units.

Unfortunately while the course price hasn't gone up huge amounts (until the last few years where they tried to simplify things with categories), all those extra static fees, or extra charges for specific programs, per semester have gone up a lot.

In 2003 the general fees for say engineering were $275. 5 courses were $2190. For a total of $2465 per semester.

Divided back out that's just under $500/course.

In 2013 general fees are $588. Courses are $2666. Engineering specific fees are $30. For a total of $3254.

Divided back out that's about $650/course.

In 2023 the general fees are about $834. The per course rate for engineering is category D, or $908 per course. That's $5374/semester.

Or about $1075/course.