Thanks for the post galliver, you did a much better job of breaking down the numbers than I did. I really think college education costs are our most pressing issue as a society. If we want people to regain any sort of power over the corporate power structure that's stronger than anytime before Teddy Rosevelt's trust busting efforts we really need to reign them in. Corporate person hood, capitol gains taxes that are half of middle income taxes and growing polarization of wealth will probably be the biggest issues of the next generation. These are the sorts of issues that cause revolutions, no mode of transportation, or system can exist where the center of gravity is outside easily correctable limits. END RANT
James, it sucks that you weren't given the ladder that current generations have to attend universities. It's surprising to me though, because I know that places like California had free tuition prior to Reagan's governorship, and that private loans existed, perhaps my understanding is off? My grandfather came from a poor immigrant family and was able to become a lawyer in the mid 30s, but I believe he had a scholarship. I had a difficult time obtaining federal loans or really any job on campus (federal work study) in college because my father made too much money, and my parents decided to get divorced. My dad said college isn't really that expensive, you can make up the rest. (relying on his early 70s experience with tuition) Thus I used private loans and credit cards (still my lowest interest loans, gotta love 0% transfers) to make up the rest.
As far as knocking liberal arts degrees. It's true that you'll make more money with a math or science related degree, I don't think anyone would deny that. But I also think we need to recognize that everyone has to follow their passions and talents. Doing otherwise is a sure way of setting yourself up for failure. We've all met angry alcoholics that make gobs of money in finance, but really just wanted to paint, or teach or anything else.
Here's the other thing, the degree just gets you the first job, after that it's up to you. My wife has an undergrad in psychology and she went on to finish her PhD in the field. She currently runs her own consulting business and could probably pull a $150,000 salary, but we like to reinvest profits for larger long term gains. My dad simply has an undergrad in English. He's an airline pilot that makes about $350,000 a year and has somewhere in the neighborhood of $5,000,000 in assets other than property. I have a history undergrad and was well on my way to decent pay when I decided to be a stay at home dad (some things are worth more than money, like your kid's childhood). If math and science blow your hair back, great, I wish they did that for me and I could have made more than $17000 at my first job, but that wasn't in the cards and I'm fine with that.
The last thing we want is a communist style country that produces lots of engineers but very few critical thinkers with a background in liberal arts. Our soft skills are what have always given us the power to beat automatons like the USSR or China.