The Sheepskin Scandal

by Geoffrey Norman March 13, 2019

Another day, another scandal. This one involves higher education in America which, come to think of it, was something of a scandal already. The cost of a college degree has risen far more dramatically over the last few years than the consumer-price index. Over the last 40 years, college tuition and fees increased by 1321%. The cost of health care, where prices are routinely assumed to be out of control, rose by just over half that much.

Health care is, of course, something we literally cannot live without, so we pay up and complain about it and, in some cases, vote for Bernie Sanders who promises to make it free. Which recalls P. J. O’Rourke’s immortal insight. “If you think health care is expensive now, just wait until it is free.”

With respect to higher education, we seem to have ridden into a similar box canyon. A college degree has become the essential key that unlocks the door to a good life in America. Membership in the American middle class requires a college degree. Membership in the elite depends on that degree having been granted by one of the right institutions.

So people — the young and their parents — have increasingly turned to desperate measures for acceptance into the nation’s many colleges. They have taken on massive amounts of debt. Around $1.5 trillion… and rising. Making it the second highest debt burden carried by Americans, behind housing but ahead of credit card balances................To Read More....