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How government programs drive up college tuitions

3 videos recommended on HN
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3 HN users recommended this commentary3 months2010–2018 score 3
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026

Cited in tuition-cost threads for the argument that easy government-backed loans enable high prices.

Peter Schiff, during his 2010 Senate campaign, argues that government loan programs and subsidies push college tuition up.

“Here's a solid video on the topic where Peter Schiff explains why college tuition is so high” (HN, 2010)

3 recommendations · Commentary · partly dated

3 Hacker News comments

From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.

@josh33 Nov 2010 Recommends
on HN thread 'Malemployment' on the Rise
Agreed. Here's a solid video on the topic where Peter Schiff explains why college tuition is so high: [this video]
Schiff explains why college tuition is so high
@anonymoushn Feb 2011 Recommends
on HN thread Why Does College Cost So Much?
Read more
I suspect that Peter Schiff is closer to the mark. [this video] His hypothesis is that increasing the capacity of students to pay (to almost arbitrarily high levels) by providing government guarantees of student loans allows allows schools to charge ridiculously high tuition. To some extent, this is correct, and there is no reason for the people involved not to want to increase tuitions. For the school, higher tuition will mean the school can improve itself and become more attractive to students. For the lenders, higher tuition means more loans returning 5% or more for which the government assumes all the risk. It isn't entirely accurate to say "the government assumes all the risk" either. Student debts are the most toxic debts around, and cannot be thrown off in bankruptcy. If you refuse to pay, the government is authorized to garnish your wages or raid your savings. This isn't to say that Schiff's hypothesis explains the entirety of the increase in the cost of tuition, but I think that it plays a much larger role than what is discussed in the article.
Hypothesis that government-backed loans enable high tuition
@mixmastamyk Sep 2018 Recommends
on HN thread Why Is College in America So Expensive?
When you subsidize industries they no longer attempt to contain costs. Unintuitively, instead of getting cheaper they get more expensive. There's an interesting video by Peter Schiff on the subject: [this video]
Schiff on how subsidies raise costs

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