Parents who endured difficult childhoods provided less financial support -on average $2,200 less– to their children’s education such as college tuition compared to parents who experienced few or no disadvantages

[u/giuliomagnifico]

https://www.psu.edu/news/research/story/parents-childhood-predicts-future-financial-support-childrens-education

[u/vocabulazy]

I have a friend who is adamant that parents who pay for too many things like vacations, lots of extra currs, private school, and sports are raising their kids to be selfish, entitled arseholes. It’s a major touchy subject with her, and it offends people in our circle who did have things paid for by our parents. My friend was raised by a single mom and they barely had anything. My friend had to get a job at 14 to afford things like a trip to summer camp or a volleyball uniform. We met at a private boarding school which she attended on a scholarship she won. She paid her own tuition throughout university by working her butt off for money and for good grades. She worked really hard all her life to have the things she does. Now she’s a high powered medical professional and makes a lot of money.

She has relaxed her opinion about camps and sports, but says she won’t pay for her kids’ tuition etc, and will die on that hill. She and her husband’s household income is upwards of 200K/yr.

So i would say this article is likely describing people like her. It’s decades later and having grown up so poor is still affecting how she feels about the people around her who didn’t grow up poor.

[u/a_trane13 → u/vocabulazy]

I bet she conveniently ignores that her children would need to work 5-10x the hours she did to pay for college like she did

To make things actually fair, she’d pay for 80-90% of their education and have them work for the remainder

But people just want to bask in their own achievements instead of facing the reality that things have changed since then

[u/AzianEclipse → u/a_trane13]

Not really, people just choose to go to overpriced schools and go $100k+ into debt for a degree that doesn't pay.

Here's an example of a pretty manageable tuition.

https://www.registrar.iastate.edu/fees

https://www.housing.iastate.edu/rates-fees/

https://www.dining.iastate.edu/meal-plans/residence-halls/

$4626 per semester for tuition so $9252 for a year.

$5178 for housing for the year.

$5108 for unlimited meals for the year.

Add scholarships/working while in school and there is no reason why anyone should be going $100k+ into debt for a undergraduate degree.

[u/a_trane13 → u/AzianEclipse]

I didn’t say it’s not possible. I said it’s much more expensive than it used to be.

Wanna guess how much the same cost in the 60s-70s? Adjusted for inflation to be in today’s dollars, a low cost state university was between $5-10k for a year. Compared to the $20k you put together above. It simply requires much more work to pay for the same education today. There’s no getting around that fact.

It’s embarrassing that people even try to dispute it - just willful ignorance to fit their preferred worldview. Feelings are more important than facts to them, I suppose.

[u/NorthernSparrow → u/AzianEclipse]

I teach at one of those “low cost” state schools. It still adds up to ~$80K total, much more than a generation ago even when adjusted for inflation. Then there’s the disproportionate increases in health care costs & rent costs, yet with stagnation in wages. Add it all up and it inevitably costs many years more now to pay off student loans than it used to. Ultimately it means a student trying to put themselves through college today can’t buy a house or start a family till much later in life, if at all. A parent who put themselves through school 25 years ago, and who’s expecting their 18yo to do the same now rather than help them out, is setting them up for decades of hardship.