>...
>>It is not unusual for 4 years of college to run close to 100,000.00 and in some cases, double or triple that. There used to be more grants (free tuition) available when Jimmy Carter was President. I had a grant which I lost when Reagan became President in 1980.
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>And the students in England are kicking off cos the govt's introduced £3,000 pa tuition and for the first time in years the no. of students signing on has fallen. When I was at college in the 80s we got free tuition, a maintenance grant (to live on) - means tested on parents' income, social security during the vac's, help with the cost of housing and travelling expenses. If you'd worked for at least 3 years (as I had) you got a full "mature student" grant which was not means tested. I never had to flip burgers to supplement my lifestyle and even ran a car.
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>The grants were whittled away by Thatcher and Major after my time (for which I severely resented them), by freezing, then it ALL went with Blair.
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>I really feel that I was part of the never-had-it-so-good generation.

From a personal POV, sure. But England had to adapt to financial reality. With a tax rate that high it was impossible to remain competitive in a global market. Some of the Scandinavian countries still haven't quite figured that out, and become more and more marginalized in the world economy.