>>I actually spent around $80k.
>>At historically average 3% inflation, 20 years would equal $144k
>>At elevated 4% inflation, 20 years later would equal $175k
>>To me, today's students are getting a bargain. ;)

Check out http://budget.ucop.edu/fees/documents/history_fees.pdf

Those lucky enough to attend UC in the 1970s faced annual fees of a few hundred dollars.
By the 1980s it was $1000-$1500 annually.
By the 1990s it was up to $3500.
During the 2000s it grew to $9000.
Around $13000 today.

Seems to me that if you were lucky enough to attend before the 1990s, your annual fees cost less than a personal computer and within a decade could be paid off on a credit card. At the same time, the house you bought appreciated hugely. Effectively your net worth grew through no effort of your own and the debt paid itself off via inflation.

Today's kids cannot expect such fortune, because we have decided that the inflation that we relied upon, now is evil. A kid doing a 4-year degree today will end up with a serious mortgage in addition to the one they'll need to buy a house. Also FWIW, $13K may well represent a bargain because I know kids whose fees are >$50K annually.

In fairness, a lot of this is offset through greater availability of scholarship funding based on bequests and inflation of assets enjoyed by many universities, especially the Ivy League that now controls immense wealth. Still you need to meet today's scholarship criteria and/or wealthy parents to avoid starting your professional life with a monster debt.

If you managed to spend $80K on a UC degree prior to 1990, you must have lived like a king.