>>>And the recent rumblings from the White House about a new gas tax and free education are not the way to go.
>>>I agree with that but my reasons and yours probably differ.
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>The gerontocracy is adept at pulling up ladders after itself. Apart from real estate inflation, consider that US college fees went up 538% since 1985. People complain about medical inflation but that only managed 286% over the same period. Seems to me that those lucky enough to have attended college and taken out a mortgage prior to the 1980s could pay off their mortgage and college debt on their credit card today and still have enough credit to go out for a steak dinner to celebrate

Something like that is certainly true for me (the payments being cheap, not thinking those after me shouldn't get the same benefits). I started college in 1974. My brother was in college and my father was in the middle of a career change. I had some grants and lots of loans, pretty much nothing out of pocket. (Thanks, UPenn, which was need-blind/need-based even back then.) I went into graduate school right after college and stayed a long time, which deferred my loan payments. By the time I started paying in the mid-80's, inflation had rendered my payments negligible. I think I paid a total of about $150 a month for four years' worth of loans.

Tamar