> If you go back in time just a few decades, this is how it was: you paid for it, either in cash or with a PRIVATE loan, and people didn't see college as an automatic requirement. Then it was 1/10th as expensive.
...if you go back in time a few decades basically everything was about 1/10th as expensive.
e.g. "Adjusted for inflation, $1.00 in 1960 is equal to $10.43 in 2024" according to https://www.dollartimes.com/inflation/inflation.php?amount=1...
Tuition is like 3–5 times the price even adjusted for inflation though
Costs ballooned in real terms.
Sure, but education (and healthcare) costs grew much faster than the inflation.
"The average annual cost of tuition at a public 4-year college is 40 times higher than tuition in 1963.
(...)
After adjusting for currency inflation, college tuition has increased 197.4% since 1963."
https://educationdata.org/college-tuition-inflation-rate