Millennials love to complain about their student debts, the levels of which, it must be admitted, can be pretty appalling. How serious is this problem, and are Boomers to blame?
This is a multi-layered issue, as follows:
- At the highest level, student debts represent investments made willingly by millennials. If the investments didn’t turn out as expected, why should they be bailed out? The government didn’t pay my mortgage, after all.
- Boomer parents frequently wind up shouldering large portions of the debt in one way or another.
- Soaring levels of tuition are, to a large extent, a function of the shift to a knowledge-based economy. Colleges are charging more because they perceive a degree is much more valuable than it used to be. It is hard to blame Boomers for following the laws of economics.
- Tuition is also soaring because many colleges have changed their business model. The new plan is to provide high levels of aid for unusually worthy students, and to pay for it by attracting more affluent students with amenities the likes of which did not exist when I was in school. The model would not work if millennial students put more emphasis on low tuition than the quality of school amenities. Boomer administrators can be blamed for some of this, but millennial consumers are also at fault.
My verdict on this issue? Mostly not guilty.