Some people would agree that college tuition should not reduced, and policies that do so will only hurt people attempting to attend college. After all, students hardly ever pay the "sticker price", or posted tuition rate. While tuition cost has spiked to around 60% over the last 20 years, financial aid has also increased. Universities typically practice price discrimination, allegedly making college more affordable for a wider base of people. Tuition- reduction policies could put price reduction and significant financial aid at risk.
I would have to disagree with the viewpoint above. While colleges do hike up tuition to provide more student services and excellent professors, colleges and universities are typically government aided. Tuition is merely an addition, available for services, teachers, and certain renovations, among other things. Some tuition amounts are uncalled for regardless of the amount of financial aid provided. A perfect real life example of this is Berklee College of Music. Berklee charges almost $60,000 a year for just their tuition and room and board. While they claim to hand out millions of dollars in scholarships, a typical scholarship ($10,000) hardly makes a dent for students that want to attend. There is barely an excuse for charging an exorbitant amount of money, and Berklee isn't the only school like this. World-class professors and facilities can be funded privately and through at least half the cost of the current tuition. If tuition were to be eliminated or significantly lowered, it would allow people of all backgrounds to enjoy the same benefits.
I believe policies that reduce or eliminate tuition for universities need to be put in place. It would save the average family about $9500 a year, and make bigger and better colleges more accessible to those of lower economic status. This would boost America's economic, technological, and political progress, and make it an environment where everyone has the same access to knowledge as everyone else.
Wednesday, January 6, 2016
Tuesday, January 5, 2016
Super Bowl $$$
As the NFL playoffs start next week, I thought it would be interesting to see how the economy is affected by the Super Bowl, both regionally and nationally. It turns out it is equally as harmful as it is helpful.
Just a few quick stats about the Super Bowl:
But not all that glitters is gold.
Opportunity costs are major on Super Bowl Sunday. As I said earlier, restaurants are hit hard( drop 15%), but not nearly as hard as movie theaters (drop 66% in sales). People choose watching the game and ordering food as opposed to going out and eating and visiting places. The thing about the economic aspect is that when people pay for all of these things, they don't pay for them for a while after. This is like the holidays: you spend a lot then so you don't spend any after. There is a similar plummet in sales after the Super Bowl, although much smaller. Two concepts that hinder the economic prowess of this event are marginal value and marginal gain. 14.3 billion will be spent because of the Super Bowl, but that is only part of the $12 trillion that consumers well spend throughout the year, and only part of the $161 billion that usually takes place over that same 5 day period.
And consumption has very little to do with economic growth. Economic growth is all about saving money instead of spending it: investment.
Just a few quick stats about the Super Bowl:
- 84 million Americans age 18+ plan to watch—that’s three-quarters of the adult population.
- Average ticket prices have surpassed $7,500.
- Advertisers are spending as much as $4.5 million for 30 seconds of airtime.
- More than $100 million will be wagered at Nevada sports books, and perhaps 40 times that will be gambled informally.
- Fans will devour 1.25 billion chicken wings and 27 million slices of pizza—the latter from Pizza Hut and Domino’s alone.
But not all that glitters is gold.
Opportunity costs are major on Super Bowl Sunday. As I said earlier, restaurants are hit hard( drop 15%), but not nearly as hard as movie theaters (drop 66% in sales). People choose watching the game and ordering food as opposed to going out and eating and visiting places. The thing about the economic aspect is that when people pay for all of these things, they don't pay for them for a while after. This is like the holidays: you spend a lot then so you don't spend any after. There is a similar plummet in sales after the Super Bowl, although much smaller. Two concepts that hinder the economic prowess of this event are marginal value and marginal gain. 14.3 billion will be spent because of the Super Bowl, but that is only part of the $12 trillion that consumers well spend throughout the year, and only part of the $161 billion that usually takes place over that same 5 day period.
And consumption has very little to do with economic growth. Economic growth is all about saving money instead of spending it: investment.
What's Really Going On In The Job Market?
The Federal Reserve is increasing their interest rate by 0.25%, all thanks to a stabilizing economy and growing labor market. We have seen a significant increase in jobs, over 200,000 a month, and a drop in unemployment rates, down to 5% (lowest since 2008). But these numbers and gains don't tell the whole story.
While there have been about 13 million new jobs generated in the last 5 or so years, the Recession still hindered the job market's growth in a major way. There are 149.3 million jobs at the end of 2015, but there would be 6 million more jobs had the Recession never occurred. The labor market is expected to recover in 2020, and that's only if 205,000 jobs are created per month. This pattern is already starting to fall short (about 201,000 per month in the last 4 months), so it could take even longer for the market to recover. Probably the most striking statistic is unemployment rate. We have been told that it is at 5%, a solid number and as low as it was before the Recession. But this percentage isn't quite accurate. More than 94 million unemployed people are unaccounted for, due to retirement, school, or they aren't actively looking for work. This 94 million unemployed statistic also doesn't include the part-time and contract workers. When all of these factors are put into place, the country's unemployment rate jumps to a shocking 9.9%, almost double the reported figure. This is frightening because the job market isn't as solid as we thought it was, and certainly not as strong as it has been reported to be. Only about 60% of the working age population is employed, surprising given the number of jobs that have been created. These statistics have been less than accounted for in regards to the government, and while the job market has indeed increased and become more solid, it is not anywhere close to where it needs to be.
While there have been about 13 million new jobs generated in the last 5 or so years, the Recession still hindered the job market's growth in a major way. There are 149.3 million jobs at the end of 2015, but there would be 6 million more jobs had the Recession never occurred. The labor market is expected to recover in 2020, and that's only if 205,000 jobs are created per month. This pattern is already starting to fall short (about 201,000 per month in the last 4 months), so it could take even longer for the market to recover. Probably the most striking statistic is unemployment rate. We have been told that it is at 5%, a solid number and as low as it was before the Recession. But this percentage isn't quite accurate. More than 94 million unemployed people are unaccounted for, due to retirement, school, or they aren't actively looking for work. This 94 million unemployed statistic also doesn't include the part-time and contract workers. When all of these factors are put into place, the country's unemployment rate jumps to a shocking 9.9%, almost double the reported figure. This is frightening because the job market isn't as solid as we thought it was, and certainly not as strong as it has been reported to be. Only about 60% of the working age population is employed, surprising given the number of jobs that have been created. These statistics have been less than accounted for in regards to the government, and while the job market has indeed increased and become more solid, it is not anywhere close to where it needs to be.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)