How Student Loans Set Millennials Back For Life

Here’s the Math: We Pay Debt Instead of Buying Homes

Lately, my news feed has been overrun by articles stating that canceling student loan debt is an issue of “college graduates’ agenda-settting power.” It’s a trap, they say! Some pundits are currently saying that it will have dire consequences for the Biden administration, and only benefit those who are well-off, and do nothing to erase the racial wealth gap.

What a lie.

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School is So Much More Expensive

• In 1971, Harvard tuition was $2,600 a year. ($18,500 in 2022 dollars)
• In 2022, it was $52,659—nearly three times the price, when adjusted for inflation.

Inflation can make it easy to dismiss generational price differences (minimum wage was only $1.60 in 1971!”), so here we go:

• In 1971, minimum wage was $1.60. Adjusted for inflation, that’s $10 in today’s dollars.
• In 2022, federal minimum wage is $7.25 (and has been since 2009).

Translate this to a universal measurement: time.

In Making Numbers Count, I learned that one of the best ways to help other people look at differences between numbers is to…