The reason why student debt is basically unheard of in Denmark since college is free (although to make that happen, the Danish government poses high taxation towards citizens like they do in order to maintain stable social security nets like subsidised healthcare and public housing, also why they have less homelessness).
Mainly Danish, Swiss and European citizens are eligible to study without stressing over student debt upon graduation. It stems from this: Danish government is more on for the people while American government is more on caring about themselves plus nepotism on the side (MORE & HIGHER TAXES TOO ON TOP OF THAT).
Yep, great comment.
And right now a lot of schools are shutting down because they can’t enroll enough students and they charge way too much to attend. Like 12 schools in my state have closed in the past 2 years. These are typically cheaper schools too, but students don’t want to go to cheap schools, so they don’t apply.
Basically, it’s a story of gluttony and greed.
The pricing dynamics of college education is also obscured. Basically, the reason they all charge so much is because they don’t want to look ‘cheap’. So if one place hikes tuition, they ALL have to do it, because they don’t want to seem ‘cheap’ compared to a competitor. Nobody wants to go to the ‘cheap’ school.
There are great studies about how many colleges, when they increased their sticker prices, saw more students apply to go there. Because if you apply between a uni that charges 50K an one that charge 100K, the 100K one MUST be better. right? This means all the cheaper universities inflated their prices to look competitive with the more expensive ones.
BUT the real cost that students pay at both places is pretty much the same.