Money magazine asks that question in its latest issue, channeling some of the same questions George Leef has asked about the value of higher education.
Writer Penelope Wang looks for reasons to justify the 439 percent increase in college tuition since 1982, compared to a 251 percent increase in medical prices, and a 108 percent hike in energy prices.
[P]rices for college have begun to follow their own peculiar logic. In the absence of any objective measure of the value of an education, price becomes the default yardstick. The more expensive a college is, the better the education it presumably provides. (After all, if other families were willing to pay this much to send their kids here, it must be worth it.)
And the better the education is presumed to be, the higher the price the college can charge. In that respect, it’s like home values during the housing boom or dotcom stocks during the late-’90s tech frenzy: Prices go up on sheer momentum.
Parents with access to George’s work might think twice about following the herd.
