[throwawaybbqed]

Regarding the question of education/college costs rising drastically, I thought a key answer was that govt started to fund education a whole ton less.

In Canada (where this has not happened as badly), an undergrad in CS used to cost 3K annually a decade and a half ago, and costs 10K now. Other disciplines cost 6K I think .. CS degrees cost more since colleges decided that students earn a lot more and there is huge demand anyways. That doesn't seem unreasonable to me.

So .. Patrick's education costs question has an easy answer - govt funds got pulled in the US, and the wide availability of student loans acted like steroids. In places where got funds didn't get cut (e.g. Canada), things cost about the same (when adjusted for inflation and increases in salaries necessary due to things like rent/house price increases).

The question why we could get to the moon in just 9 years, or make the tallest building in 140 days? That is simple too. As a society, we are less desperate than our parents. We are more demanding when it comes to life (hence, wages and living conditions). This has spilled into the regulations we make as a society. I read it was near impossible to make some types of factories in the US anymore - due to our concern form environment, etc. I personally find a lot of red tape frustrating but then I remember .. we (as a society) put it there for some reason.

[mhjas]

To some extent I think people just underestimate what education costs. Sweden pays ~€40k to educate an engineer (5 year, B.Sc + M.Sc). On top of that there is another ~€20k in student benefits to the student and ~€40k in a government backed student loan (for books and living costs).

[JProthero]

My first reaction to the education and healthcare question was that growing demand must be an important factor.

The idea that a university education is a requirement for anyone wanting a career that guarantees a comfortable lifestyle is relatively new - a post WWII development.

Demand for healthcare has also risen as western populations have aged and more conditions have become treatable. Sixty years ago there were many more health problems that you couldn't spend money on if you wanted to, because they were incurably fatal. Now a significant number of those conditions have become chronic complaints that patients can spend decades paying to treat.

I don't know how much of the cost increase in education and healthcare can be attributed to increased demand, but it seems like it must be part of the answer.

[pbhjpbhj]

As a comparison, in the UK we spend about £6k per high-school aged child/youth/young adult (11-18) on schooling. In London state schools get about £8k, the highest £8.5 (~€46k over 5 years).

So it's relatively not so much to be within €8k per year for degree level study.

We do have 4 year MEng-s though (same length as many MPhys, MChem, MSc).

1GBP is about 1.1EUR currently (!).