Higher Education One Of Victims of Bad Economy

It has long been apparent that higher education has a direct correlation with what a person can expect to earn during his or her lifetime. But there is growing concern that the high cost of higher education may be nudging some young people out of the matrix. With the amount of their tuition checks constantly rising, the number of students borrowing to pay their college costs has doubled in the past decade, the College Board reports. The average cost of one-year tuition at a public four-year college is now $20,000, and at private non-profit schools, the average jumps to $35,000. Those numbers are lending themselves to a groundswell of discontent among young students who say they are being priced out of the prospects for the higher education they need to compete in today’s world.

One group of students recently expressed their concerns in a demonstration at New York University’s Washington Square. The group characterized themselves as “Casualties of Debt.” and their objective was to foster more understanding of their situation. Among the figures they tossed up for review: The amount of outstanding student loans in America surpassed credit card debt for the first time in August 2012. The indebtedness inevitably eats into the prospects of the better earning power they are trying to build, they complained. NYU, incidentally, leads the nation in student debt at $659 million and growing.

College tuition continued to rise even when other industries were cutting prices to accommodate a sluggish economy. During the 2008-09 school year, in-state tuition at public schools rose by 6.4 percent, while out-of-state tuition jumped by 5.2 percent. At private four-year universities the increase was 5.9 percent. College graduates are leaving school with major debt and, at this point in time, at least, moving into a depressed job market plagued by high unemployment, making the promise of increased earning power just empty promises for many of the graduates.

The New York demonstration, which was supported by MTV personality and filmmaker Andrew Jenks, may have had minimal impact, but it is an indicator of unrest among students and among those who would like to be students, but whose current personal finances don’t allow them to pursue the education that they are convinced would enhance their future earning power.

Federal Reserve Keeps Interest Rates The Same

Directly from: Bank Rate

Short-term interest rates remain unchanged as honchos in the Federal Reserve try to figure out which is the greater danger: inflation or recession.

After reading this article I wondered what I have missed in my basic education. Do you have to take a class in interpretting what this means in our lives? It seems the economy and anything that affects it is so far beyond the individual consumers control that it is down right depressing.

My question to you, the reader is:

“What can we as consumers do to help the economy turn around and start looking hopeful again?”