#and once again if minimum wage was the driving factor of inflation there would have been no inflation whatsoever

[awkward-teabag]

Of course the moment my province announces increasing the minimum wage as it's tied to inflation, people pop out of the woodwork saying that this will mean prices will go up as if there hasn't been rampant inflation already.

I'm pretty sure it's not a future $0.65 raise which was just announced that's causing you to pay dozens/hundreds extra a month on food and rent alone for the past several months if not a year or more.

Stop gnashing your teeth at people already scraping by because you "went through the same and managed" and focus that anger at the people and systems that are actually causing it.

[tombeane-blog]

Gedankenexperiment

One of Einstein's methods for examining very complex problems in physics was to use Gedankenexperiment or, Thought Experiments.

Without them, I wouldn't understand a damn thing about General or Special Relatively.

“If you can't explain it to a six year old, you don't understand it yourself.”

― Albert Einstein

And even that method won't help me understand how light is both a particle and a wave, but, from a different representation, light is neither a particle nor a wave

Let's ignore what light is. Makes me feel stupid. Let's us unscientific six year olds Gedankenexperiment the crap out of something we all think a lot about these days. Well, all of us except game obsessed teenagers.

Yep, let's talk about inflation because even those teenagers will sit up and take notice when the next Grand Theft Auto hits the streets at $109.99.

Most non-monkeys understand that in it's simplest incarnation, cost is a delicate balance of demand and cost to produce. And although we'd like to think that the cost we pay for a product is determined solely by the cost to produce plus a small profit - it really isn't so. The relative abundance or scarcity of a finished product as well as government interference have a great influence on consumer cost. Even when government regulation is a good thing, like making sure General Motors doesn't make unsafe cars, it still drives up the cost.

On the demand side, if Apple decided to make only 1,000 in the next cycle of IPhones just as a joke, how much would some individuals be willing to pay for one of them? You and your puny $1,199 wouldn't stand a chance of getting one.

Think back to the Cabbage Patch Dolls. People were paying thousands of dollars to make sure little entitled and pampered Cindy Lou got one for Christmas. It surely didn't cost thousands of dollars to make one. You could probably find one today for 35 cents in that big bin of broken appliances and smelly tennis shoes at Goodwill.

And no doubt you would toss it back. Ugly little critters.

Another way that economists describe inflation after they've sobered up is - too much money chasing too few products. Of course it's not the only factor, i.e., the aforementioned government's role as one example.

Take the Ticket Scalping Industry. It involves a popular product with limited availability being chased by people with lots more money than you outbidding each other to get seats in the 'D' row on the 50 yard line to watch 'Americas Team' once again hammer the hapless Eagles.

Cost to produce has nothing to do with it.

But let's move on and do a little Gedankenexperiment on the idea of too much money in the system.

Let's suppose Congress and the President decided that since that $15/hour minimum wage worked out so well, they should just solve the poverty problem once and for all by passing legislation making the minimum wage the equivalent of $250,000 per year. In a short period of time, everyone in America(except my lawn mowing grandson) is making at least 1/4 million dollars per year.

Every bartender and waitress, all those burger flippers at "Hamburger Heaven" and each and every teenager supersizing your popcorn at the theater will be making $250,00 per year.

The owners of "Hamburger Heaven", don't rely on salary. They rely on sales of products or services (revenue) minus costs to stay in business.

To pay the salaries of say a dozen or so burger flippers and cashiers, how much would "Hamburger Heaven" have to charge for a bacon cheeseburger, medium fries and a coke to cover cost and make a profit. I'll do the math for you.

Today we have a $15 minimum wage and a special burger deal at about $5.

After Big Government 'helps' with wages, taking that first bite of your bacon cheeseburger will cost about $42. (And in a side note: rather than filling up, most people will pull into a gas station and say "Just give me $100 worth".)

But if they did that to wages starting tomorrow, the first thing "Hamburger Heaven" is going to do is buy some time to figure out how to stay in business - cutting costs by firing people or automating their jobs. A burger flipping robot may cost a lot today but at some point high enough wages make them too cheap to ignore.

Merely raising wages as a political strategy to get more votes is one of the causes of inflation just as much or more so than profit, greed, mismanagement, government regulation, COVID, OPEC and supply chain interruptions are.

It's only a matter of time before our new inflationary reality will be met with a hue and cry from Congress for another rise in the minimum wage.

When they do, remember cause and effect and money chasing product.

It may not seem like much now, but we are the frogs and the water temperature keeps slowly going up.

Government addressing the rising cost of home heating oil, gas, and food with promises of mandated higher wages gets them votes but for us it is nothing more than a sugar high.

Feels good for a while but we are all gonna' be hungry again before we know it.

[jobsearchtips02]

The best way to Keep Out of Debt With a Low Revenue

Staying out of debt is necessary, however even rather more so when you’ve got a low earnings. It takes a bit extra work to remain debt free when you do not make a lot, however it may be performed. Listed here are some frequent sense methods to remain out of debt when you’ve got a low earnings.

You don’t make some huge cash and also you’ve labored onerous to get out of debt. Now that you’ve got the style of what it’s wish to not have a month-to-month curiosity cost for perhaps the primary time ever as an grownup, the very last thing you need to do is return into debt. However, what’s one of the best ways to remain out of debt with a low earnings?

The following pointers can assist you make a monetary recreation plan to make you construct wealth whereas staying out of the poorhouse.

When you gained’t grow to be an “instant millionaire” you’ll be able to nonetheless pay your payments, go on trip, and save for the longer term—three actions that in all probability prompted you to lose sleep while you have been nonetheless in debt.

Hold Your Discretionary Spending to a Minimal

For those who’re like most individuals with a small earnings, one of many solely methods to seek out more money every month is to cut back your month-to-month spending to the bone. Which may imply not going out to eat, having a “staycation” as a substitute of a trip this summer time, and canceling your month-to-month subscriptions.

The one downside is that for many us is that we will solely suppress our desires for thus lengthy. Whenever you’re debt-free and not sending your disposable earnings to make further debt funds, the cash in your pocket instantly feels hotter than it did a month in the past.

When you shouldn’t return to your previous spending habits and “keeping up with the Joneses,” it’s anticipated to have some life-style inflation. As with each side of life, keep in mind the mantra, “Everything in moderation.”

It’s okay to extend a few of your month-to-month subscription spending once more, however don’t overpay.

A few of the methods it can save you cash on the finer issues in life embody:

When you ought to by no means pay greater than completely mandatory, the three suggestions above are the best methods to get the identical merchandise you employ now for much less.

Make investments At Least 10% of Your Revenue

Whenever you deal with your high-interest bank card debt, one of many subsequent locations you’ll minimize is your month-to-month investments.

At a minimal, it’s best to make investments a minimum of 10% of your earnings. However, to get a extra correct quantity, it’s best to use a retirement calculator to see for those who can afford to retire. It solely takes a minute to plug in your present monetary vitals and your retirement objectives to see for those who’re on monitor. If you should make investments extra, the calculator will advocate how a lot you should make investments to retire on time.

Hopefully, your employer presents matching 401ok contributions and also you’ve been maximizing that chance to make “free money.” Most employers providing matching contributions match a proportion of the primary 6% of your month-to-month wage. For those who make $three,000 a month earlier than taxes, they are going to would possibly contribute $180 per 30 days; consider it as an prompt $2,160 annual elevate.

Retirement Account vs. Non-Retirement Account Contributions

After maximizing your 401ok match, it’s best to break up your remaining month-to-month investments right into a tax-advantaged retirement account and taxable brokerage account.

Splitting your investments between the 2 ensures you make investments for retirement, however you continue to have speedy penalty-free entry to investments in your taxable non-retirement brokerage account.

When to Put money into a Taxable Brokerage Account

You’ll nonetheless need to hold your emergency fund financial savings and extra money financial savings in an interest-bearing checking account and make investments cash you don’t plan on spending throughout the subsequent two years in a taxable brokerage account. You make investments the cash you want just a few years from now so it may well admire sooner than your financial institution deposits and also you don’t should pay the 10% early withdrawal penalty the 401ok and IRA accounts cost.

As a result of the inventory market is unpredictable, keep in mind solely to speculate cash in your taxable account that you just don’t plan on withdrawing a minimum of one yr from now. Traditionally, the general market yields a revenue long-term, however you’ll be able to lose cash within the short-term.

For instance, you’ll be able to make investments $1,000 as we speak and if the market declines 10% a month from now, your funding is simply price $900 and might doubtlessly take a yr to regain the losses and start appreciating. Volatility is why buyers close to retirement spend money on mounted earnings belongings so that they don’t should delay retirement due to an sudden market correction.

The cash sitting in your checking account solely earns barely greater than 1% curiosity at finest. In case your investments earn 6% yearly on common, you’re making six occasions the revenue in comparison with holding it at your financial institution.

The key to changing into a millionaire is incomes extra passive earnings than the month earlier than. It’s difficult to do that when the cash in your financial savings account is simply incomes a couple of pennies every month. That is why it’s so necessary to speculate your further earnings.

When to Put money into a Retirement Account

Any cash you don’t plan on spending till you retire must be put into your tax-advantaged retirement account. You probably have a good 401ok plan with strong funding choices and minimal charges, it may be simpler to make all of your further retirement contributions there.

If not, make investments any further month-to-month contributions in both a Conventional IRA or Roth IRA. Open a Conventional IRA while you need to decrease your taxable earnings now however pay taxes in your contributions in retirement, in any other case contribute your post-tax earnings to a Roth IRA so your contributions develop 100% tax-free.

Hold All Your Investments At One Brokerage

You don’t have a selection the place your employer hosts their 401ok plan, however you’ll be able to management the place you retain your private investments. It’s nearly all the time simpler to maintain your IRA and taxable brokerage accounts on the similar brokerage.

For those who want fully-automated investing, Betterment presents each account varieties and their complimentary portfolio rebalancing and tax harvesting instruments optimize your return.

DIY buyers ought to select an internet dealer with low commerce charges. It’s not onerous to discover a brokerage that solely prices $four.95 per commerce, however they often provide many commission-free ETFs too so that you get prompt portfolio diversification with each single commerce.

Say No to Instantaneous Gratification for Giant Purchases

One other cash behavior that separates the wealthy from the poor is delaying prompt gratification. Too many individuals suppose being in debt is a reality of life. Guess what? It’s not!

You will want to make your personal family rule for this suggestion, however you would possibly say that it’s important to talk about together with your partner or wait a minimum of 24 hours earlier than you spend greater than $100 on any pointless expense.

Whether or not you need to purchase a stereo encompass system for $300 which you could pay for with money or a brand new $20,000 automobile that requires a automobile mortgage, these one-off purchases can rapidly put you again into debt.

By ready a minimum of at some point to say sure or no, you’ll be able to determine for those who truly have to make the acquisition or if it may well wait. In lots of circumstances, you’ll end up passing on the provide till your present product lastly bites the mud.

Save for Giant Purchases As an alternative

Saying “No” doesn’t imply you shouldn’t plan ever to make a big buy once more. For instance, the automobile you’re driving now would possibly solely have just a few good years left earlier than it’s not cost-effective to maintain proudly owning the automobile. Shopping for a alternative automobile is a recognized expense and by making it a purpose to find the money for put aside in three years to switch your automobile, you’ll be able to pay for your entire automobile with money for the primary time ever!

With somewhat foresight, you’ll be able to keep away from going into debt sooner or later since you save your cash for the longer term as a substitute of spending it on as we speak’s whims. For those who all the time give into prompt gratification, it will get loads tougher to perform your future financial savings objectives.

In addition to automobiles, a few of the different giant bills it’s best to plan for embody holidays, house repairs and transforming, and your little one’s school training.

Use Money As an alternative of Credit score

One other monetary pitfall for a lot of households is utilizing bank cards irresponsibly. Bank cards additionally enhance the percentages that you just’ll spend greater than with money or debit even for those who pay your steadiness in full every month.

On the flipside, accountable bank card use means you construct your credit score rating with out borrowing cash and you may get rewards factors that allow you to journey free of charge or get money again every month.

What for those who can mix the advantages of bank cards with money to earn rewards whereas nonetheless being inspired to stay inside your means?

With a free program like Debx, your bank card acts like a debit card. Every day, Debx withdraws the money out of your checking account to cowl your each day purchases–so that you by no means carry a card steadiness–whilst you earn rewards factors and enhance your credit score rating.

Make a New Price range

Why save this step for final?

As a result of you should determine the way you need to spend all that more money first.

Making your first debt-free funds could be difficult as a result of you’ve got fewer payments that have to be paid. It may be very easy to go on a spending spree and nonetheless be residing paycheck to paycheck although you’re debt-free.

By strolling by way of the steps above you understand that placing your cash in a checking account, retirement account, and rising your discretionary spending somewhat bit offers you a clearer thought of how a lot cash you’ll realistically spend now that you just’re not pressured to make a minimal month-to-month cost.

After getting an thought how a lot you need to save, spend, and provides to charity, you’ll be able to see for those who can nonetheless stay inside your means together with your present earnings.

If not, you have to to trim your speedy and future spending so you’ll be able to nonetheless accomplish your financial savings objectives. For instance, you would possibly determine to save lots of for a $10,000 automobile as a substitute of a $15,000 automobile to have an additional $50 to place spend money on your retirement account.

Similar to it’s best to hold all of your money at one financial institution and investments at one brokerage, you also needs to use Private Capital to trace your month-to-month spending free of charge. You may also use Private Capital to trace your investments and financial savings objectives progress to see if you should enhance your month-to-month contributions.

Abstract

Your first paycheck after you grow to be debt-free can really feel loads like successful the lottery. As an alternative of squandering your windfall and changing into the following actuality television star for all of the flawed causes, following the steps above will allow you to maximize your small earnings so you’ll be able to nonetheless retire on-time and stay a life the place you don’t fear about cash anymore!

This Free Device Helped Me Pay Off $75,000

Typically all you want is free! I opened a free Private Capital account again after I was in debt and it helped me get management of my monetary life-style. Since paying off $75,000, I’ve been capable of save over $180,000 and I couldn’t have performed it with out Private Capital.

Verify Out Private Capital

from Job Search Tips https://jobsearchtips.net/the-best-way-to-keep-out-of-debt-with-a-low-revenue/

[savanahdppadillaim10insuran-blog]

Tip cheap car insurance quotes in new york

Tip cheap car insurance quotes in new york

Tip cheap car insurance quotes in new york

BEST ANSWER: Try this site where you can compare free quotes :HELP-INSURE.NET

SOURCES:

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[cryptnus-blog]

Amazon’s ripple effects: Six things that might happen if Pittsburgh gets HQ2

New Post has been published on https://cryptnus.com/2018/07/amazons-ripple-effects-six-things-that-might-happen-if-pittsburgh-gets-hq2/

Amazon’s ripple effects: Six things that might happen if Pittsburgh gets HQ2

Pittsburgh, what if we really get Amazon HQ2?

Let’s think beyond the national race Amazon organized and beyond the lack of transparency on what our public officials offered the company in its bid.

Amazon has named 20 finalist cities. So in the one-in-20 chance Pittsburgh has of being chosen (though some will argue the odds aren’t even that favorable), what happens next? How will Pittsburgh’s housing market and its current homeowners be affected? What will come of our burgeoning tech sector? Will we experience a spike in homelessness like Seattle, Amazon’s current home?

PublicSource spoke to more than a dozen local and national experts and public officials to gauge what kind of impact Amazon might have on Pittsburgh’s housing, job market, tech sector, education system and local governments. Here are six things that are likely to happen were Pittsburgh to become the HQ2 city:

1. Amazon’s presence could create up to twice the amount of jobs it has promised, but its impact depends on how many new people move to Pittsburgh.

In the request for proposals issued in September 2017, Amazon said it could hire as many as 50,000 people to work in its HQ2. But how many of those 50,000 people would be current Pittsburgh residents and how many will move to the city for Amazon?

Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto said he expects the 50,000 jobs to be split 50-50 “at a minimum”  between locals and transplants. Members of Pittsburgh City Council have expressed confidence that if the city offers tax breaks to Amazon, they could hold the company to an agreement to hire city residents.

Estimates from outside analysts vary, and how many new people come to Pittsburgh would affect everything from housing to traffic to public transit. Greg LeRoy, the executive director of Good Jobs First, a national economic policy center, estimated that 15 to 20 percent of the Amazon jobs would go to Pittsburghers, about 7,500 to 10,000 jobs. The estimate is based on research into the effects of big companies landing in other cities. Stacy Mitchell, the co-director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, said she agreed with LeRoy’s estimate.

“No matter what city Amazon picks, there will be a lot of questions they’ll have to answer about what kind of employer they’re going to be…”

Aaron Terrazas, the economic research director for Zillow.com, suggested in a housing study of HQ2 finalists that a city of Pittsburgh’s size could mean residents get 30 to 40 percent of the Amazon jobs, or 15,000 to 20,000 of them. Terrazas’ estimate was based on the available talent pool in a given city. Boston, another HQ2 finalist with elite universities, would be likely see more of its residents hired than Pittsburgh. Federal data puts the current labor force in Pittsburgh’s metro area at 1.2 million (Boston’s is 2.8 million). Terrazas said the city should expect a lot of new people to move in if Amazon chooses Pittsburgh.

“Pittsburgh has excellent universities,” he said. “But I would expect a lot of transplants because I’m not sure if those universities are graduating students fast enough for 50,000 jobs.”

In addition to the direct jobs Amazon could create, its presence could generate the demand for ancillary jobs. Melanie Harrington, the president and CEO of Vibrant Pittsburgh, gave this example: “If you have more people coming here, you’ll have more people shopping at Home Depot, so you’ll need more people working at Home Depot.”

LeRoy estimated that if Amazon brings 50,000 jobs to Pittsburgh, an additional 50,000 jobs could be created both “upstream” and “downstream.” Upstream jobs would be those in the airline, restaurant and hotel industries, as well as for electric and gas companies — jobs created because Amazon and its employees need to consume goods and services. Downstream jobs would be those created because Amazon employees have money to spend — those in lawn care, dry cleaners, classrooms, home building and more.

People cross the intersection of Grant Street and Sixth Avenue in downtown Pittsburgh. (Photo by Kat Procyk/PublicSource)

“You’re going to hire more teachers, you’re going to build more classrooms, you’re going to widen lanes, you’re going to pick up trash,” LeRoy said. “It would not be implausible that the number of indirect jobs, both upstream and downstream, would be about equal to or maybe even slightly more than the number of direct jobs.”

Sam Williamson, the Western Pennsylvania district director for the 32BJ SEIU, said it’s important that Amazon brings good jobs, not just any jobs, to its HQ2 city. That includes paying their service-sector workers at least $15 per hour, giving them the ability to unionize and investing in workforce development. One of the biggest questions, he said, is what kind of employer Amazon is going to be.

“No matter what city Amazon picks, there will be a lot of questions they’ll have to answer about what kind of employer they’re going to be and what kind of partner they’re going to be to local government and the communities impacted by them,” he said. “Frankly, they don’t have a great track record when it comes to creating good jobs for service workers or other types of low-wage workers.”

2. The cost of housing would go up, and homelessness could increase.

One of the first things Amazon could change is Pittsburgh’s housing market. As soon as word gets out that Amazon is coming to Pittsburgh, it’s highly likely that real estate speculators would start buying up homes and property with the hope that they’ll be able to resell the properties at a higher price to people moving here for Amazon jobs, according to John Petrack, the executive vice president of the Realtors Association of Metropolitan Pittsburgh.

“Actually, we’ve started to see that happen already, so yes, that is going to happen,” he said, referencing a New York company that earlier this year purchased 18 properties near Hazelwood Green, a site often mentioned as a potential location for HQ2.

Aside from speculation, the addition of thousands of new residents, many earning high salaries, would likely drive up home values and the cost of rent. Pittsburgh’s housing market is often viewed as moderately priced and accessible to first-time homebuyers. But Petrack said the market is tightening up, meaning “lots of people want to buy but few people want to sell.” That drives up prices.

“And if costs go up, that means more low-income households will not be able to afford the housing,” said Nan Roman, the president and CEO of the National Alliance to End Homelessness.

Pittsburgh’s median rent is currently about $1,000 per month. Terrazas, the Zillow researcher, estimated that rents in Pittsburgh could go up 1.9 percent if Amazon chooses to locate here. Terrazas’ study found that Pittsburgh rents are currently falling by about 1 percent.

Should Amazon choose Pittsburgh for its HQ2, one of the first things that could change is the city’s housing market. The row houses pictured are located on Penn Avenue in Garfield. (Photo by Ryan Loew/PublicSource)

In Seattle, housing costs have skyrocketed in recent years. According to data from the website rentjungle.com, average monthly rent in Seattle was $1,207 in 2011. It’s $2,159 now. Amazon moved to its current location in Seattle in 2007 and finished building out its main campus in 2011. The median home price in Seattle is $764,700, which is higher than home values in New York City and Washington, D.C., according to Zillow.

Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald argued that home values going up is a good thing and increases wealth for homeowners, in part because the county doesn’t increase property taxes with inflation. Amazon locating in Pittsburgh wouldn’t have an effect on people’s taxes until the county reassesses, Fitzgerald said, which the county doesn’t have plans to do right now. Allegheny County has re-assessed property values twice in recent history, once in 2002 and again in 2013.

Fitzgerald conceded that rent prices would rise. He said the county is spending money on affordable housing, citing more than 1,800 affordable units built between 2011 and 2017. Fitzgerald said the county needs to increase its efforts. “I think we’re going to have to work on that and increase [affordable housing]. I don’t think there’s any question,” he said. “But you know the alternative of no development is not as good.”

3. Amazon could put pressure on Pittsburgh’s public transit and increase traffic.

If thousands of new people move to Pittsburgh, they’ll have to get to work somehow. That means either more drivers on Pittsburgh’s roads or more people on the Port Authority’s buses and trolleys. But can the Port Authority handle the influx of riders? Opinions vary.

Katharine Eagan Kelleman, the CEO of Port Authority, says yes, while Laura Wiens, the head of the advocacy group Pittsburghers for Public Transit, has doubts.

In an April interview with PublicSource, Kelleman expressed confidence that Port Authority could handle the Amazon employees because the system will have time to prepare, invest and slowly acclimate to the newcomers as they move here over the next few years. Adding a few thousand new people each year over a 20-year period would be doable, Kelleman said.

A Port Authority bus crosses the intersection of Stanwix Street and Liberty Avenue in downtown Pittsburgh. (Photo by Kat Procyk/PublicSource)

“We have enough capacity that if we’re doing our job right and we’re being responsive and paying attention to service demand that we can grow with that service,” she said. Amazon coming to Pittsburgh, “would, of course, factor into our conversations with our partners in Harrisburg and D.C. that we’ve got this additional demand coming up,” she added, referring to lobbying for additional state and federal funding.

Fitzgerald argued that the additional people Amazon would bring to Pittsburgh would increase the tax base, meaning more money for local government to spend. However, Wiens pointed out that Allegheny County taxes only account for a small portion of Port Authority’s funding. The county is slated to spend about $31 million on Port Authority’s operating costs in 2018, less than one-fifth of the transit service’s budget. Nearly two-thirds of Port Authority funding comes from the state.

But aside from an influx of people, Wiens worries that Amazon could cause a larger inequity. Because Amazon could drive up rents and home prices, people may be forced to move out of the urban core. Wiens said people earning lower incomes and relying on public transit would be farther away from bus lines, their jobs, schools and other opportunities.

Laura Wiens, director of Pittsburghers for Public Transit, speaks about the potential effects of Amazon HQ2 in Pittsburgh at a June 21 news conference outside the City-County Building. (Photo by Ryan Loew/PublicSource)

“We have to understand that that’s what we’re going to see, times 50 or times 100,” she said.

If the Port Authority does eventually add bus and trolley service because of Amazon, Wiens said that service may be added only in neighborhoods where the company’s employees live and work.

“We’re not just displacing people, we’re replacing people,” she said.

4. Pittsburgh’s tech sector could get more competitive.

If a big player like Amazon comes to town, that would drive up competition for both talent and technology, according to experts. It could also mean trouble for startups and other small tech companies.

Wages in Pittsburgh’s tech sector are likely to rise because employers already here could be forced to compete with Amazon to keep their workers. If a Google employee, for example, could make more money working for Amazon, Google is going to be pressured to pay that employee, or another employee, more money so they don’t jump ship.

Startups and other small tech companies in Pittsburgh may be forced out of business or bought up by Amazon if the company views them as competitors. Amazon has a history of doing just that, said Mitchell, of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, a policy center focused on equitable community development.

Amazon is known for “devouring industry from the inside out,” Mitchell said. According to the news site Inc., Amazon invested in or acquired at least 128 companies since it was founded. That count doesn’t include companies that have gone out of business because they couldn’t compete with Amazon.

“They do crush or buy up competing startups,” Mitchell said. “They have a history of not being good for a broader ecosystem.”

5. The region’s schools and colleges could benefit.

With a corporation like Amazon potentially putting down roots in Pittsburgh, those who work in education see a bright future.

Linda Hippert, the recently retired executive director of the Allegheny Intermediate Unit, said school districts in the region have been focusing on school-business partnerships. She said she hopes Amazon would be open to partnering with districts to give students career-training opportunities.

Hippert pointed to the South Fayette School District, where a group of students worked together to create an app for insurance companies to monitor driving habits; that project shows that business partnering with schools could be a “win-win.”

But, she said, schools still need to improve on preparing students for the kind of tech jobs that Amazon and similar companies are bringing to the region. While some districts have a heavy focus on STEM education (science, technology, engineering and math) and teaching kids how to code, those programs don’t exist in every district.

“Amazon is not the end-all, be-all, but we know they’d be a major player in the region.”

That’s something Anthony Hamlet, the superintendent of Pittsburgh Public Schools [PPS], said he’s working on. Hamlet said he’s optimistic that if Amazon locates in Pittsburgh the company could bolster students’ education by offering them tours of HQ2, internships or partnering with PPS in other ways. Hamlet cautioned, though, that he’ll wait to see what Amazon needs before anything is set. He also said PPS middle and high schools are in the midst of “revamping” their curriculums to focus on computer science. Computational skills classes should be available in some schools by fall 2019.

“Amazon is not the end-all, be-all, but we know they’d be a major player in the region,” Hamlet said.

Having Amazon invest in Pittsburgh’s workforce and other job training initiatives is a sentiment several local leaders also expressed. Harrington, of Vibrant Pittsburgh, said reevaluating jobs in tech could help open them up to people without a bachelor’s degree who have completed job training of some kind.

“Do you really need 10 years of experience when three will do?” she said, referring to the ways that job postings should be evaluated. “Do you need a bachelor’s degree when a skills certificate will do?”

Hippert also said she’d want to see Amazon contribute monetarily, whether through property taxes or some other kind of direct monetary benefit directly to schools. But that may be an uphill battle; currently, Amazon doesn’t even pay federal taxes. Hamlet, too, said he’d like to Amazon contribute financially to schools, even if they get tax breaks.

“I’m sure Amazon will support the local school district as well as Allegheny County with monetary scholarships, donations, grants and things of that nature,” he said. “That would be my hope.”

At the University of Pittsburgh, people are seen walking across a footbridge over Forbes Avenue. (Photo by Ryan Loew/PublicSource)

Kevin Zwick, a spokesperson for the University of Pittsburgh, said the university couldn’t speculate on Amazon’s plans but expressed optimism about the company coming to the city.

“The prospect of Amazon HQ2 and its 50,000 jobs landing in Pittsburgh would no doubt present financial opportunities for the region and add an incredible dynamic to the city’s distinct and growing hub of innovative life sciences and tech research, creativity and entrepreneurship,” Zwick wrote in an email. “But it also requires that we be realistic about what our challenges are as a community. We need inclusive strategies for connecting the entire community not only to the conversation about Amazon HQ2, but also to future plans for Pittsburgh’s inevitable job growth.”

6. Local officials could feel Amazon’s pressure.

If Seattle offers any clues as to how Amazon may treat its HQ2 city, one thing is nearly certain: The company has potential to be a major player in local politics.

Amazon’s recent fight with Seattle City Council over a “head tax” on employees who work for large corporations offers a cautionary tale. Seattle City Council initially proposed a $500-per-employee tax on large companies to fund efforts for affordable housing and to reduce homelessness. After Amazon threatened to halt a major construction project if the tax passed, Seattle council members passed a much lower $275-per-employee tax. On June 12, weeks after enacting it, Seattle council repealed the head tax.

The head tax episode left some elected officials around the country so concerned that they signed an open letter to Seattle’s leaders to offer them encouragement and support. No government officials from the Pittsburgh region signed the letter.

Jordi Comas, a member of borough council in Lewisburg in Union County, Pa., signed the open letter to Seattle. He said he’s troubled by big companies like Amazon being able to control local governments.

“It makes me feel that I’m elected to represent people but I have to be responsible to big companies,” Comas, a Democrat, said. “It makes me feel vulnerable…it makes me antsy.”

Sarah Johnson, the local progress director for national advocacy group Center for Popular Democracy, said she doesn’t expect Amazon to change how it operates.

“The way they’re conducting the HQ2 process…is how we can expect them to engage in the future,” she said.

“We deal with big companies all the time…I think Pittsburgh will do what’s right for our residents regardless of what the company is.”

LeRoy added: Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos “doesn’t sit on a bunch of charitable boards, they don’t sponsor a lot of softball tournaments, it’s not the thing they do, it’s not their style,” he said. “They kind of kept a really low profile until this head tax they’ve gone loud on.”

So far, some members of Pittsburgh City Council believe they’ll have enough leverage to require Amazon to offer some community benefits  — especially if the city offers the company tax breaks.

Deb Gross, who represents the Strip District (which Amazon apparently eyed up on its one of its Pittsburgh visits) has said she’s not a fan of giving tax breaks to “the wealthiest human on the planet.”

Corey O’Connor, who represents Hazelwood, said he’d like to see Amazon contribute to workforce training and education programs. He said he assumes Amazon would need to come to city council for a few things the company wants here. “That gives us the leverage to have that conversation,” he said. “…We deal with big companies all the time…I think Pittsburgh will do what’s right for our residents regardless of what the company is.”

All in all, everything still depends on Amazon’s final decision, which is expected to come sometime this year. As for Pittsburgh’s chances, LeRoy has his doubts.

“It’s nothing personal,” he said. “I love Pittsburgh. I don’t think you’re getting the deal.”

Dale Shoemaker is PublicSource’s government and data reporter. He can be reached at dale@publicsource.org or 412-515-0069. You can follow him on Twitter @JDale_Shoemaker. He can be reached securely at PGP: bit.ly/2ig07qL.

This story was fact-checked by Mary Niederberger.

[newssplashy]

Finance: College is more expensive than it's ever been for 5 reasons, and there are no solutions in sight

College tuition is higher than ever — from the late 1980s to the 2017-18 school year, the cost of an undergraduate degree rose by 213% at public schools and 129% at private schools, adjusting for inflation. And 45 million Americans have student-loan debt. See what's driving the cost of college.

College tuition and student-loan debt are higher than ever.

College is expensive for many reasons, including a surge in demand, an increase in financial aid, a lack of state funding, a need for more faculty members and money to pay them, and ballooning student services.

The cost of college has made a degree less advantageous than it was 10 years ago, one expert said.

Josh Kirdy knows how to hustle.

When he's not working full time as an assistant store manager at Universal Orlando, the 26-year-old is on the prowl for side work, landing stints walking dogs and putting in part-time hours at a local mall retailer.

He developed this juggling act to put extra payments toward his $37,000 student-loan debt.

"I'm happy with my life today and with the education I received, but it's unfortunate that I'll be paying for it for another seven years at least," Kirdy, who attended a four-year public university, told Business Insider. He's set to pay roughly $300 a month in student-loan repayments until he's 35.

"There are many factors behind the cost of college, and some people have stressed one or another," Richard Vedder, an author and distinguished professor of economics emeritus at Ohio University, told Business Insider.

But the ultimate driver of cost, Vedder said, is the sheer number of people vying for a college education. Higher enrollment has brought an expansion of financial-aid programs, a need to increase budgets for faculty pay and on-campus student services, and a decline in financial support from state governments.

College tuition has more than doubled since the 1980s

Kirdy is just one of the more than 44 million Americans with student-loan debt and contributing to a whopping national total of $1.5 trillion, according to Student Loan Hero. The average student debt per graduate who took out loans is higher than ever, at $17,126, Business Insider reported in November.

These stats are especially troubling considering their effects on people's long-term goals. Millennials are facing unique financial struggles previous generations weren't, like having to save longer for increased housing costs, something that hasn't been helped by the burden of student-loan debt.

"I feel like buying a house is a total pipe dream at this point in my life, but I'm tightening my belt as much as possible to save for a down payment right now," a water-resources engineer who graduated from a public university with roughly $25,000 in debt told Business Insider.

Four years later, she owes just under $19,000. Her $300 payments are set on autopay, which reduces her interest by 2.5% a month. It's more than her $260 income-driven payment plan requires, but she'll pay it down quicker this way.

"Thankfully, I have USAA, who has a great first-time-homebuyer program, so I only need a 3% down payment to get started," she said. "But without that, I would be trapped in a rent cycle until a second income magically appears in my life."

Boone Porcher, who owes $32,645 after five years at a public university, started paying double his minimum payment two years after graduating so he could pay off his debt in five years.

"I started to think more about their impact when evaluating my long-term planning, and I made the decision that I wanted the debt gone entirely ASAP," Porcher, a 26-year-old supply-chain consultant, told Business Insider. "Personally, I don't feel comfortable taking a loan on a house while having student loans."

A recent Student Loan Hero report found that while wages have increased by 67% since 1970, college tuition has increased at a faster rate, continuing to deliver a fair amount of sticker shock.

Roxy Novo told Business Insider her $60,000 student-loan debt from attending a private college had slowed down her life plans. The 22-year-old commutes two hours every day from New Jersey to her job as a studio artist fellow in New York City because her $500 monthly loan payment is equivalent to a portion of what it would cost to rent an apartment in the city, she said.

"I definitely cannot consider moving closer until I get a higher-paying job and get a good chunk of my debt paid," Novo said. "I'm trying to do the responsible thing and eliminate loans before considering any expensive, fun things, but it can be really hard when your friends are out traveling the world and moving to the city and you're swimming in debt."

College tuition was more affordable for older generations, Student Loan Hero reported, citing figures from the College Board: From the late 1980s to now, the cost of an undergraduate degree has risen by 213% at public schools and 129% at private schools, adjusting for inflation.

From the 2016-17 to the 2017-18 school year, the average cost of tuition and fees increased by more than 3% at private and public colleges, according to the College Board's "Trends in College Pricing 2017" report. At a four-year nonprofit private institution, tuition and room and board is $46,950, on average. Four-year public colleges charge an average of $20,770 a year for tuition, fees, and room and board. For out-of-state students, the total goes up to $36,420.

And then there are costs beyond tuition, like living expenses.

"One of the main reasons why I accrued so much debt was because my parents didn't save any money for me to go to college and they couldn't afford to contribute to the cause, so I used student loans not only to pay tuition but also to cover living expenses that my part-time job, which paid $8 per hour, couldn't cover," Kirdy said.

Everyone wants to go to college

"The demand for higher education has risen dramatically since 1985," Vedder said. "Once demand goes up and nothing else happens, that will raise prices."

According to the Department of Education, US colleges expected a total of 20.4 million students in fall 2017, about 5.1 million more than in fall 2000.

"The rewards for college have expanded and grown from 1985 to a little after 2000 and sort of leveled off in the past decade," Vedder said.

The increase in the student population indicates that the advantages college offers outweigh its overwhelming costs.

"There's a fear of failure if you didn't have a postsecondary education," Vedder said.

And yet, he said, the "advantage of a degree today is less than it was 10 years ago, because of the rising cost."

"The return on investment has fallen," he added.

Still, it's a vicious cycle of supply and demand. The more students who want to attend college, the more the cost of college increases, and the more students borrow money.

From 2000 to 2012, the percentage of students who took out student loans jumped to 60% from about 50%, according to a report by the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. The report also found that they began borrowing more money too — the median cumulative loan amount rose to $20,400 from $16,500 in that time.

Theories suggest financial aid causes tuition increases

More student borrowers might partly explain why government financial-aid programs have grown enormously — but that's also causing tuition increases, according to Vedder.

In 1970, financial-aid programs "were almost nonexistent," he said. "Generally, middle-income people didn't get money from the federal government; the large majority of students did not."

In 1978, Congress passed a bill known as the Middle Income Student Assistance Act. This made all undergraduates regardless of income class eligible for subsidized loans and middle-income students eligible for Pell Grants, according to NASPA, Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education. More and more students started applying for financial aid, Vedder said.

"Knowing that students will get this financial-aid money, the university raises fees and takes advantage to capture that themselves," Vedder explained, referring to an idea known as the Bennett hypothesis.

Named for a former education secretary who believed that more government aid for students led directly to college cost increases, the hypothesis is an ongoing topic of political debate. But it has some vertical support in Vedder's eyes. Citing a statistic from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Vedder said that for every new dollar of federal student aid, tuition is raised by 65 cents.

Though tuition rose in 1978, so did people's incomes, making the burden of college less than it was in the 1940s, Vedder explained. But between 1978 and 2015, the burden of college began to rise again as tuition fees doubled and economic growth slowed.

State funding can't keep up with enrollment

Terry Hartle, a senior vice president of the American Council on Education, boils down the increasing cost of college to this: Many state governments have cut operating support for higher education, for at least a generation, and let colleges replace the lost revenue with tuition hikes.

"States provide less, and students and parents pay more," Hartle told Business Insider. "Studies have shown that when state support is level or increasing, tuition is flat. But when state support declines, tuition goes up. Roughly 80% of America's students attend public colleges, so it's not an exaggeration to say that the biggest determinate of the price they will pay for their education is the budgetary decisions made by state governments."

The College Board's report underscores Hartle's theory. It found that prices at public colleges and universities rise faster when government funding per student sees little growth or is slowing down. In the 2015-16 school year, appropriations — money given to a school by the government — per full-time enrolled student were 11% lower than 10 years before, when adjusted for inflation.

"For public institutions, state appropriations make up a significant portion of the college's revenue, and in recent years, the state appropriations have not been able to keep pace with enrollment," Jennifer Ma, a senior policy research scientist at the College Board, told Business Insider.

Vedder, however, doesn't think state funding cuts are the main culprit, at least at private schools.

"The total number of state dollars has gone up a little, but enrollments have risen dramatically, so on a per-student basis they're getting less money," he said. "It's a factor but not dominant, because private schools don't get money from the state."

Colleges need to pay more professors

Just as it costs money to learn, it costs money to pay teachers. Higher education is a labor-intensive industry, and productivity gains come slowly, Hartle said.

"The primary mechanism for delivering higher education at most institutions are highly educated people," he said. "Acquiring and recruiting highly educated faculty and staff costs money, especially in jobs with significant demand outside academia."

Hartle said the sorts of things that could lower these costs — such as larger classes, more adjunct faculty and fewer full-time professors, shorter hours, and fewer books in the library — were immensely unpopular with students, parents, and the public.

"Colleges spend much of their money on staff and compensation, so they have been experiencing an increasing cost of health insurance and other benefits," Ma said, adding that while university tuition allocations vary by institution, most use a large percentage of tuition to pay professors' salaries.

Vedder believes the percentage of university budgets used for instruction has fallen over the past 50 years.

"A typical university around 1970 would have allocated 40% directly for instruction, mostly professor salaries," he said. "Nowadays, it's more like 30%."

This decline in money for teachers and classes, in addition to state funding cuts, may help explain why the number of part-time faculty members has increased over time, to about 51% of total faculty in 2011 from 30% in 1975, according to research compiled by the American Association of University Professors.

With more part-time faculty members, universities can dole out lower wages and benefits, saving money for noninstructional full-time roles and a smaller group of tenured faculty, whom they can try to attract with higher salaries.

Student services, like counseling and healthcare, are growing

Many of these noninstructional roles are for student services, another increasing cost in campus budgets. Services such as academic support, personal counseling, and healthcare have been on the rise, Hartle said.

"These services are always added because of student needs, and most schools, once they begin to offer them, are very reluctant to take them away," he said, adding that there's also been a reallocation from instruction to administration expenses — known as institutional support — and research.

Vedder says there has been an explosion in the number of non-teaching personnel on campus, with several administrators at top universities making six-figure salaries with fringe benefits and secretarial support. He said about two-thirds of university budgets had nothing to do with teaching but instead go toward things like advocates, dormitories, and facilities.

Is the cost of college worth it?

The irony in the demand for a degree is palpable — by contributing to an increase in tuition, it has perhaps also made the college degree less advantageous over time.

To illustrate the diminishing value of a college degree, Vedder cited figures from the New York Fed, saying that one-third of college graduates are underemployed and 13% are in a low-paying job.

So is the cost of college worth it? It depends who you ask and how you measure the value of a degree.

"Honestly, I don't have a lot of job satisfaction, and I don't plan on being an engineer for the rest of my life," the water-resources engineer said. "In terms of getting me a job that pays well, maybe ... In terms of overall happiness, probably not."

Novo said loans were her only option for her first-choice school. A few schools offered scholarship money, but she said she felt they wouldn't help her reach her goals.

"The debt is definitely worth it," she said. "I picked my college with the hope that it would get me my first job and that it would be in my field and in NYC. I happily have a job with all those requests."

For Porcher, the regret isn't obtaining a college degree, but the lack of planning that put him over $32,000 in debt.

"Looking back, I wish I had worked for a year or two and saved up, or did half college, half work," he said. "But my job now wouldn't be possible without my degree. I'm actually the highest-ranking person without a master's or Ph.D. If I didn't have a good job, this would be an enormous burden."

source https://www.newssplashy.com/2018/07/finance-college-is-more-expensive-than_3.html

[newssplashy]

College tuition is higher than ever — from the late 1980s to the 2017-18 school year, the cost of an undergraduate degree rose by 213% at public schools and 129% at private schools, adjusting for inflation. And 45 million Americans have student-loan debt. See what's driving the cost of college.

College tuition and student-loan debt are higher than ever.

College is expensive for many reasons, including a surge in demand, an increase in financial aid, a lack of state funding, a need for more faculty members and money to pay them, and ballooning student services.

The cost of college has made a degree less advantageous than it was 10 years ago, one expert said.

Josh Kirdy knows how to hustle.

When he's not working full time as an assistant store manager at Universal Orlando, the 26-year-old is on the prowl for side work, landing stints walking dogs and putting in part-time hours at a local mall retailer.

He developed this juggling act to put extra payments toward his $37,000 student-loan debt.

"I'm happy with my life today and with the education I received, but it's unfortunate that I'll be paying for it for another seven years at least," Kirdy, who attended a four-year public university, told Business Insider. He's set to pay roughly $300 a month in student-loan repayments until he's 35.

"There are many factors behind the cost of college, and some people have stressed one or another," Richard Vedder, an author and distinguished professor of economics emeritus at Ohio University, told Business Insider.

But the ultimate driver of cost, Vedder said, is the sheer number of people vying for a college education. Higher enrollment has brought an expansion of financial-aid programs, a need to increase budgets for faculty pay and on-campus student services, and a decline in financial support from state governments.

College tuition has more than doubled since the 1980s

Kirdy is just one of the more than 44 million Americans with student-loan debt and contributing to a whopping national total of $1.5 trillion, according to Student Loan Hero. The average student debt per graduate who took out loans is higher than ever, at $17,126, Business Insider reported in November.

These stats are especially troubling considering their effects on people's long-term goals. Millennials are facing unique financial struggles previous generations weren't, like having to save longer for increased housing costs, something that hasn't been helped by the burden of student-loan debt.

"I feel like buying a house is a total pipe dream at this point in my life, but I'm tightening my belt as much as possible to save for a down payment right now," a water-resources engineer who graduated from a public university with roughly $25,000 in debt told Business Insider.

Four years later, she owes just under $19,000. Her $300 payments are set on autopay, which reduces her interest by 2.5% a month. It's more than her $260 income-driven payment plan requires, but she'll pay it down quicker this way.

"Thankfully, I have USAA, who has a great first-time-homebuyer program, so I only need a 3% down payment to get started," she said. "But without that, I would be trapped in a rent cycle until a second income magically appears in my life."

Boone Porcher, who owes $32,645 after five years at a public university, started paying double his minimum payment two years after graduating so he could pay off his debt in five years.

"I started to think more about their impact when evaluating my long-term planning, and I made the decision that I wanted the debt gone entirely ASAP," Porcher, a 26-year-old supply-chain consultant, told Business Insider. "Personally, I don't feel comfortable taking a loan on a house while having student loans."

A recent Student Loan Hero report found that while wages have increased by 67% since 1970, college tuition has increased at a faster rate, continuing to deliver a fair amount of sticker shock.

Roxy Novo told Business Insider her $60,000 student-loan debt from attending a private college had slowed down her life plans. The 22-year-old commutes two hours every day from New Jersey to her job as a studio artist fellow in New York City because her $500 monthly loan payment is equivalent to a portion of what it would cost to rent an apartment in the city, she said.

"I definitely cannot consider moving closer until I get a higher-paying job and get a good chunk of my debt paid," Novo said. "I'm trying to do the responsible thing and eliminate loans before considering any expensive, fun things, but it can be really hard when your friends are out traveling the world and moving to the city and you're swimming in debt."

College tuition was more affordable for older generations, Student Loan Hero reported, citing figures from the College Board: From the late 1980s to now, the cost of an undergraduate degree has risen by 213% at public schools and 129% at private schools, adjusting for inflation.

From the 2016-17 to the 2017-18 school year, the average cost of tuition and fees increased by more than 3% at private and public colleges, according to the College Board's "Trends in College Pricing 2017" report. At a four-year nonprofit private institution, tuition and room and board is $46,950, on average. Four-year public colleges charge an average of $20,770 a year for tuition, fees, and room and board. For out-of-state students, the total goes up to $36,420.

And then there are costs beyond tuition, like living expenses.

"One of the main reasons why I accrued so much debt was because my parents didn't save any money for me to go to college and they couldn't afford to contribute to the cause, so I used student loans not only to pay tuition but also to cover living expenses that my part-time job, which paid $8 per hour, couldn't cover," Kirdy said.

Everyone wants to go to college

"The demand for higher education has risen dramatically since 1985," Vedder said. "Once demand goes up and nothing else happens, that will raise prices."

According to the Department of Education, US colleges expected a total of 20.4 million students in fall 2017, about 5.1 million more than in fall 2000.

"The rewards for college have expanded and grown from 1985 to a little after 2000 and sort of leveled off in the past decade," Vedder said.

The increase in the student population indicates that the advantages college offers outweigh its overwhelming costs.

"There's a fear of failure if you didn't have a postsecondary education," Vedder said.

And yet, he said, the "advantage of a degree today is less than it was 10 years ago, because of the rising cost."

"The return on investment has fallen," he added.

Still, it's a vicious cycle of supply and demand. The more students who want to attend college, the more the cost of college increases, and the more students borrow money.

From 2000 to 2012, the percentage of students who took out student loans jumped to 60% from about 50%, according to a report by the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. The report also found that they began borrowing more money too — the median cumulative loan amount rose to $20,400 from $16,500 in that time.

Theories suggest financial aid causes tuition increases

More student borrowers might partly explain why government financial-aid programs have grown enormously — but that's also causing tuition increases, according to Vedder.

In 1970, financial-aid programs "were almost nonexistent," he said. "Generally, middle-income people didn't get money from the federal government; the large majority of students did not."

In 1978, Congress passed a bill known as the Middle Income Student Assistance Act. This made all undergraduates regardless of income class eligible for subsidized loans and middle-income students eligible for Pell Grants, according to NASPA, Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education. More and more students started applying for financial aid, Vedder said.

"Knowing that students will get this financial-aid money, the university raises fees and takes advantage to capture that themselves," Vedder explained, referring to an idea known as the Bennett hypothesis.

Named for a former education secretary who believed that more government aid for students led directly to college cost increases, the hypothesis is an ongoing topic of political debate. But it has some vertical support in Vedder's eyes. Citing a statistic from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Vedder said that for every new dollar of federal student aid, tuition is raised by 65 cents.

Though tuition rose in 1978, so did people's incomes, making the burden of college less than it was in the 1940s, Vedder explained. But between 1978 and 2015, the burden of college began to rise again as tuition fees doubled and economic growth slowed.

State funding can't keep up with enrollment

Terry Hartle, a senior vice president of the American Council on Education, boils down the increasing cost of college to this: Many state governments have cut operating support for higher education, for at least a generation, and let colleges replace the lost revenue with tuition hikes.

"States provide less, and students and parents pay more," Hartle told Business Insider. "Studies have shown that when state support is level or increasing, tuition is flat. But when state support declines, tuition goes up. Roughly 80% of America's students attend public colleges, so it's not an exaggeration to say that the biggest determinate of the price they will pay for their education is the budgetary decisions made by state governments."

The College Board's report underscores Hartle's theory. It found that prices at public colleges and universities rise faster when government funding per student sees little growth or is slowing down. In the 2015-16 school year, appropriations — money given to a school by the government — per full-time enrolled student were 11% lower than 10 years before, when adjusted for inflation.

"For public institutions, state appropriations make up a significant portion of the college's revenue, and in recent years, the state appropriations have not been able to keep pace with enrollment," Jennifer Ma, a senior policy research scientist at the College Board, told Business Insider.

Vedder, however, doesn't think state funding cuts are the main culprit, at least at private schools.

"The total number of state dollars has gone up a little, but enrollments have risen dramatically, so on a per-student basis they're getting less money," he said. "It's a factor but not dominant, because private schools don't get money from the state."

Colleges need to pay more professors

Just as it costs money to learn, it costs money to pay teachers. Higher education is a labor-intensive industry, and productivity gains come slowly, Hartle said.

"The primary mechanism for delivering higher education at most institutions are highly educated people," he said. "Acquiring and recruiting highly educated faculty and staff costs money, especially in jobs with significant demand outside academia."

Hartle said the sorts of things that could lower these costs — such as larger classes, more adjunct faculty and fewer full-time professors, shorter hours, and fewer books in the library — were immensely unpopular with students, parents, and the public.

"Colleges spend much of their money on staff and compensation, so they have been experiencing an increasing cost of health insurance and other benefits," Ma said, adding that while university tuition allocations vary by institution, most use a large percentage of tuition to pay professors' salaries.

Vedder believes the percentage of university budgets used for instruction has fallen over the past 50 years.

"A typical university around 1970 would have allocated 40% directly for instruction, mostly professor salaries," he said. "Nowadays, it's more like 30%."

This decline in money for teachers and classes, in addition to state funding cuts, may help explain why the number of part-time faculty members has increased over time, to about 51% of total faculty in 2011 from 30% in 1975, according to research compiled by the American Association of University Professors.

With more part-time faculty members, universities can dole out lower wages and benefits, saving money for noninstructional full-time roles and a smaller group of tenured faculty, whom they can try to attract with higher salaries.

Student services, like counseling and healthcare, are growing

Many of these noninstructional roles are for student services, another increasing cost in campus budgets. Services such as academic support, personal counseling, and healthcare have been on the rise, Hartle said.

"These services are always added because of student needs, and most schools, once they begin to offer them, are very reluctant to take them away," he said, adding that there's also been a reallocation from instruction to administration expenses — known as institutional support — and research.

Vedder says there has been an explosion in the number of non-teaching personnel on campus, with several administrators at top universities making six-figure salaries with fringe benefits and secretarial support. He said about two-thirds of university budgets had nothing to do with teaching but instead go toward things like advocates, dormitories, and facilities.

Is the cost of college worth it?

The irony in the demand for a degree is palpable — by contributing to an increase in tuition, it has perhaps also made the college degree less advantageous over time.

To illustrate the diminishing value of a college degree, Vedder cited figures from the New York Fed, saying that one-third of college graduates are underemployed and 13% are in a low-paying job.

So is the cost of college worth it? It depends who you ask and how you measure the value of a degree.

"Honestly, I don't have a lot of job satisfaction, and I don't plan on being an engineer for the rest of my life," the water-resources engineer said. "In terms of getting me a job that pays well, maybe ... In terms of overall happiness, probably not."

Novo said loans were her only option for her first-choice school. A few schools offered scholarship money, but she said she felt they wouldn't help her reach her goals.

"The debt is definitely worth it," she said. "I picked my college with the hope that it would get me my first job and that it would be in my field and in NYC. I happily have a job with all those requests."

For Porcher, the regret isn't obtaining a college degree, but the lack of planning that put him over $32,000 in debt.

"Looking back, I wish I had worked for a year or two and saved up, or did half college, half work," he said. "But my job now wouldn't be possible without my degree. I'm actually the highest-ranking person without a master's or Ph.D. If I didn't have a good job, this would be an enormous burden."

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