Baby Boomer Suggests Everyone Who Wants “Free” Education Should Join The Army, Gets Shut Down By Millennial

Baby boomers (born between 1946 and 1964) and millennials (born between the early 1980s and early 2000s) don’t see eye to eye on many things. The price of higher education is one of them. To put it simply, millennials want cheaper tuition and baby boomers believe that they’re entitled to even think so. And this recent exchange on Facebook perfectly illustrates this conflict.

According to HSBC’s 2017 report, The Value of Education, The US again emerged as the top choice for parents considering university abroad for their child – but also one of the most expensive, with parents contributing an average of US$58,464 towards their child’s education in the US per year (including tuition fees, transport, books and accommodation).

According to Top Universities, the very top US universities (the majority of which are private non-profits), fees and living costs are likely to add up to as much as $60,000 per year, but it’s also possible to study in the US at a much lower outlay. “Those seeking a more affordable option will find lower tuition fees at US universities within the public sector. These are typically run as state university systems – collections of colleges within a state, which share some administrative aspects while operating as separate institutions.”

As College Board states, tuition fees for 2018/19 at state colleges are an average of US$10,230 for state residents, and $26,290 for everyone else. This compares to an average of $35,830 at private non-profit colleges.

To put things into perspective, the Bureau Labor of Statistics reports that an Average 20 to 24-year-old American working full time earns about $596 per week or $30,992 per year.