Occupy Wheelock Street!

As the Occupy movement has steadily trudged along, it has steadily picked up media attention and even managed to identify a few goals to work towards.

One of the salient grievances of both the protesters and the complainants at http://wearethe99percent.tumblr.com/ is the crippling cost of student loan debt. While it’s tempting to dismiss such grievances as the waling of those who voluntarily took on huge debts, it is foolish to deny that a college degree is more expensive than ever. For some reason, though, while immense anger is directed at banks and at the government, very little rage is directed at the institutions most responsible for young Americans’ financial troubles: colleges and universities themselves.

College administrators, after all, are the ones responsible for increasing tuition by about triple the rate of inflation for the past three decades.

Of course, blaming administrations alone is quite unfair. American society as a whole shoulders much of the blame. Quite simply, the way America approaches college education is totally incompatible with the sort of college experience many demand. A large proportion of Americans are caught in a quality trap with college education. Rather than seeking an efficient college educations, most students prize the college that is the best “fit,” which frequently means the school they perceive as having the best living amenities, best food options, smallest classes, most student groups, and so forth. While price does matter for many, the simple truth is that it doesn’t matter as much as it does for almost any other good Americans buy, from food to cars to