Today’s incoming college freshmen will be paying 1,041 percent more for their textbooks than their peers did in 1977. This is while the actual value and costs of books have been declining for years. The free market has been making books cheaper; yet college students are forced to pay ever-more.
Why?
Because of the Federal Student Loan Program, which subsidizes demand, causing prices to rise. Amazingly, the Student Loan Program was enacted with claims that it would increase “access” and allow poor students to afford college.
The Student Loan Program, like every other “anti-poverty” government program, achieves THE VERY OPPOSITE of its stated objectives.
Of all places, these statistics were aired in a piece on Salon.com, a government-worshipping website that pushes a steady stream of elitist, redistributionist and government-trusting policies. See here.
