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Comment by popcorncolonel | Hacker News Reader

The people whose parents are paying for college already have more of an advantage so they would be more likely to have an ROI from college.

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Actually, from the student's perspective, there would be a 0 investment, so ROI becomes infinite.

I don't understand what you mean by this. Say a grandparent left a grandchild 50k for college. It's the grandchild's money. The grandchild could choose to invest in college or the market. This may not be a common scenario but that's what I meant.

> Say a grandparent left a grandchild 50k for college. It's the grandchild's money.

Well if somebody gives you money for X it's not really your money since you are not at liberty to spend it however you want. Only X is technically yours.

Okay, left you 50k inheritance to do whatever you want with it.

Right but if someone (say a living grandparent) doesn't "leave money for college" but "pays for college", then it's not the grandchild's money. The grandchild isn't paying for college at all. And getting 50k for other purposes was never an option.

Ah yes, the old "finding a dollar on the street gives you infinite ROI, much better than __________"

That would be true if you could just reliably find money on the street.

Pretty reliable. Sit on the sidewalk with a bowl in front of you for a day.

Ah but now you've invested your time.

I'll just do it while I work on my MacBook. Problem solved!

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