Why cheaper computers lead to higher tuition

This would be a more interesting article if the author understood that the real reason for the increasing cost of both education and healthcare is the decoupling of the buyer and the seller. With healthcare, the decoupler is health insurance; with higher education, it is the student loan. (Doesn't everybody understand this fact by now?)

I experienced the former, once again, just yesterday at the doctor's office. He explained several procedures he wanted me to undergo. When I asked him specifically about one of them, he explained "because your insurance covers it." I shit you not. When I laughed he looked puzzled.

And anyone who had seen how easy it was to get a student loan in the past 10 or 15 years, with very little qualifying information required, should understand the latter point.

Doubly interesting to me -- when I realized that programming pays well because automation puts people out of jobs, or perhaps forces them to learn new skills, I started moving from hard libertarian to embracing certain pieces of socialism.

I don't buy into the coming stagnation bit though, once automating those services is the best bang/buck, it WILL be done.

What about technology putting people out of work in the goods sector and then those out of work people trying to get jobs in the services sector? The high rates in services coupled with out-of-work goods employees seeking to now perform services jobs should act as a self-correcting force on prices in education and healthcare.

I know that there is "retraining friction", but that should be temporary and shouldn't lag more than a few years (1-4 years) on average.

It doesn't need to just apply to people who lose their jobs in goods, but also people who are never trained to perform those jobs at all when younger because it had been forecasted that those jobs would be automated away.

non-print version: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/steven-pearlstein-why...

It is relatively higher, not really higher. As a fraction of average hourly wage, tuition is cheaper than ever. Problem is that wages are not evenly distributed.