First are we talking about cost to society or cost to the individual
parents.
If monetary, what is the difference? Public coffers are a combination
of revenues from taxes and duties. We all pay into that via sales,
excise, property, and income taxes.
We seem to be talking about costs to individual (upper middle class
USA) parents since roughly half of the estimated costs are for
university education.
1/3, not half: close to 200K Univ. & 18-21 living expenses; 300K pre
18 yrs old food, implied rent, utilities, clothing, medical (not huge)
diapers/clothing, other supplies and toys
I won't be definitive here but I don't know of any OECD country where
the costs to parents for a university education are a fraction of
those indicated for the USA.
Direct cost I think you are correct. But taxes are higher in many OECD
(incl sales taxes like VAT, or GST & PST) and the govt subsidizes
universities. I know: our son went to McGill at 1/3 the direct cost of
Harvard or Dartmouth. But when we moved to Canada the year after he
graduated, I paid hundreds of thousands in taxes to Canada Revenue &
Ontario in 6 years!
Certainly here in Canada tuition is roughly 20% of what it is
indicated for the US's destructively hierarchical privatized
post-secondary educational system.
I think around 33% as living expenses are about the same.
If you also subtract the additional cost of medical insurance for
children you are probably looking at roughly half those figures for
Canada (or less...
Average cost for med insur for children is low in US compared to adults.
I'd estimate no more than an extra 150/month on a family policy (mostly
via employer of a parent who picks up a chunk of the total premium)
Anecdotally we have friends living in the USA, same age, family
structures, roughly same status/income... My wife and I over the years
have been struck by the different life trajectories that our US
friends have had based on their (almost obsessive) concern with first,
saving for college for their kids and then ensuring that their
children get into the "right" college (in a deeply status and
privilege oriented society). The result has been restrictions on job
mobility, inability to travel, choices concerning living and housing
arrangements etc.etc.
I agree there. It turns out that many state universities are half the
cost (for residents of that state) and quite good. Plus if the kid is
smart and has a good record, they can go to Canada for univ.! ;-)
Steve
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