from a purely transactional perspective, the smartest move parents with some scratch could do in this shithole to help their kids is not to pay for their college, but to help them buy the house they move into for college and make them be the super for any roommates or fix it up (parent buys materials, kid provides labor) to cover their end. learn how to fix things/minor repairs, etc.
it's not sustainable in the long term and lately houses have ballooned in formerly affordable college towns even, but it surprises me more parents didn't go this way, and instead do weird shit like pay credit cards off, pay rent/all expenses, buy them some depreciating asset (new car).
after 4-5 years if the kid bails on school, the parent could probably recoup their down payment just from equity in a sale. and if the kid does, it's a good gift to help them get started... a place to stay and figure out their next move, a chunk of change if they want to move and go elsewhere, or strike out on their own and be self-employed etc.
it's a capitalist non-solution but it always surprises me how crappy rich people are at actually seeing the angles. or maybe they think their little lordling shouldn't have to learn how to unclog a toilet. who knows.
Many people in this capitalist system exist under the delusion that hard work is rewarded, instead of the fact that what is rewarded is being a capitalist leech, owning property, and leveraging your skillset in the most unethical ways (i.e. landlordism, petit bougism, being a plastic surgeon or scumbag lawyer etc). Normal people cannot grasp this concept that same way someone can't grasp an eldritch truth in a Lovecraft setting, because once you internalize it you realize we live within one of the shittiest forms of society being run by cocaine fiends and dudes that just want stonk numbers to go up and would step on your neck for it.
from a purely transactional perspective, the smartest move parents with some scratch could do in this shithole to help their kids is not to pay for their college, but to help them buy the house they move into for college and make them be the super for any roommates or fix it up (parent buys materials, kid provides labor) to cover their end. learn how to fix things/minor repairs, etc.
it's not sustainable in the long term and lately houses have ballooned in formerly affordable college towns even, but it surprises me more parents didn't go this way, and instead do weird shit like pay credit cards off, pay rent/all expenses, buy them some depreciating asset (new car).
after 4-5 years if the kid bails on school, the parent could probably recoup their down payment just from equity in a sale. and if the kid does, it's a good gift to help them get started... a place to stay and figure out their next move, a chunk of change if they want to move and go elsewhere, or strike out on their own and be self-employed etc.
it's a capitalist non-solution but it always surprises me how crappy rich people are at actually seeing the angles. or maybe they think their little lordling shouldn't have to learn how to unclog a toilet. who knows.
Many people in this capitalist system exist under the delusion that hard work is rewarded, instead of the fact that what is rewarded is being a capitalist leech, owning property, and leveraging your skillset in the most unethical ways (i.e. landlordism, petit bougism, being a plastic surgeon or scumbag lawyer etc). Normal people cannot grasp this concept that same way someone can't grasp an eldritch truth in a Lovecraft setting, because once you internalize it you realize we live within one of the shittiest forms of society being run by cocaine fiends and dudes that just want stonk numbers to go up and would step on your neck for it.