I was born in 1951.
Harry Truman was president. We were fighting the Korean War. Public kissing was banned in Sweden, From Here To Eternity was on the best-seller lists, Marlon Brando appeared in the film A Street Car Named Desire, and the Yankees won the World Series.
Don’t worry. I’m not conducting some old guy tour of the past. I’m here to look at income, costs of living, and college tuition.
Harry Truman was president. We were fighting the Korean War. Public kissing was banned in Sweden, From Here To Eternity was on the best-seller lists, Marlon Brando appeared in the film A Street Car Named Desire, and the Yankees won the World Series.
Don’t worry. I’m not conducting some old guy tour of the past. I’m here to look at income, costs of living, and college tuition.
Let’s start by looking at some figures, which are contained in the charts below.
1951 Earnings (average)
Average household income: $3,900 per year
Minimum wage: $.75 (equivalent to $7.24 today)
1951 Costs of Living (average)
New house: $9000 to $16,000, depending on where you investigate
New car: $1520
Annual Tuition to Harvard University: $600 (This is tuition only.)
Resident Annual Tuition to the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill: $100 (This is tuition only.)
Gasoline: $.19 per gallon
US Postage stamp: $.03
Milk: $.92
Eggs: $.24
Fresh bread: $.16
Now let’s turn to 2017.
2017 earnings (average)
Average household income: $55, 775 (2015 figures. This figure varies widely, running slightly lower and the up to $70,000.)
Minimum wage: $7.25
2017 Costs (average)
New house: $371,200
New car: $33,560
Annual Tuition for Harvard University: $43,280
Resident Annual Tuition for University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill: approximately $8000 (Tuition only)
Gasoline: $2.35
US Postage stamp: $.47
Milk: $3.26
Eggs: $2.57
Fresh bread: $2.32
Now let’s compare these figures of the past 66 years.
The 2017 average household income is approximately 17 to 20 times what it was in 1951.
According to several online sources, the minimum wage for 1951 and 2017 are approximately equivalent. (I’m not sure how that equates, but I neither work for the government nor am I an economist.)
Now let’s look at costs.
Let’s make the 1951 new home cost $14,000. This means that the costs of a home built in 2017 went up almost 27 times the cost of 1951 home.
New car: 22 times as much.
Gasoline costs the motorist 12 times as much.
A postage stamp costs 16 times as much.
The food costs are less or equal to the equivalent incomes.
So in spite of inflation, many of our costs and earnings are still in the same ballpark.
Except for our colleges and universities.
Going to Harvard costs a student 72 times as much as it did in 1951.
At the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, in-state students today pay 80 times more for tuition than students paid in 1951.
Remember that this figure is for tuition only. Resident room and board for a Carolina Tar Heel is approximately $11,500. Mandatory fees for today’s students at this university are $1,953. In 1951, those fees were $52.
What happened?
Universities and colleges changed in both their nature and their purpose.
Explore, for example, the website of the University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill. Here you’ll find a battalion of administrators and counselors. You’ll find all sorts of fine recreational facilities. One quick example: The dining program for Carolina boasts of having top-rated chefs who serve up an colossal variety of daily fare. Once upon a time, students were glad for some home cooking after eating cheap, mediocre college food for three or four months. In trying to keep their costs down, colleges once offered inexpensive food that made students appreciate home-cooked meals.
Apparently, that is no longer the case.
The good news in terms of these costs is that financial aid in the form of tax credits, loans, and scholarships are more readily available now than in 1951.
The bad news is that a huge number of college students are sinking deep into debt while at the same time racking up fewer hours studying than ever before.
An old rule of thumb for college classes used to be two hours of study time for every hour in class. A student taking 15 hours of classes per week was advised to spend 30 hours in study time outside of the classroom for a combined total of 45 hours. The idea behind this amount of study was that the students didn’t just complete the class assignments, but that they explored other ideas and books regarding those assignments.
To some eighteen-year-olds, forty to forty five hours of work every week may seem arduous. For the rest of us, this workload is the norm. Some of us, many of us, labor far longer hours.
Yet the US Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that today’s full-time student spends less than 20 hours a week on academic work, a figure that includes work done in the classroom. https://chee.osu.edu/news-events/2016/05/test-post-4/
This is bad news for the students. It is also bad news for the rest of us. We not only pay subsidies through taxes for them to attend colleges, but we also suffer when such students are ill prepared at graduation.
So college students: a note to you. Your parents are delivering a truckload of change for your education, and you’ve taken out loans that will turn into a mountain of debt sooner than you think.
What are you doing with this opportunity?
Some of you are doubtless serious students. You put in the necessary hours on the books. You’re learning every day.
If the Bureau of Labor Statistics is correct, others of you are treating college as a playground. Are you out carousing every night? Whooping it up at keg parties? Playing video games four, five, six hours a day? You may work out at the college gym or swim in the university pool, but I have to ask: Have you set foot in the university library?
If you are not learning, you may win a degree, but you are shortchanging yourself. This opportunity for learning won’t come again. When you graduate and go out into the world of work, marriage, and children, life becomes a whirlwind.
I’m delighted you have the opportunity to attend universities and colleges. I am eternally grateful for my own education and want the same for you. This is your golden time for learning. Take a class on Greek philosophy. Study calculus. Learn a foreign language. Tackle a biology course. Discover the history of your country and of other countries around the world.
We need your learning, intelligence, and talent. If you’re goofing around, you’re letting down the rest of us. Worst of all, you’re letting down yourself.
So hit the books. Cut the games and playtime. You’re not on a vacation. Work hard. Study. Be responsible for your learning and your life.
And to college and university administrators everywhere, quit trying to be country clubs. Get back to the basics. It’s called education.
1951 Earnings (average)
Average household income: $3,900 per year
Minimum wage: $.75 (equivalent to $7.24 today)
1951 Costs of Living (average)
New house: $9000 to $16,000, depending on where you investigate
New car: $1520
Annual Tuition to Harvard University: $600 (This is tuition only.)
Resident Annual Tuition to the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill: $100 (This is tuition only.)
Gasoline: $.19 per gallon
US Postage stamp: $.03
Milk: $.92
Eggs: $.24
Fresh bread: $.16
Now let’s turn to 2017.
2017 earnings (average)
Average household income: $55, 775 (2015 figures. This figure varies widely, running slightly lower and the up to $70,000.)
Minimum wage: $7.25
2017 Costs (average)
New house: $371,200
New car: $33,560
Annual Tuition for Harvard University: $43,280
Resident Annual Tuition for University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill: approximately $8000 (Tuition only)
Gasoline: $2.35
US Postage stamp: $.47
Milk: $3.26
Eggs: $2.57
Fresh bread: $2.32
Now let’s compare these figures of the past 66 years.
The 2017 average household income is approximately 17 to 20 times what it was in 1951.
According to several online sources, the minimum wage for 1951 and 2017 are approximately equivalent. (I’m not sure how that equates, but I neither work for the government nor am I an economist.)
Now let’s look at costs.
Let’s make the 1951 new home cost $14,000. This means that the costs of a home built in 2017 went up almost 27 times the cost of 1951 home.
New car: 22 times as much.
Gasoline costs the motorist 12 times as much.
A postage stamp costs 16 times as much.
The food costs are less or equal to the equivalent incomes.
So in spite of inflation, many of our costs and earnings are still in the same ballpark.
Except for our colleges and universities.
Going to Harvard costs a student 72 times as much as it did in 1951.
At the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, in-state students today pay 80 times more for tuition than students paid in 1951.
Remember that this figure is for tuition only. Resident room and board for a Carolina Tar Heel is approximately $11,500. Mandatory fees for today’s students at this university are $1,953. In 1951, those fees were $52.
What happened?
Universities and colleges changed in both their nature and their purpose.
Explore, for example, the website of the University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill. Here you’ll find a battalion of administrators and counselors. You’ll find all sorts of fine recreational facilities. One quick example: The dining program for Carolina boasts of having top-rated chefs who serve up an colossal variety of daily fare. Once upon a time, students were glad for some home cooking after eating cheap, mediocre college food for three or four months. In trying to keep their costs down, colleges once offered inexpensive food that made students appreciate home-cooked meals.
Apparently, that is no longer the case.
The good news in terms of these costs is that financial aid in the form of tax credits, loans, and scholarships are more readily available now than in 1951.
The bad news is that a huge number of college students are sinking deep into debt while at the same time racking up fewer hours studying than ever before.
An old rule of thumb for college classes used to be two hours of study time for every hour in class. A student taking 15 hours of classes per week was advised to spend 30 hours in study time outside of the classroom for a combined total of 45 hours. The idea behind this amount of study was that the students didn’t just complete the class assignments, but that they explored other ideas and books regarding those assignments.
To some eighteen-year-olds, forty to forty five hours of work every week may seem arduous. For the rest of us, this workload is the norm. Some of us, many of us, labor far longer hours.
Yet the US Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that today’s full-time student spends less than 20 hours a week on academic work, a figure that includes work done in the classroom. https://chee.osu.edu/news-events/2016/05/test-post-4/
This is bad news for the students. It is also bad news for the rest of us. We not only pay subsidies through taxes for them to attend colleges, but we also suffer when such students are ill prepared at graduation.
So college students: a note to you. Your parents are delivering a truckload of change for your education, and you’ve taken out loans that will turn into a mountain of debt sooner than you think.
What are you doing with this opportunity?
Some of you are doubtless serious students. You put in the necessary hours on the books. You’re learning every day.
If the Bureau of Labor Statistics is correct, others of you are treating college as a playground. Are you out carousing every night? Whooping it up at keg parties? Playing video games four, five, six hours a day? You may work out at the college gym or swim in the university pool, but I have to ask: Have you set foot in the university library?
If you are not learning, you may win a degree, but you are shortchanging yourself. This opportunity for learning won’t come again. When you graduate and go out into the world of work, marriage, and children, life becomes a whirlwind.
I’m delighted you have the opportunity to attend universities and colleges. I am eternally grateful for my own education and want the same for you. This is your golden time for learning. Take a class on Greek philosophy. Study calculus. Learn a foreign language. Tackle a biology course. Discover the history of your country and of other countries around the world.
We need your learning, intelligence, and talent. If you’re goofing around, you’re letting down the rest of us. Worst of all, you’re letting down yourself.
So hit the books. Cut the games and playtime. You’re not on a vacation. Work hard. Study. Be responsible for your learning and your life.
And to college and university administrators everywhere, quit trying to be country clubs. Get back to the basics. It’s called education.
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