Tell that to the "teach everyone to code" people. You know, the ones who have spent most of the last decade claiming that the way to build a solid life is to mortgage your future to whatever extent necessary to get a STEM credential, and once you have that, you're all set.

“teach yourself to code” is about not going to college to learn how to code. It says that right there on the tin. You don’t have to get tens of thousands worth of debt. Go to a local state school.

I also know a lot of people who either didn't buy into that, or couldn't, because they weren't born into a situation where even as bad an option as mortgaging their future was available. They don't see any better hope in the "economic system" than to spend their whole lives working three shit jobs, never having time to breathe, and never having even the basic level of "I won't be homeless in a month even if I lose my income today" security that you and I have, and you probably take for granted. (I don't; I've been close enough to homelessness to know better.) Those people are furious, too, and why shouldn't they be?

Name a scenario where someone can’t go to some college somewhere because of affordability between government grants and loans?

It's not just the West Coast, either, and it's not just tech. I live in Baltimore, and housing prices in this town have more than doubled in the last twenty years, most of the increase occurring in the last ten. As I alluded to before, I've been fortunate enough to stay ahead of that. Most people aren't. And no one should need to be lucky to have a reliable, healthy place to live.

The home ownership rate in the US is 65% (https://www.census.gov/housing/hvs/files/currenthvspress.pdf). The majority of Americans are homeowners.

There are around 600K homeless in America out of 300 million people. (https://endhomelessness.org/homelessness-in-america/homeless...). I’m not saying homelessness isn’t a problem but let’s not over exaggerate when we have statistics.

That doesn't account for regional differences in starting pay, or how your imaginary Omaha kid can't expect to make that kind of money starting out

Let’s take Omaha Nebraska. 65% homeownership rate.

https://www.rentcafe.com/average-rent-market-trends/us/ne/om...

You can also find a cheap one bedroom there for less than $600

https://www.rentcafe.com/cheap-apartments-for-rent/us/ne/oma...

Going by the 30% rule of thumb, that should be affordable by someone making $24K a year. Yeah that’s about how much I was paying when I was making that much.

I mean, I get that you want to blame all these people for the shitty situation they've found themselves in, but what I don't get is why. Why do you want to make it their fault? It doesn't take much benefit of the doubt to assume that they're no more foolish and no more stupid than you and I were when we were young

Unless you are emancipated, you can’t sign up for FAFSA unless your legal guardian sign with you. Yes I was dumb, that’s what adults are for. I told my son that he would have to go to a two year college at first and then he could transfer to a four year local college and stay at home. I also told him that we wouldn’t pay for a degree where the return wasn’t worth it.

Like, when we were kids the joke was about "underwater basket-weaving", now you're making it about ancient Chinese art history, but it's still basically the same joke, and it already wasn't a good joke even when it still had the virtue of novelty.

It’s not a joke. It’s the job of parents to help their children make good decisions. We have the internet now. It’s not hard to research potential salaries based on major.

So, what? Is it that you think nothing has changed in the decades between our own youth and today? I have a hard time imagining anyone could actually think that, but you're not really giving me a lot to work with here. Will you please explain your thinking, so I can at least understand where you're coming from on this?

Yes things have changed. I have children that I have had to guide through the process. It’s called being a responsible adult as a parent.