Well, there’s a couple reasons why college has gotten so expensive.

大学学费变得如此昂贵 有多种因素

First of all is: states are cutting higher education funding.

第一：各州都在削减高等教育资金

Second thing is: supply and demand.

第二：供需关系

What we have is a crisis where to get onto the job ladder, the few decent jobs left—

我们正在遭遇一场危机 人人都想登上工作阶梯 仅剩的少数体面的工作——

that have healthcare, that have security, that have a pension—they all require a college degree.

有医保 有退休金 安全可靠——都要求大学文凭

So you have to go to college, basically.

所以你必须得上大学

And yet the actual number of spaces in colleges hasn’t really increased.

但大学的实际招生名额并没有增加

Harvard admits something like ten percent more now than they did in the ‘70s,

哈佛现在的招生人数比上世纪70年代多10%左右

so there are more people competing for fewer spots.

人越来越多 坑儿越来越少

And that means that the colleges can just raise the price, and they’ll find somebody to pay it.

这意味着大学可以随意提高学费 总有人愿意买单

No matter how high it gets, somebody is out there paying it,

不管学费多高 总有人照单全收

and so they just raise it and raise it and raise it, and we keep paying it.

所以学校就不停地提价 我们就不停地接单

Colleges are adding services like rock climbing gyms, extra administration, they’re doing more marketing,

大学新增了攀岩健身房 附加管理等服务 他们进行了更多的市场营销

they’re doing these really expensive study abroad programs

开展一些非常昂贵的出国留学项目

and, again, they’re competing over the rich kids,

而且 他们在争取富家子弟

they’re competing over the ten percent and the one percent,

争取那百分之十和百分之一的人

people who are not “cost sensitive.”

这部分人对“开销不太敏感”

Colleges keep throwing services and throwing bells and whistles at them, and they’re just paying it,

大学一直推出新服务项目 并向他们宣传和洗脑 他们就全盘接受

because the entire economy is shifting toward marketing itself to the top ten percent and the top one percent,

因为整个经济都在向这最顶端的百分之十和百分之一的人推销自己

and those are the kids that are going to college now.

正是这些人现在在上大学

The college premium (how much extra you earn for going to college) is 70 percent.

大学附加费（你上大学所挣得的额外费用）是70%

You earn almost double if you go to college on average than if you don’t go to college.

平均下来 你上大学挣的钱基本是不上大学的两倍

So we’re in this bind where you HAVE to go to college

所以我们被迫不得不上大学

or else you end up in a really bad job for the rest of your life,

否则你这一辈子就只能做一些很低级的工作

but them to go to college you have to go into $80,000, $100,000, more than that debt.

但如果要上大学 就得背上八万十万美元的债务

I interviewed somebody for the article that is paying off $311,000 in debt.

为了写文章 我采访了一个人 他还了31.1万美元的贷款

I interviewed another person who was actually a bankruptcy lawyer

我还采访了另一个人 他是名破产律师

who was paying $2000 a month in student loans after he got out of college.

毕业后他每个月都要还2000美元的贷款

And so when you look at how many of us have student loans—

所以如果看看有多少人有学生贷款——

and that we’re paying them off at the time when we’re early in our careers,

我们刚开始工作时要还贷款

we’re not as established in our fields, we can’t afford decent housing,

我们还未站稳脚跟 住不起体面的房子

we aren’t earning very much at that time,

收入微薄

and then we’re also, on top of that, paying a couple hundred dollars a month extra—

最重要的是 我们每月要额外支付几百美元——

that’s money we’re not saving, that’s money we’re not putting to a pension,

这笔钱我们没法存着 没法放到退休金里

that’s money we’re not putting to a home—

也没办法用来买房——

and that extends the period of—what our parents call “adolescence,” but really, insecurity—

这延长了我们——父母所谓的“青春期” 但其实是不安全感——

that extends our period of insecurity into our 30s and our 40s.

它将我们的不安全感延期到了三四十岁

And so if you look at any poll of millennials, more than half say they have put off marriage,

如果看一下千禧一代的调查 有超过半数的人说自己推迟了结婚

they have put off children, they have put off buying a home because of their student loans.

推迟生子 推迟买房 这一切都是因为学生贷款

And student loans are the only form of debt that you cannot get rid of in bankruptcy, so they are literally inescapable.

学生贷款是唯一一种你即便破产也摆脱不了的债务 所以它是无法逃避的

Even if you die, in some states your partner might actually have to pay them off for you.

在某些州 即便你死了 你的伴侣还得帮你还清学生贷款

So this is a ball and chain around the ankle of millions of millennials, and again,

所以这是捆绑在百万千禧一代身上的枷锁 而且

it’s not a choice that we made, it’s the economy that we’re in,

这不是我们做出的选择 而是我们身处的经济环境

that to get onto the job ladder you need to have an education.

为了登上工作阶梯 你必须接受大学教育

One of the things that we forget, and especially our parents forget, is how much cheaper college used to be.

被我们遗忘的 尤其是被父辈们遗忘的一件事是以前的大学有多么便宜

When my dad was in college he worked for ten hours a week in the cafeteria,

我父亲上学时 他每周在餐厅工作十小时

and that was enough for his tuition and a little bit of his rent.

这就足够付他的学费了 还能解决一小部分房租

That doesn’t sound familiar to anybody I know.

我认识的所有人都觉得这不可思议

And what has happened since then is:

从那以后事情变成了：

the cost of education has gone up between 400 and 1200 percent depending on the kind of school you go to.

根据你所上的学校 教育费用上涨了400%到1200%

Meanwhile, minimum wages haven’t really budged, general wages haven’t really budged,

同时 最低工资却没有太大变化 普遍工资水平也没有太大变化

and the price of everything else has gotten higher too.

而其他所有东西的物价都上涨了

So in the early ‘70s it took around 300 hours of minimum wage work to afford a four-year education.

在70年代早期 人们只需要以最低工资工作300小时左右 就能付清四年的学费

By the 2000s it took 4,400 hours of minimum wage work to afford a four-year education.

但到了21世纪 你需要以最低工资工作4400小时才能付清四年学费

There are a lot of really smart people who look at a debt of $100,000 when they get out

有很多很聪明的人 在离开大学时看着10万美元的债务

and minimum payments of hundreds of dollars every month and go, “It’s not worth it.”

每个月最低要还几百美元 他们会觉得“太不值了”

And the problem is the economy really isn’t working for them.

问题是经济并没有为他们服务

If you look at any measure of poverty, unemployment,

看一下贫困数据和失业数据

there’s never been a time in America where it’s worse to not be a college graduate.

美国非大学毕业生的现状从来没有像现在这样惨过

If you want a pension, if you want healthcare, if you want decent wages, if you want security,

如果你想要退休金 想要医保 想拿一份不错的薪水 想要安全感

all of those jobs now require college degrees.

所有这类工作都要求有大学文凭

And even if they don’t require college degrees,

即便它们不要求大学文凭

there’s now so many people with college degrees they’re getting those jobs. Right?

也有很多有大学文凭的人在竞聘这些岗位 对吧？

The hiring manager at a coffee shop looks at two resumes and one has a college degree and one doesn’t,

咖啡店的招聘主管看着两份简历 一个人有大学学位 另一个没有

even if the job doesn’t necessarily require a college degree

即便这份工作不需要大学学位

he’s going to hire the college grad because he thinks they’re smarter, harder working, or whatever.

他也会雇佣那个有大学文凭的人 因为他觉得这个人更聪明更勤奋之类的

And so you’ve got kids that are now systematically disadvantaged because they didn’t go to college,

有很多孩子现在在系统上处于劣势 因为他们没上大学

but it’s understandable that they wouldn’t want to given the cost.

但他们不愿付出那样的成本也是情有可原

And so we need to think about all of the opportunities that we’re missing

我们要想想我们错失的那些机会

by having an entire generation of people who look at the cost of college and decide not to go,

这一代人看着高昂的大学开支 决定还是不上大学了

and what those people could be doing if they went.

如果他们上了大学 现在会在干什么呢

I don’t know if other people have noticed this,

不知道别人有没有注意到

but at my high school the rich kids went to college and the smart kids went to college.

但在我的高中 富有的孩子和聪明的孩子去上了大学

And it feels like there’s this huge tranche of kids that were sort of normal kids

但还有很大一部分资质平庸的孩子

they weren’t exceptional—and those mediocre kids, if they were rich they went to college,

他们不够优秀——这些普通的孩子 如果他们家庭富有 他们就去上大学

and if they were exceptional and they weren’t rich they went to college.

如果他们非常出色但并不富有 也会去上大学

But that leaves out this huge structure of all these millions of people who were just kind of average

但剩下的还有成千上万的平凡子弟

but just didn’t go because they ended up doing something else.

没有去上大学 因为他们选择了其他行业

I think we as Americans forget that we’re the only country where college costs this much,

美国人忘记了我们是唯一一个大学花费如此之高的国家

and we’re the only developed country without a functioning safety net.

也是唯一一个没有有效运作的安全保障的发达国家

It’s a lot better in other countries.

其他国家的情况要好很多

I actually went to graduate school TWICE in Europe, because I couldn’t afford to go in America.

我其实去欧洲上了两次大学 因为我上不起美国的大学

And in lots of European countries it is free. (Tell everyone you know.)

很多欧洲国家的大学是免费的（广而散之）

And a lot of other countries it’s really cheap.

很多其他国家的大学很便宜

And many of the degrees are in English, and those countries are run by adults.

而且很多学位都是英文的 这些国家都由成年人治理

They’re great. Go there.

他们特别好 去那里上大学吧

I also went to community college for two years.

我还上了两年的社区大学

Community college has a bad reputation for no particular reason.

社区大学莫名其妙的有了坏名声

Community colleges are great.

社区大学超级好

So people should consider going to community college and then transferring to a two-year university.

大家应该考虑去上社区大学 然后再转进两年的大学里

There’s nothing wrong with that. We’re all doing our best.

这样做完全可以 我们都在努力生存

Find a cheap way that works for you, and if you can get a visa to leave America and stay left, then do that too.

找到一个适合你的便宜办法 如果你能拿到签证离开美国待在国外 那就这么做吧