Should they be occupying universities?

Many of the protesting “99 Percent” who are occupying Wall Street complain of staggering student debt.

According to The College Board, average annual in-state tuition and fees at four-year public universities increased by 72% over the past decade. Four-year private college tuition is up by more than 34% over the same time period, during which inflation rose only around 25%.

If banks have played a role in escalating costs that are fueling the “Occupy Wall Street” protests, is higher education blameless?  Universities have clearly failed to focus on keeping college affordable.

… Instead, it’s all about build, expand, rinse and repeat. After all, U.S. News & World Report doesn’t reward affordability.

But maybe the protestors should be occupying K Street?

Companies that are successful lobbying the Washington DC apparatus are simply playing off big government. To kill the effect of lobbying, skewer the beast and make government smaller.

Or looking in the mirror?

“Don’t blame Wall Street, don’t blame the big banks, if you don’t have a job and you’re not rich, blame yourself. It is not someone’s fault if they succeeded, it is someone’s fault if they failed,” the ex-Godfather’s Pizza CEO declared.

ADDED:  Maybe they can start by actually voting.

… only 24% of 18- to 29-year-olds voted in the 2010 mid-term elections….

It wasn’t Wall Street that created easy-to-get student loans and gave young people and incentive to apply for them, the government did that. It wasn’t Wall Street that has made college tuition so absurdly high that four years of student loans ends up creating a crushing debt load, for the most part government did that too. It wasn’t Wall Street that created the monetary conditions that made the Housing bubble possible and used Fannie Mae and Freedie Mac to encourage banks to give out loans to people who shouldn’t have gotten them, government did that. It’s not Wall Street that is saddling their generation with a crushing National Debt and an entitlement system that is unsustainable in its current form, government is doing that.

UPDATE:  Related – Impact of staggering growth of student loans on our children’s future