In my prime university days, I could afford to work 6 months, take 6 months of classes and repeat. Unfortunately, working for only 6 months is not really an option once I got my first professional IT job so I had to work for several years, then finally quit to go back to school, then end up going back to work before I was done. I did manage to get in some part-time school later, but the economy shortly made that infeasible as well. It's no longer beneficial to my career to possess a papter certification, so I've resigned myself to free-form learning. Incidentally, I was briefly an adjunct professor, but my students all ran away screaming. I'm a better doer than teacher.
Since my University heyday, 3 things have gone up much faster than general inflation. Medicine, housing, and education. Many nations have you covered for medicine and education, but not the good old USA. We have to pay dearly for all 3 and unless you have wealthy parents, that often means student loans.
It's true that a student loan is an investment, but not all investments turn a
profit (I once owned 1000 shares of Air Florida) and many feel that student loans are of that nature these days. Rack up $50,000-$150,000 for an ordinary degree and get offered a $25,000 job? A common joke among US students that the best way to end their student loans is to die. You can forget about medical or law degrees unless you have the right friends or relatives or an uncanny amount of financial luck. You can see this ind all the political pressure put on President Biden to simply forgive all student loans outright.
The insult that goes with the injury, of course, is that salaries have not paced inflation since "Trickle Down Economics" came into fashion (CEOs, obviously excepted). To the point that unless you have a major employer waiting for you at the end of the graduation platform, not only will paying the student loan be problematic, but paying rent (forget about buying a house), buying food, or - apparently now in Texas - even keeping electricity on to run your computer to job-hunt or run air conditioning so you won't die of heatstroke are now virtually impossible.
And when it comes to air conditioning, while it's fun to mock the softness of Americans, the entire nation is located about 10 degrees closer to the equator compared to most of Europe. It's why the "spaghetti western" movies were filmed at the very south of Spain - climate most closely resembers Texas/North Mexico. Yes. I've lived without A/C, but there's reason why the English thought that people in India were lazy - you HAVE to move more slowly in that sort of heat. And siesta.
Again, I'm saying all this from a US-centric view, but it's just the boil on the pimple. Other countries have unaffordable housing and pittance wages, and if some had their way those nations would have the "freedom" of all-you-can-afford medical plans.
So there are a LOT of unhappy young people right now. And though people will endure incredible levels of suffering, especially if fed the right kind of propaganda, a single straw can break an over-loaded camel's back. Ask the French in 1789.
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Just waiting for the peasants to revolt at this point.
