I've known people who had rich 300k+ parents that were the "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" kind of people who were able to pay for private college with a high school job back in the day. They feel that they were teaching their kid a valuable lesson.
They didn't get any help for college and were disqualified from all financial aid.
The above may sound a little like venting, but it's more to stress the point that financially stringent or irresponsible parents, or parents who just don't believe in investing in kids, is a negative drag on the economy and we are under-utilizing young people's intellectual potential by stressing them out over money.
Related to the top-level post, I'd be angrier at rich families gaming the system except this is absolutely a whole system that needs re-worked from near-scratch.
All to say, my grades and ability to engage fully at school were strongly impacted by my financial situation. I wouldn’t wish my college situation on others. But I have no regrets. For me, it was character-shaping. That’s more important than economic opportunity and success.
The people really getting the short stick are middle class kids who don't qualify for aid and cannot afford it out of pocket.
Not everyone should go to college, and if you do go it really better be worth the investment. I chose to go to community college and transfer, and I ended up finishing college with no student loan at all because I worked through my two years in community college.
This was largely because they taught me to value the ROI on any investment. I not only don't think they did anything wrong, but I think those lessons are much more valuable, because the stress of college payments was on my shoulders, and thus I had more personal investment in succeeding.
By the time I transferred I had saved enough to cover the full tuition + living costs for my last two years of college, coming out debt-free.
The big acknowledgment I'll make is that rent where I'm from was really cheap and I'm generally on the frugal side, so I was able to save up most of my income those first few years of college. I recognize not everyone is in that kind of position, but if people are they really should take advantage of this system if they really want to go to college.
For people with that experience it makes sense to just separate the student from the parents but I'm not sure how to fairly account for people with rich parents who contribute. Just make college affordable for everyone!
What does this mean? The government wouldn't issue them a loan at all? Or that they wouldn't subsidize the interest?
IDK the specifics that OP was talking about, but my assumption is that instead of being able to get need based assistance (due to being unable to demonstrate "need" since their parents were so wealthy) these people would have been forced to take out loans.
Depending on specific circumstances, this can mean anything from having to go to a different school, to being strapped with tens of thousands of dollars of additional debt, to being entirely unable to pay for school at all.
Just to unpack a few things here (baring in mind I'm a true "eat the rich, tear them from their ivory towers" type socialist).
1- College is WAY too damn expensive, and that's the majority of the conversation. We do a terrible job teaching finance to children and then we expect them to graduate high school and understand what they're undertaking when they sign on for student loans.
2- "Cruelty" is about intent. Rich people can be cruel to other rich people by inflicting financial difficulties on them. They can also be entirely reasonable and attempting to teach them a lesson about hard work and "earning your keep" and what not. It's entirely situational and too difficult to throw a broad statement that covers every situation. This is more about philosophy than anything objective.