QuestionerMy question is about college tuition and the problem of rising student debt balances. In the past, prominent philanthropists have founded institutions that are now prominent research universities in our country. Why is this not a bigger part of today's philanthropic debate, the founding of new colleges?
WarrenYeah, I think if you expect a lot of efficiency, financial efficiency in American higher education, you're howling at the wind.
CharlieWell, I do a lot more than Warren does in this field. And I'm frequently disappointed, but Monopoly has kind of, and bureaucracy have kind of pernicious effects everywhere, and the universities aren't exempted from it. But of course they are the glory of civilization, and if people want to give more to it, I'm all for it. I was the trustee of a college that... I saw the endowment go from $8 million to over a billion, and I didn't see the tuition come down, and I didn't see the number of students go up. Nothing went up, except the professor's salaries.
WarrenYeah, from $8 million to a billion. I mean, and very decent people running the place, but when you read the figures on endowment of the big schools, you know, and some of them have really gotten up in the big numbers. The main objective of the people running the endowment is have the endowment grow larger. And that will be ever thus. That is the way humans operate.