Retaliation makes college costs soar

Answer #4 to the question: Why are college costs soaring?

We hope that all the money given to colleges via tuition payments, endowment earnings, research grants and legislative subsidies is all well spent. We expect that the money gets allocated to improve the quality of education for those enrolled. We trust that money is not wasted, misspent or embezzled. Anyone familiar with how bureaucracies operate would be amazed whenever these expectations get met and money gets well spent. Here's why:

1. Every department in a college bureaucracy has a budget with some funds set aside for discretionary spending. Each department can lose some of their allotment in the next budget cycle if they don't spend all of their previous year's allocation. The system rewards spending everything you've got to not suffer a loss from the constant pressure to cut costs.
2. Large systems assume cost controls control costs. In fact, people control costs by taking initiative, enduring sacrifices, making tough decisions. When people feel understood, respect and validated, they are more willing to take those initiatives, endure the sacrifices and make those tough decisions. Anytime they get treated as if cost controls control costs, they feel misunderstood, disrespected and invalidated. They take it personally.
3. Everyone wants to feel understood by those who are managing us. When we're not getting understood, we try to get our managers' attention in hopes that will get us understood. If we cannot even get their attention, we'll get even with them instead. When we can get somebody's goat by doing our job with a little extra spending, that really works for us. We look good for the extra effort while they look bad for failing to control costs.
4. When we doing something of substantial value, the results speak for themselves. We when doing something of questionable value, we have to impress people with our effort, intentions and dedication. One of the most impressive ways to do that is to spend big bucks. The sky is the limit when it comes to showing off and showing up less impressive efforts. The money poured into questionable endeavors is usually staggering.

All this adds up to a lot of retaliatory spending. College costs soar while those paid to keep costs in line step way out of line to get even with their employer.