quebec tuition about generational unfairness

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/personal-finance/rob-carrick/young-adults-have-a-right-to-be-up-in-arms/article2420563/

Talk to your kids before you dismiss those Quebec student demonstrators as a bunch of spoiled malcontents.

Even if they’re not on their way into the streets to protest rising university tuitions, young adults have some legitimate grievances about the growing financial divide between them and the older generation.

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D - the author lists jobs, real estate -then social programs.

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Think about social programs – Old Age Security is being preserved untouched for today’s seniors by taking benefits away from younger Canadians, and we haven’t yet seen what changes will be required to our health care system as the population ages.

The Quebec demonstrations can’t be dismissed as simply an example of the province’s strong tradition of social activism, and neither are they the actions of selfish youths who aren’t satisfied with the lowest post-secondary tuitions in North America. What’s going on in the province is a fight by twentysomethings to be heard by governments that seem to have little interest in them...

Large student debts would be both tolerable and fair in an economy where graduates can get on with their careers fairly quickly. But, anecdotally at least, this doesn’t seem to be the case...

Some argue that cutting tuition only benefits well-off families because they’re the only ones who can afford to send their kids to university or college. Maybe so, but the net result of tuition costs at current levels is that, according to the Canadian Federation of Students, the average debt for university graduates is almost $27,000.

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D - yeah, Globe and Mail  yesterday had an article pitching 'fair' or 'income progressive'.
Aid never replaces, $ for $, gov't university funding. The ways aid distorts lower and middle class participation differs - see my earlier blog.
Put another way, Quebec students are defending their privileged status of low tuition - the sole remaining perk that the Baby Boomers took for granted in post-secondary education! Hard to describe this is a sense of entitlement unless you wish to condemn the Boomers universally!
I say privilege in the sense that low tuition is not a constitutional right.
But privileges should sometimes be maintained.