Materials... When I was at Pratt, I had a pretty minimal social life, as I was spending just about all my free money on Art Supplies. We used to get unfairly teased that we Art Majors didn't have to spend a ton of money on a stack of textbooks. But as the year wore on, the Art Students were still buying paint, paper, board, charcoal, canvas... etc. etc.

However times change. In 1980, you could outfit a design studio for about $2000, drafting table, chair, instruments, technical pens, rubber cement... and have a little change left to get to an interview with. But now, price of entry is topping $ 15,000, between your Power Mac G5 and Cinema Display, and a stack of professional class software. Adobe Creative Suite? $1200. Quark Xpress? $690. Macromedia Studio MX? $ 1000. Hell, Microsoft Office lists for $440! Then in 2 years, start upgrading it all... Starving artists? You got that right, sparky.

And entry level rates and salaries are about what they were in 1980.

You know, this cartoon isn't really all that damn funny...