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Senior Contributor

Can we talk about college?

Student loans are an issue with some.  They hang in the background like a cat waiting to pounce on an unsuspecting mouse.  Taxpayers being the mouse they want to pounce on to pay their bills.


It's too late for some people.  But, it's time the education machine was recognized for what it is, a method to employ more teachers.


Education should be treated like a business.  You don't invest hundreds of thousands of dollars to run a lemonade stand.  Yet, that's exactly what college bound kids are often doing.  They major in sociology, psychology, political science, and myriad of other useless bachelor degrees that are fun but have no future earning potential. 


Others like to play games, i.e. football, basketball, baseball and are only there to continue their high school playtime.  Fine if you can afford to waste 4 or 5 years getting a degree and pay for it, but if you have to borrow to play it's ignorant and wrong.  We as a country shouldn't have to pay for your recreation or amusement.


When my kids were in college they had friends that used college loans for entertainment.  Pizza's, beer, movies and TV's were purchased with loan money.  They didn't make the connection that this was money that had to (supposed to) be paid back WITH INTEREST.


Something is sorely lacking in educating children today and there is a bias in the educational system that promotes more formal education.  For many a tech school, an internship or an apprenticeship would serve both them and society much better.


Lastly, as their ancestors before them left home and traveled to better places they need to recognize that a community of  500  doesn't need a geologist or a desert community doesn't need a marine biologist.  When you obtain a degree it's imperative that you recognize where it will be used and be willing to go there as well as what it will pay. 



12 Replies
Veteran Advisor

Re: Can we talk about college?

Yes   Kurt -   What  do  I  do  with  my   Double  Doctorate  Basket  Weaving   degree  - ?


And  my  real  estate  class's    from    T   U ,  will  the  credits  transfer -  ?  


Senior Contributor

Re: Can we talk about college?

"What  do  I  do  with  my   Double  Doctorate  Basket  Weaving   degree  - ?"


teach at Berkeley?

Veteran Advisor

Re: Can we talk about college?

And  my  real   estate  class  credits   from  Trump  U  -  ?  

Senior Contributor

Re: Can we talk about college?


Spot on today. It is hard to disagree with any of it.


Caveat emptor

(Modern day translation: If you don’t know who you are or where you are going in life, college is a d*mn expensive place to find out.)

Senior Contributor

Re: Can we talk about college?

(Intentionally) obscured in the identity play to the anti-intellectualism of The Base.


The Worst Bad Actors in the game are the For Profit Colleges who were permitted to get their snouts and forelegs in the student loan trough by the Bush/GOP Congress* and their hedge fund/private equity grafters.


Predictably,  loans really exploded then and default rates followed a few years later. Even to Our Veterans (boohoohoo if it was dems).


Anyway, might as well aspire to Free College since the right needs a strawman to knock down but the much more practical and egalitarian option would be free 2 yr. community college. For those of limited means they can manage two additional years at a state institution.


First tier colleges generally support that- they have more than enough applicants and would gladly take 2 yr. graduates rather than washing out a third of their students in the first two years.


But it would be a (well deserved) dagger to the heart of all but the best of the for profits. Who will buy a lot of GOP votes to forestall that.




*and still fiercely protected by Our Gal Bets- along with the student loan industry.

Senior Contributor

Re: Can we talk about college?

I should have included community colleges as an option.  The tuition for a community college is a little over $5000.  If a student lives at home she can matriculate for about $6500 a year.  With judicious selection of courses she can transfer those credits to a state college and get a degree.


I know this is possible and reasonable.  One of my kids did exactly that and ended up working at a west coast company after graduation from one Iowa state college.  That kid started at more than I make in 2 years.  


The reason it worked was simple, they followed the rules I've suggested;

get a degree that is worth something world wide

get a degree that will pay for itself in a short time

go to school as a job, not a playground

research before going to find what path to graduation is most economical and gives a complete understanding of the major

do internships 

Senior Contributor

while the Dems are pretty darn corrupt

the Rs are a flat out pay to play racketeering organization.


Pharma*, "defense", for profit prisons and "colleges", the student loan "industry", Wall Street "deregulation."


As Hanna Arendt observed, the Weimar Republic was not a (word for RW authoritarian state that we can't use here, we'll substitute "X") state- it was a severely troubled republic- but the X's managed to convince their followers that it was, making the imposition of Xism easy.


And thus it is with "yeah, but whatabout Crooked Hillary" which is cited as justification for having a wannabe dictator challenging the constitutional order.


*Trump will get abut as far with that one as he did with NAFTA.

Senior Contributor

Re: while the Dems are pretty darn corrupt

........payday lenders, nutritional supplements.......

Senior Contributor

Re: while the Dems are pretty darn corrupt

.......for profit immigrant detention facilities.......