The College Lie!
82You are being sold a Lie
What is the worst thing about this lie is it prays on our most basic need to ensure the safety and well being of our children. We are so controlled by the group think; we can't possibly imagine telling our children to do something other than study and work hard and go to college so you can get a good job.
We say it to our children, their grandparents say it, strangers in the shopping line say it, and worse of all the teachers at the compulsory educational institution known as public school beat it into our children daily.
I almost forgot the News media and the movie industry take shots at our children every day with this lie.
So why is it a lie what is so devious about this seeming well intended advice.
First, it is the social conditioning behind the statement; we all know on some level that working as an employee is just a simple extension of the old institution known as slavery. If you do not own your company you are in servitude to that company and the fruit of your labor belongs to your master the company not to you.
When you tell your child to study hard and to go to school; in effect, you are saying please learn how to be the best slave possible so that you may take your seat closer to the master over the other slaves.
Why don't you tell your child to be ingenious and creative and to own their own company?
Why don't you say if you think outside the box and create a new way of doing something we all need you could be the next Sam Walton. Instead, we say study hard and you can be the President.
It is statistically highly unlikely that your child will achieve that goal, so you are teaching your child that goals are silly and unattainable. People who become president come from families of affluence, or people who are creative, and think outside the box and become successful in other endeavors, rarely are they of the studious academic type.
If we all now that owning our own company is the surest way to success, and a comfortable life, why do we steer our children from it. Why do we tell them all of the risks in being an island in and of themselves and tell them the safety in good job, especially a cushy government job.
Why do you glorify a servant’s position such as Policeman, fireman, and even Trash man over that of Founder, Owner, and Director?
I do not want my children to eat from the scraps of the giants table. Eating scraps is what you are sentencing your children to if you push the College Lie.
A College degree for most will equal slavery and here is why. College is big business; it is there to turn a huge profit. It does this on our backs the proud parents and on the backs of our children
The debt generated from the ludicrous prices of classes, pure and simple will enslave most of our children that will pass through the hollowed halls of the University and College system here in the United States.
They charge too much per credit hour and then make you waste almost two years of your life in classes that are of little or no use except to part fools from their money. Don’t get me wrong on this, I do not think the pursuit of knowledge is bad, I think it is one of the noblest pursuits, I just have found you don’t have to pay for it; you can get a book read it and discuss it with peers or other communities. (Like HubPages)
What is worse is that this debt your children cannot escape easily. Not even the debt cure all of Bankruptcy can help them as Student loans are not erased by bankruptcy, just like taxes and child support.
The types of jobs they will choose will not pay them a wage that will allow them to get out from under this debt anytime soon. Even for Doctors and Lawyers, they will spend the bulk of their lives overwhelmed by debt and have about the same amount of disposable income as the grocery store stocker. I know I had many doctor and lawyer clients, It was one of my biggest eye openers when I learned that yes they had a bigger house and a nicer car. (By that I mean it cost more and not necessarily anymore functional) but after all of the bills are paid at the end of the month, they have nothing left to build real wealth, and just like you and I the Bank owns most everything they call their own.
Here is a question to ask yourself, if the types and structures of jobs have not greatly changed since your parents or grandparents worked and they did not have all these degrees why are they needed now? Some will argue the technology has increased, to the level more education is needed. Has it? I am not sure, as I was able to adept many years with the technology. High School is more than equipped to teach all the necessary skills.
Now, of course this gloom and doom isn't for all of our children the Top ten percent will be spared by either scholarship or by organizations that will relieve their debt for a specified time of service (Think indentured servant). But this in and of itself is still slavery in order to be free they must give themselves up to the Military, some Service corps, or some Attorneys organizations. Here are some of the places that can help you if you are buried in Student Loan debt:
AmeriCorps: (800) 942-2677
Peace Corps: (800) 424-8580
Volunteers in Service to America: (800) 942-2677
American Federation of Teachers: http://www.aft.org/teachers/jft/loanforgiveness.htm
The Military: http://www.finaid.org/military
Doctors and Lawyers willing to work in shortage areas have resources as well I just don’t have the contact info for these programs at the moment, but I can get them if you need just email me.
What is worse this college debt which requires minimal payment in college or no payments at all if you come from the less than 50,000 a year tax bracket (this includes your parent’s income for 18 year olds) but the juice kicks in when you graduate.
This puts our children under a burden that requires them to make stupid choices like getting high interest credit cards, and high LTV mortgages, all of this ensure they will work their whole lives giving over most of their working efforts to taxes and interests. This is no life for my child.
The inner workings of this slavery system are very complicated I will try to give the short version here.
Money is imaginary, no the little piece of paper is not imaginary, but the value behind it is. (This realization is what sets the 7 percent of people on the far right side of the bell curve apart from the herd) See imagine if you will, giving a dollar bill to a tribesman in New Guinea. He might think it is a great device for wiping his ass, but it will not have much more value than that. This realization and the creative use of the money press is why we hail Alexander Hamilton a genius.
So here in the US we have the Federal Reserve that prints money, now they circulate the money at a charge (really low right now but still at a charge) since this money is just a creation of their printing press, it has only the value we as the collective give it.
So they care not how much you borrow for your house, for school, for retail purchase, or what not. As long as you pay them interest and taxes for the rest of your life. (Yes President Reagan Revealed when over hauling the tax code that the entire amount of Income tax collected went to paying Debt service to the Federal Reserve) Notice he didn't change it though.
That is right every system that you conceive the government provides, has its own tax that pays for it, or the Money is borrowed and then we pay interest for the rest of our lives. Your income tax only pays debt service.
Last year alone, you worked until April 28th to pay this interest before you ever started working to pay your own interest on the rest of your things.
So the goal is just to get everyone on the hook, so everyone is paying regardless of the level. Just like in Rome some slaves shoveled shit while others ran the government and the Household finances of the wealthiest families. They dress nice look important and roll in a flashy chariot but at the end of the day they went to bed as slaves just as most of us do at night.
So, we get most of our children to enter school take on a lot of debt and get fed a bunch of useless facts that will seldom fit into their occupation or their career or in slave speak which whip cracker they will serve under.
What is worse, for those of us that try to venture out on our own, the bankers are their to make sure they will own the largest stake in our business and to ensure that we are sufficiently ham strung that 95% of these enterprises will fail, and we will be at it again either working or building another business where most of the revenue will be handed over to the bank.
Solution time, I did not go to college initially, I had a friend of mine in high school that would boldly declare he did not need college and did nothing to participate in this fraud. I of course did as most, and failed conservatively and sided with the majority and ridiculed his statements. As time went on as it always does, I do believe he was the first and only millionaire from my class in high School. He was big into archery and bow hunting, and opened an archery shop and then another and another. Then he had the first holographic archery range in Oklahoma, it was a huge hit. Well as you know the rest is history. He never paid a college loan he used his grandparent’s college money to get started.
I watched in disbelief as he proved the crowd wrong, and as some of those who laughed, now work for him. Realizing his genius I took the college money my grandparents saved for me and bought a Duplex at 20. I kept leveraging this amount, until I would be considered very wealthy by most.
But, at last I read too many books on using other people money and borrowing. Ironically, I didn't realize the books I was reading, were written by a man who made his real living as Chief of the Board of Directors for a large bank. These same guys act as professors at business schools and write books and articles on how financing is the business end all solution. What a great advertising scam going into the University and telling young impressionable students your product is the only way to succeed. (Many Universities use this as a tool by saying they have real life professionals teaching the curriculum)
Long story short, I got over extended then divorced and found myself right back where I started. So what did I do? I used my GI bill and went to college. Now going to college after you have been successful and then seen failure first hand, it gives you an entirely different perspective. I was easily able to see through the veil of propaganda of the text books and instructors. I realized the very information they gave, would lead you to the same path I just went down. Imagine me trying to correlate my real life experience with these professors, of course they did everything to censor me and shut me down and ridicule my statements.
Well, you know what all of the people I kept up with, went down the same path and are trapped under pounds of debt trying to make their good ideas and passion turn a profit while paying heavy interest. It is no way to win.
It was there that I realized the entire system was stacked and designed to make sure we pay for the rest of our lives.
So, save your money for your child, but encourage them to use it to build something that will last for generations. Teach them to avoid credit and not be fooled by the charlatans and salesmen that will show them charts and graphs on why a loan is better for them. They use quirky phrases like opportunity cost analysis. (I used to be one of those salesman the crazy thing was I was convinced I was giving the best advice)
Stop teaching our children to mistrust each other, all the great empires were created by syndication. It is getting the group together pooling their assets and intellect to create something that will endure for all time.
Most of all stop preaching the College Lie. I do not want you to inadvertently guide my child to the path of slavery in your attempt to pass on good will. The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
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Could not have said it better. You pretty much summed up "higher education" in America. It's fine if you're shooting for doctor/lawyer/engineer territory. otherwise, you'd be better off going into business for yourself.
I never really went to college, a few classes here and there, it sucks that no matter what I accomplish in career that they will no doubt ask, "so where did you go to school?" I often wonder though if I missed out on that challenge of college, the tough professor that would round my rough edges. I've had a tougher time I know without that degree and don't recommend my road for anyone, however, I deal with engineers all the time and found in some respects some of them are all education and no common sense. Great hub.
You're right. There is a world of difference between what we are taught in school and what we get to see in the real world. Everyone should have a basic college degree, though. It just gives you a platform to step on and build your empire, the way you want. Good hub.
Hello,
I come here because you asked where I was so here I am :)
Your rant is very interesting, if I was to go on with hubpages, I would make an article referencing it. But I will just comment here by saying that since long Education of Everything from Economics to History has been designed to be hiddenly controlled:
According to Alexandra Robin journalist and author of New York Times Bestseller “Secrets of the Tomb”:
“In the 1880s, Skull and Bones created the American Historical Association, the American Psychological Association, and the American Economic Association so that the society could ensure that history would be written under its terms and promote its objectives. The society then installed its own members as the presidents of these associations.”
Indeed I have checked in Encyclopedia Britannica: Richard Ely and John Bates 2 of the 3 co-founders of AEA (American Economic Association) and in Antony Sutton’s book “America’s Secret Establishment, an Introduction to the Order of Skull and Bones they are indeed listed as Skull and Bones (1907 and 1909 respectively).
Misha,
Happy New Year to you my friend!
ArtfulDodger,
Pretty Much!
GoldentToad,
I worked as an Engineer for a long time before I went to College, I used to hate the little rubs. Then I went to College and was like why the hell did I ever let that bother me. They just use it because it makes them feel good. But, at the end of the day I made more than most of the College geeks and that was the real root of the issue. If you just have to know like me then by all means go to college, but I think you will find you could have spent your money better elsewhere.
angelicha,
I agree with a basic educational degree to some extent, if you did not get the learning earlier which is true for many. But, the problem is still the wasted hours in classes just to get it. It is hard for me to get my mind around that part. Plus, very few basic degree teach true problem solving and fundamental analytical and critical thinking skills. Just waste of time facts to dazzle and impress.
TheCounterPunch,
Thank you for the comment. I have a very high regard for your articles and their content. I very much appreciate you stopping by. I was indeed aware of the many so called accrediting and standards organizations being started by early industrialist in order to maintain control of the end product. Again Thank you.
TMG
I think every one should have a college degree and then they can go around and look for their own creative idea. You always need to learn basics before starting anything and better to learn from others, makes the whole process is faster.
TMG- In layman terms there is a difference between skill and education. Skill can be picked up much more quickly than education for example today one might learn a technology like C++ then tomorrow .net and so on but it won't teach some one how to start from the scratch without a background in Algorithms/Data Structures which is imparted in education. Also you seem to advocate a lot of entrepreneur ability but statistically it is almost as difficult to become another Sam Walton as it is to become the President of US. So for the majority what do you advocate?
Dang! I didn't even finish college and am still paying for it. They hate "idealist", really doesn't score well on finals and since I like to say what I think, I saw a lot of F's, especially in speach and sociology.
You know how many times I had to take sociology? Ok, just twice but fortunatly for me, the second time around, my professor was "cool" enough to let me speak while the other one usually ended in bitter or petty arguments about "emperical evidence" while dicussing The Allogory. Ironic?
Then I ended up going to a trade school and becoming a certified veterinary technician which I ended up quiting on accounts of the way "many" vets treat the animals and the lack of compassion they could show for anything but money. I never leave my pets alone at the vet.
Oh when will it end? I figured out that college was a bunch of bullshit when I realized I was being "censored", while preaching how we should think outside then recieving bad grades for creative thought?
I really have learned more from reading on my own and learning from real people and of course the best one of all, trial and error. :P
I hear you'd like to change a few things if you could. As it is we are paying with our lives as our collective activities poison and destroy the planet that sustains us. As a culture we seem to have the words profit and exploitation confused. Profit should mean a real positve value is created from an activity not a transferrence of suffering as when someone or something is carelessly exploited. We have granted rights to corporate entities that actually operate against or own best interests as Human Beings and citizen's Democracy. I don't think waiting for the government or corporations to change is a good strategy, morelike we are the government and we need to be working on a better way to live together. I' support a system of work-study or community service-study that continues or opened up peoples' opportunity to educate, experience and integrate a good path for themselves to sucede. This would be a continuation of public education I say we build less weapons to pay for. That's one idea.
Living in a culture, ie. western civilization, that has proved no understanding of how Human Beings can live in peace or even sustainably on this Earth for the past several thousand years, suggests good advice is hard to come by, especially from one of its institutions. Since cultures are "our stories of who we are, what we do and why we do it", everyone should learn who they are, what they are doing and why they are doing it. The less you know about yourself the more likely you'll be railroaded down a path for someone elses benefit.
We all have a great deal of power and rights as citizens to change the framework of our culture. The trouble is most people don't learn (and certainly those in control of the system don't teach) the understandings and principles that frame our system of government, or our rights, or where we lost our rights.
Start with The Declaration of Independence, "very inspiring", and The Constitution of the United States of America. I must admit I have not read the whole Constitution line by line, funny how that was never part of my formal public education. But I have read through it enough to be a trouble maker if someone's trying to pull the wool over my eyes. This is free at the library. That's good for becoming wise and knowledgible AND STAYING OUT OF DEBT.
Everyone needs to "Know thyself" and learn the real way we are going to have to live on our planet and with each other, to hand any kind of a livable future to our children.
Stellar Article!!!
I am a high school educated business owner and engineer and could not agree more with you article!!
Great hub. Being in the Corps before school and then an athlete I still came out owing. Worse was the treatment I recieve from profs., TA, and stupid 17 yr. olds who thought they knew what war was about. Though I loved my college yrs, well the ones when I was in the pool, I wouldn't recommend for all. Keep up the great work.
You never seem to amazed me MoneyGuy, great hub. I must point out though, there is a big different between an Education & a Trade. One can acquire a trade without committing himself to a four year degree. A trade can be a brick layer, a mechanic, a crane operator, a machinist or even a nurse all of which doesn't necessarily require a costly four year degree. To obtain these trade can be 6 months to a year. A trade can be advantageous to an individual in the sense that it provides him with a tool that he/she can use to start his own business without having to contributes to an outrageous school loans that are tremendous.
A four year degree involves a trade plus an education. An individual who has obtained a four year degree does not necessarily must submit himself to slavery. There are those who have acquired a four year education so that they can learn how to make their money works for them. In this case no physical labor is involve. I consider those folks to be temporarily free from slavery until someone like Mad-off still all their money. ( I just don't understand how people can trust an investor who goes by the name of Mad Off ) Anyway, If one acquire a degree so that he can learn how to manage his business doesn't relieves him from slavery. It must also be understood that not every one are able to learn on their own. If that was the case the level of illiteracy wouldn't have been that high. There are those who in fact depends on others to think for them and tell them the best possible route to take. Under no circumstances can those individuals learn on their own.
Your argument is that we should not tell our children to go to college so that their can be slaves. Instead you're proposing other alternative such as starting a business, learn from other source of educational network such as the Internet independent radio stations etc. That is all good and sound with the exception that most of us don't have this capability nor do we have the opportunity to access a computer. Looking at world at large, having access to the Internet is a privilege. If children all over the world were able to have access to all this knowledge that is now available via the Internet many old ideas would have been resurrected with new concept which would have made them appealing to the new generation.
Beside the outrageous debt received after graduating from a creditable college, the education one received most often are not up to par with the real world. Like you said universities are business first before they are an establishment of knowledge. Since Universities have investors then it's in their best interest to protect their investment by teaching what's in agreement with their investors. If governments must issue grants to colleges & Universities students then what those students learn must comply with government rules. This is why very often you'll find a college student who doesn't understand the focus point of terrorism. Private Universities like Harvard, Yield, Princeton on the other hand, do teach the truth but except the student pays a lot more to acquire this knowledge. Which very often live the student with accumulated debt that can take a long time to be repaid regardless their high income salary. What's apparent is that the person who is self thought can be as educated as a Harvard grad except that he will never be given credit for it. No matter how smart he proves himself to be, he can't never obtain a high position in any corporation without having to show proof of that education. If that was not the case then a college education would not have held so much value. I should also admit that they have been examples of people who were self thought that were given recognition. People like Malcolm X is one ...and I'm sure there's more than I can think of.
We are all subjects of a single system. It does not matter how much we have achieved in our lives we can all crumble under that system. That system takes precedent over our lives, it has been in existence way before the constitution. Slavery is inescapable, owning your own business doesn't make you free. Trust me, I've tried it an I found myself working harder than when I was working for someone else. The monitory system may change but those who control it will continue to do so. They are tribes in Africa who still exchange services for goods but they exist in a small community. In most Jewish communities they exchange services for money among themselves. This is why before a dollar exit the Jewish community, it circulate among them 17 times. This is why they have been so powerful as a people, they have learn to keep the money within themselves and to be frank with you, I don't blame them.
Nice Hub! I agree with you in every aspect. I never went to college and am so thankful for it. I've been a slave for most of my life, but now i'm slowly beginnning to break free!
Hoorayyyyy!
I really enjoyed my university education - but then again, I didn't have to pay for it!
You summed it up that the education system has gotten out of wack and has become a big business. Most of them do not want you to finish in 4 years, but want you to stay around for 5.
I am of the opinion that 2 year of college should be taught at the high school level (or 2 years of a trade.) Most of the high school classed taught during the last two years are very inefficient. High schooler take Biology, Physics, Chemistry, Writing classes, Pre-Calculaus classes. Then when they go to college, they have to turn around and take these classes again. What a waste of time.
Also, colleges tuition are getting so high. It is rediculous. University of Wyoming in-state tuition fees is only about $700 a semester, and they are offering all in-state high school graduates scholarships for that. College doesn't have to be expensive.
Project like the government grant systems has made this even more ridiculous because the college know they can get the money from the government. So inflate the tuition, government will pay for it. What's the difference between $30,000 and $13,000 tuition, if the governmant pays for everything above the $13,000 mark.
I heard a saying, you think education is expensive, try ignorance.
Our system in the UK is different. We study a max of 5 subjects (usually 3 or 4) for two years from the age of 16 to 18, and at university, study just one thing, such as law (which I did) or medicine, history, whatever. Occasionally people do two things, such as two languages, or Law with French Law, or whatever. A normal undergrad degree is 3 years.
My 3rd child owes in college tuition after 2 years what my older two owed after 4 years. The cost has gone way up and the aid way down.
What they learned in college was how to drink and do drugs, which were encouraged by some of the teachers.
So much information could be taught in High School instead of most of the nonsense taught these days. They should have mandatory subjects like money, interest, business, taxes, all the things everyone needs to know to have a normal, decent life.
Problem is, they don't really want everyone to know how money works because then they can't take advantage of you as easily.
My 3rd child has decided after two years of college and not being able to get in to the classes he wants to take, to quit and be in business full time with his brother as well as keep drumming for his band.
Great hub. I put myself through college twice. I had to borrow money to finish my master's degree. The most money I ever made at a job was $18.82 an hour working in the call center of a multinational insurance company--a job that made me want to hang myself every single minute of every single day. That works out to around $34K a year, which is not a fortune, though it is at least a living wage. All my other 'jobs' have paid between $8 and $12 an hour--and I have two of these worthless degrees.
I taught college for two years as an adjunct instructor. I made $1700 per semester per class. We were limited to two classes per semester and one each summer session, which meant the most we could make teaching was $10,200 a year, and we had to design the classes, order all the books and outline the syllabus, plus grade all the papers, meet with students individually, and actually teach the damn classes, and so on and so forth. I figured it out per hour once and it came to about $3/hr when you totalled all the time you put in at home.
If you taught a successful course, a tenured professor would usually argue that he or she should be teaching it, not you, and they'd just take it away from you and give it to the tenured prof, so you'd be back to square one after doing all the work for them.
In spite of all that, I love books and I love to learn things, so it makes me sad that there is so little respect for learning and scholarship in this country. I don't think people should kiss my ass just because I went to college, but it would be nice if they didn't laugh at me for doing it. That would be a nice start.
You are right though--College in the US is just a money mill. They don't care if those students ever get jobs, they don't care what happens to them. I used to tell my students, "If you are paying to attend classes here so you can get a good job, leave now. All you need for a good job is a good idea and suit, and you don't really need the suit."
My brother just lied and told his employer he had a bachelor's degree in economics and they hired him on the spot to sell factory widgets--they never even checked. He could've been a serial killer for all that employer cared--in fact, come to think of it, that might have been an asset.
Now I'm depressed. But hey--Great hub!
The Irony of the whole thing is in the US we have the worst high schools and the Some of the Best Universities in the industrialized world. But, unless your in the ten percent or so that will get into those programs at those schools on scholarship. You are just there to pay tuition to support those programs.
Is going to College a bad thing, not entirely. If you are there to learn for yourself, or you have reached a point in your life where you have money to use for higher learning it is a great thing. The pursuit of knowledge is a grand endeavor.
I don't think the average 18 year old has reached that point in their life, so that is why I think the system is wrong. It is just taking a lot of parents money and not delivering much more than a piece of paper. Also, higher education for employment is mostly unnecessary with the exception of a few fields.
As for going to trade school again it is mostly money down the toilet as well. Most employer have their own special process that they use. They will hire you based on your basic understanding of the machine process, but after that they will conduct their own training making the process redundant and time wasting.
In all the Public shipyards I have worked the Trade Codes used an apprentice program, those guys who completed that were always the first choice for hire, making any other skills education worthless.
We could easily teach all the basic Tech skills in high school letting the employer finish whatever detail training that is needed. And keep a college prep class for those going to professional careers. Again the time to do this would be less than 4 years putting a huge savings into the whole process.
The worst thing for the process is using loans. This excess of money into the system drives prices up. Supply and demand, this keeps the price artificially elevated so that money must be borrowed to continue the process. The same industrial foundation that created the Universities will still fund them to a level necessary to supply them with the number of professionals needed. They aren't going to let their company tank because the government doesn't artificially inflate prices.
The reason there is a student loan program is to make a profit for those who give the loans. They do not help anyone that has an actual need, but hurts them by increasing the cost of the education by the percentage added to the loan and forcing them to pay for a long period. For those who truly have a need there are grants that do not have to be repaid. For those who are in the middle not smart enough or accomplished enough for scholarship and not poor enough for grants, means you are just prey for the predatory practice of convincing you that you must go to school and you must borrow to do it. Welcome to the long process of handing all of your earnings over to the CORPORATACRACY.
Great article MoneyGuy!. I think you're right; people are so brainwashed as to the absolute necessity of college that they are willing to pay whatever amount necessary (with good intentions of course). Because of this college directors keep jacking up the price more and more, and I personally think that this strain on middle class families played a not so insignificant role in the economic downturn we are currently going through.!
Great article. Like you, I went to college on my GI Bill after I had already been moderately successful at something else. My wife is a doctor and we're gonna start paying that debt soon! I won't trap my kids in the college lie because of a friend of mine who dropped out of college to work at McDonalds.
He did whatever jobs were necessary, learned the trade, rose in the ranks quickly, and pretty soon they sent him to Hamburger U to learn how to be a General Mgr. He turned a couple of stores around, moving wherever McD's asked, and then he left McD's to work for Rain Forest Cafe in Florida. They guy is a huge success in the hospitality industry with no degree to his name.
Thank you for the Comments
TMG
Good Stuff - I agree 100%
Here ius a video that backs up what you say and ads a whole bunch more.
I enjoyed college because I was learning something I enjoyed, not because I thought it was going to make me money. But when getting to the grad level I just couldn't agree with what they were teaching about Globalism. At that point it just seemed pointless. The only thing I learned throughout the college experience was how to write.
i also love my college days as we can say that they are the golden days in our life full of entertainment and masti and as soon as we come out of it then full of tensions and burdens on you. so only i like my college days and never forget them in my life time
You have a thought provoking hub and thought provoking comments. I have thought many of these things myself but would not have been able to express them as articulately as you have.
College isn't only what you learn in class, I learned about peope. Are you from Oklahoma? I went to OU.
Do you really think a CEO is a slave? He works for the shareholder's. I paid my student loan back in three years, it wa worth every penny.
America does need workmen, they an't all have their own company. Do you realize that 90% of new businesses go under within a year.
Harvey,
For sure there is more to the College experience than the academics. They are great places to network. I believe that if you know that is what you are there to do, then there is value in that.
On the CEO subject I think it bears careful examination. Yes, I think CEO's are under attack. I see a lot of the scrutiny on their pay and compensation as something pushed by shareholders in the background. Why does the government need to be involved in what appears to be legitimate contracted compensations. They are using the angry mob to better the share owning class, I do not think that is progress that is good for our country.
Yes, America does need workmen that is exactly my point. There is no intrinsic value to "Would you like Fries with that!" That is why America is losing ground. If we do not have intrinsic value in our economic system, we will fail as a people. Right now there is a mass movement to exploit the wage arbitrage in overseas markets. This will put money into the shareholders pockets, but will reduce the masses to service sector employment. Call it what you will but the majority will not be workers, but will be servants.
And my last point, is for you the student loans were worth it, but over time the value is reduced as more people carry degrees the value goes down. If tuition continues to rise and the amount of debt incurred increases, with a smaller return on investment, then no the system is not sustainable.
For people that are older I think this is hard to grasp, because it is judged by their experience, and that is not what is happening to today's college grad.
Yes, I was born in Stigler, OK I served in the Navy and now I work out in West Texas. I look forward to more conversation.
TMG
TMG: I received a degree from a major university thirty-three years ago. The only thing, in hindsight, that I can say went right about the experience was the fact that my parents and I paid for my education in full without taking out any loans. By the way, we weren't rich. I was the first member of my family to attain that high of an education. The thing that sticks with me about the whole experience was the seemingly pervasive pessimism of the faculty. That pessimism, unfortunately, has remained with me to this day! I entered college under the illusion that I would learn things that would prepare me for the future and would allow me to obtain higher income and a better life. Nothing could have been further from the truth! Call me a cynic, but the path to alot of job security and higher income is good old fashioned ass-kissing. That's where I went wrong. I just never kissed enough ass to satisfy an employer. Institutions of so-called higher learning are merely a front for educational racketeers to ply their trade of having their hand out wanting a gift from a fool!
PeeDeeWildcat,
That pretty much sums it up, and it doesn't matter what generation you come from either.
TMG
great article... i seriously dont understand all of my highschool teachers have their bachelor degrees and phds and they are at a school teaching for minimum wage. They are totally contradicting themselves."you'll be wealthy and be succesful and have a great life... my grandfather did not even finish highschool and has totally effected our family we are living in a huge house and are very succesful my father now runs the business and is doing great.
You have stated the real picture. I had 10 years of college and I have to agree with pretty much everything you said. My stepfather never even finished High School, but just one of the many things he did was become the chairman of the board of a local bank, with 9 branches, he helped start because he hated banks.
Great view and insight. I don't know what the answer is really. I feel we should all roll the sleeves up- be policemen, firemen, garbage collectors, teachers, indeed - helpers, brothers' keepers. My daughter is going to college on my Vietnam service. I want the best for her. It has enabled her to travel and truly learn. Our debt system creates slaves. Very often money is freedom or extra freedom. A $100 fine isn't as much to the "more well off" as it is to a common laborer. I just look around and there is such inequality. Most folks struggle while some college grads worry that their family outing to Yosemite or Europe may not be perfect. Their pictures will say "perfect".
Hi, love the hub and we agree 100%! My brother and I both went to college, and we weren't slackers by any means-we're both honors students, good grades, good extra curriculars, hard workers, and the end result a few years down the line is that neither of us would even consider going to college if we had to do it over. First of all the million dollar number is a huge lie, and second we've both found more success ding things in the real world that college degrees did not help us with. Good to know at least some people are really beginning to take on the college myths, because those student loans have nearly wrecked my life-and kids need to know the truth of what they're getting into before making life altering decisions like college and student loans.
Good Day TMG
I like your style. I've been meaning to read this hub for some time, and I'm sorry it took me so long to get around to it. I voted it up for useful.
You did a good job tying this in with your hub about The Ownership Fallacy, in several places. It's an important point you made about college and graduate school-educated doctors and lawyers, who like the estate managers of ancient Rome, may have a more luxurious lifestyle -- at the end of the day they went to bed as slaves, because like with everybody else, the bank owns their home, their car, etc. Excellent!
Your view that a "job" is an extension of slavery, puts you firmly in a homegrown tradition of American radicalism. In the nineteenth century a lot of people, maybe most talked the way you do. They took it for granted that a job was little better than slavery in that it was a "temporary" condition.
They saw wage labor as an infringement on rights and human dignity. I hear that this was the platform of the Republican party of Lincoln at that time (despite his campaign image of the 'rail splitter,' Lincoln had a vociferous hatred of manual labor).
I'll have to come back another time and read the discussion. But I also liked your point about the structure of work (then with our parents and grandparents, as compared to now) and that mismatch between this and the excessive "qualifications" being demanded for jobs today.
I also struck by yur insight (I had genuinely never thought of this that way before) about those programs that allow you to cancel your college debt in exchange for service. You said we should think of that kind of thing as a milder form of slavery, indentured servitude. Yes!
Well done!
Misha 3 years ago
Amen! :)
And Happy New Year! :)