Higher education is supposed to be geared to enable you to land a job and making you a critical thinker capable of understanding all sides of important issues; not saddling you with debt. A college education is highly valuable and desirable.

How relevant are courses like The Power of Whiteness, Feminist Economics, Queering the Bible, Rednecks, Queers, and Country Music, and Underwater Basket Weaving available at multiple American universities?

Relevant college majors like nursing teaching and nursing. It was to provide:

– A wide foundation of knowledge,
– A shared reality based on science and a quest and devotion to truth,
– The ability to think critically, understand concepts, make sound judgments,
– Read, write and calculate effectively

The only when you leave college is as a barista at Starbucks, a panini maker at Panera Bread, a porn star, or a gig worker, picking up whatever kind of work you can find.

College teaches you how to be a corporate slave, not a critical thinker.

“Post-college depression” is the hidden cost of a college degree. It’s a mixture of uncertainty, debt, and a lack of skills that college should have provided.

Post-college depression, however, sets you miles back. And some aren’t ever able to recover.

The American Psychological Association reports on average, millennials and young adults experience the highest level of stress than any other generation.

And that stress can be attributed to three primary factors perpetuated by college institutions: debt, social media obsession, and a lack of direction.

“It’s so easy to fall into a hole. College does nothing to prepare you for a 9 to 5, real-working life,” said 26-year-old and fellow Ramapo college alumnus Giancarlo Sepulveda. “You’re thrown into a world of paying bills, looking for jobs and you gain a newfound respect for adults who have been doing this for years.”

It’s funny Giancarlo said that. It reminded me of saying something when you’re older and sounding just like your parents.

Life is cyclical like that.

There are errors in the opening of the other one you might want to correct.
Personally I have a problem in general with the 2^nd one as I believe a college education is highly valuable and desirable. But I get the point. It’s become too expensive.

A 4-yr college was never meant to provide job skills (with a few exceptions relative to majors like teaching and nursing. It was to provide:

– A wide foundation of knowledge,
– A shared reality based on science and a quest and devotion to truth,
– The ability to think critically, understand concepts, make sound judgments,
– Read, write and calculate effectively

… once one went into the workplace. Advanced degrees, on the job training, etc. were to do the job of preparing one for a profession or the skills and knowledge needed for a job in a specific field one finds.

Those with just a HS education were hopefully prepared to work adequately under the direction of well-educated managers and leaders.

I guess those things are no longer valued or, as you say, needed in today’s world. That is hard for me to believe. To me not having such an education leads to managers and leaders who lack crucial advanced abilities to oversee others, to achieve goals or connect with and provide a reality-based work culture, just as we see happening across the country. L

Student Loans

College debt is a form of indentured servitude

You cannot declare bankruptcy on your student loans, unlike most forms of debt. The process of halting payments on your student loans is much harder than if it was for your credit card debt, for instance.

It’s counterintuitive to lump massive amounts of debt onto your youngest population, but colleges don’t care.

The Stats

The latest student loan debt statistics for 2021 show that there are 45 million borrowers who collectively owe nearly $1.7 trillion in student loan debt in the U.S.

Student loan debt is now the second-highest consumer debt category — second only to mortgage debt and higher than debt for both credit cards and auto loans.”

 If we break down loans need to be paid into a quick summary.

1. Canceling all loans for persons over age 65…………..$5 billion a year
2. Canceling loans from predatory for-profit colleges…..$3 billion a year
3. No income taxes on forgiven debt…………………………$10 billion a year
4. No loan payments due from borrowers who earn less than $40,000 a year….$18 billion a year
5. Easier standards for discharging student loans in bankruptcy……$5 billion a year
6. Expand Pell Grants to $10,000 a year, and for far more Americans…..$55 billion a year
7. Additional federal funding for Community Colleges and vocational schools $12 billion a year

Extending the Social Security tax to all incomes is one way to pay these costs.