Indian Giver?
In a new article published over at Medium.com that was allegedly penned by the infamous Elizabeth Warren, she calls for universal free public college along with the cancellation of student debt loans. If that's not fancy enough for you, she threw in blah blah blah to boot.
All of this because of why you might ask? Well, that's a simple matter of feelings, emotions, and the horrible idea that Americans ought to pay for the bad financial decisions made by an uninformed minority.
Those of us who did not get into crippling financial debt likely did so because we answered a math question correctly. More specifically, should anyone agree to pay for an overpriced college degree when the only thing you'll have to show for it is ramen noodles for the next decade?
I think not. Additionally, I am proud to say this is the type of not-thinking which is not brought to you by collegiate institutions in America. Funnily enough, college and those who push it do not seem to care about the simple practicalities at play, and many cannot shake their focus from the great lie that college is the definitive answer to a prosperous future.
I don't want to steer you wrong; in some cases, college is useful. However, most of the time, this is simply not true. The college's used to be institutes of higher learning, they used to mean something, but this has steadily eroded for quite some time now.
I could wax philosophical all day long in an effort to pinpoint exactly when the American mind came to the subconscious epiphany that college has become a sad joke. Perhaps it was in the late '70s where films like National Lampoon's Animal House rocked the box office.
The film was satirical, yet based in reality. It depicted what college was steadily devolving into, or as Coolio so eloquently put it "educated fools with money on their minds." People enrolled in these institutions with one clear motive, and that had nothing to do with a passion or desire to learn, but rather everything to do with collecting little green pieces of ink and paper.
No one ever seems to bank on the fact that it might not work out, or even worse yet—if it doesn’t you’ll end up with a worthless degree in something that you’re not passionate about. So back in the day tradesmen had internships to weed out the wheat from the chaff, or in more modern parlance, they had mechanisms to separate the interested from those who are not.
It is so easy to fall in love with an idea like: "I want to be this when I grow up." However, if the first day on the job kicks your ass, and you turn tail and run because you don't like the occupation you chose willy-nilly then nothing will save you from an overpriced education as you can't even declare bankruptcy on college loans. This is why Apprenticeship is so valuable, to not only would-be employees but also for would-be employers.
Anywho, I could probably talk on this subject until I'm blue in the face, but rather than do that I'd like to offer you this interesting documentary that clearly depicts better than I can, why one should think long and hard before accepting a college loan and pursuing that particular aspect of The American Dream.
The educational documentary below is entitled 'The College Conspiracy' and is brought to you by the National Inflation Association, and their goal is to prepare Americans for the age of austerity brought to you by a little something called hyperinflation.
Let me know what you think about the film in the comment section below. Am I wrong about College? Are you one of the people who proves that? If so, welcome to the minority of college graduates and congratulations on your success!
In summary, free college is not free college, it's a tax (attacks on your earnings), and anyone telling you otherwise is blowing smoke up your ass. The long and short of it, as they say, is the map is not always the territory. One should always adequately acclimate themselves to the territory before diving headlong into a life of debt servitude. "Free" college is a lie.
"Never spend your money before you have earned it." — Thomas Jefferson
Curated for #informationwar (by @thoughts-in-time)
Ways you can help the @informationwar!
You are completely wrong about college!
But, in the opposite way you think.
Everything i learned in college i later learned was wrong!
and i took a lot of science, business and other supposedly "useful" fields.
You speak of apprenticeships, and well that they went away, and that college is the new apprenticeship... the problem is these classes are mostly taught by people who have never actually done the job. So, they cannot, except by shear luck, teach you how to do the job you are going to do.
In fact, many programming companies are trying to get kids straight out of high school, so that they do not have to unlearn them from the college shit.
The problem came about by this statement.
People who go to college make xx% more money.
The problem is, this is accurate, but only in a correlation kind of way.
The people who go to college are more intelligent and dedicated. These people would make more money even if there wasn't any college.
Further, most of the really rich people didn't go, or dropped out of college.
Because, in school, in all grades, they fail to teach you the most important life lessons. Those about money and how to make money.
And that is because... these teachers and professors have never done that.
They can't teach it.
I don't think college is the new apprenticeship. I think becoming an apprentice is wiser than attending a college. At the very least one could learn the terrain and see if they like it before deciding whether or not to go to school and get certified for this or that. In many cases you are correct, they're straight up teaching disinformation, propaganda, and false ideas. I think we may be on the same page on this topic.
Long ago, in the before time... like only 50 years ago.
Parents paid for the apprenticeship of their children.
They apprenticed their child to someone who knew the trade. And thus, the child learned the trade.
The reason the parents paid, is that the child was a loss, a burden on any company. It cost more to have the child around. And all the parts they break, and stuff they screw up.
But, it was no where as costly as college. Especially today.
Fortunately, we have ThemTube, where you can learn to do most of the things you would really want to do.
Just wanted to make clear that apprenticeship was not no-cost.
The before time, I like that. Thanks for the info!
I wanted to give you some heads up that this article was copied on Weku in this post
https://deals.weku.io/community-deals/@foodday/indian-giver
Thanks I just found that out Steve,
this is my real WeKu presence.
got you followed there
I agree, and disagree.
I think it's important to make further education available to all people, not just the people who can afford it or who are bright enough to do the quagmire of math after adjusting expectations for the future economy, the admission counselors who fail to advise you on the risks or puff up the integrity of the school.
I had such an experience where I was talked into a school which later lost their accreditation and then had the misfortune of graduating into a recession. Then came the work injury that precluded me from eight out of ten jobs, leaving me with $10k as an apology against lost earnings in the future. Things that the brain fails to account for in doing the math of how to pay back a loan for a worthless degree, along with how vile debt collectors are.
Part of the issue is how much our society hinges upon the college degree as proof of capability, or uses it as an excuse to pay people less than they deserve for a job they claim any monkey could do. I agree that trade schools and technical training should be brought back into play, but so should experience.
Yes college probably wouldn't be free as you explain it. But it may just be a lot more accountable to the taxpayers should it fail to live up to promises, and it would cut out the debt collectors, who are leeches sucking money out of misfortune with extreme interest rates. More than that, it would allow people to study what they want, not just what they can afford.
Thank you for your feedback on this topic @torico. What additional percentage of your weekly/biweekly paycheck are you willing to part with to make sure that everyone can get the degree of their choice in whatever field they desire? College is generally pretty expensive, so if most people take advantage of the "free schooling," all will be forced to pay more in income taxes to make this happen. If most or many of the degrees are generally worthless then wouldn't this be a colossal waste of money? When government mandates that it's people purchase this or that, it's a very slippery slope because failing industries will lobby government to make us purchase more and more things that many of us may simply not be interested in. As for the learning value alone, I'd choose the internet over college any day of the week.
first off i think costs for education should be better managed. compared to europe, our costs are out of control, for very little value. just like medicine we have tons of middlemen and administrative peons that are totally unnecessary. second i think we should invest in redeveloping technical and trade schools. the internet is only so good as ones skills in research, critical thinking and ananlysis of data, so i think educational emphasis should be changed accordingly to adequately prepare kids to learn online if thats appropriate. education need not be expensive but it does need to desperately be restructured and updated, before we even talk about "free college" internet should be utilized to cut down on costs and allow a variety of course study. there's no need for everyone to go to harvard, but everyone should have access to materials to allow them to study law, or medicine, or engineering, on their own. this is how to make college affordable.
I don't think costs for education are managed or artificially set to begin with. That said, how do you propose government is to force new costs upon an already existing body of independent institutions? You said we should redevelop trade schools is there a problem with the current number of trade schools? Is there not enough of a supply to meet the current demand? What additional percentage of your weekly/biweekly paycheck are you willing to part with to make sure that government undertakes all of your proposals to modernize and streamline education so that it's more affordable?
you seem to be overly concerned with what you will need to pay. personally i would happily redo the budget and slash the budget to halburton to make it happen without costing the taxpayer anything. so the army gets one less aircraft carrier, what the hell is that against the education of children? I simply think the govts priorities are screwed up, and we as citizens are complicit in allowing it to be that way. and yes the number of trade schools and tech schools available to high schoolers has dropped significantly in favor of "further education", because thats where the money is. this is another thing that is out of whack, our thinking that a trained plumber or electrician is any less worthy of a decent salary than a lawyer or a CEO. They both do a job. What I propose is that we elect officials that actually want to change the system for the better and not keep the corrupt status quo, or barring that, start changing things locally instead of griping about extra taxes. Money isnt the problem. The way we spend it is.