College debt.

The news seem to be filled with stories of young people with college debt that simply cannot be paid.
I saw where one man had a debt of $200,000 and was only making $38,000 a year with his degree.
He and others are wanting the government to bail them out.

Personally, I have no sympathy for anyone so foolish as to have such debt.
Nor for the institutions that made such loans.

There is no sound reason for such ridiculous debt.
I say let them suffer the consequences for their foolishness.

Back in the 70's college tuition at a university was less than $3k a year. Now it's more than $20k a year. It's all because student loans turned universities into money-making machines that could raise tuition as high as they wanted as long as the loan payments appeared affordable to the student (even though it meant it would take forever to pay off). Its similar in a way to what happened with home prices, but home prices were also affected by the rise of women entering the workforce, creating the dual-income family.

Just the answer Jesus would give.

I feel bad for these students. they have a reason they need their degree and education and are simply abused. Here in Germany its not THAT bad. Here the Government can pay it or some of it and u pay it back without any more added to it when u go working.
That stuff in the US is just a trap. Less education = less good job = less money to live from and eventually end up in trailer parks or homeless nevere making it anywhere. More education = more debts= never being free, maybe making it somewhere bound up by debts.
what a mess

Over in the UK, there was a time that you only went to
university if you wanted to be a doctor, lawyer, teacher, etc.
Something specific you wanted to do that required a degree.

Everyone else did apprenticeships, got jobs, work etc.
I didn’t go to university I didn’t want to. I remember my first job I
worked in a pensions and wages department earning exactly the
same as one other person who had university degree in geology!
Pretty useless for a pen pusher.


In recent times the mantra is you are missing out education and
must be educational lacking if you don’t have a degree. So now we
have young people taking degrees in all manner of useless subjects
which are no good to an employer. While racking up lots of student debt
that they have no chance of ever paying off.

In the UK though the current system is that you only have to pay off your
student loans once you start to earn a certain amount. So it could be
argued that you might as well waste 3 years getting a degree in something.

However that’s false logic as by the time you finish and enter the work place
you are already way behind in earnings, experience and possible promotion
than others who went into a job instead of university.

My current place I work for the civil service, I have been there 21 years.
Ive seen many young people over the years who have university degrees.
But they have no common sense or knowledge of how to organise themselves,
priorities work loads, use a photo copier. No sense of ownership of their work,
they don’t know how to meet deadlines etc.

All their degrees are pretty much useless, as they have to be trained up from
scratch and mentored on how to do the job. Many still can’t do the job even
after several months of training. Yet they got themselves into a whole
lot of debt for nothing and will never use their degrees.

There needs to be more emphasis on researching different types of jobs and
the requirements before taking a degree you will never use.

What is sad is that here in the US higher education has become big business. Kids coming through high school are fed the lie that in order to get a good paying job you have to have a degree and legitimately when they find out years later that a degree is no guarantee of actually getting that good paying job they rightfully are ticked off.

Most high school career counselors kind of forget to tell their students that there are tons of jobs that pay very well (in some instances way better that those jobs requiring a degree) that require nothing more than either trade school or on the job training.

Agree.

I'm all for education, but people don't realize colleges are just businesses.

They aren't gingerbread castles filled with fairy dust and unicorns, and run by some magical wizard who loves you...
they're just businesses.

They are calculating businesses run by very clever people who want your money.

As long as you know....
go ahead and sign up.

...

So far I owe over 11k in student loans. I guess the OP thinks I'm a fool and should burn for trying to get an education in college right? Any way thankfully I do have my Associates that if I ever decide to not finish my bachelors, there are plenty of jobs that require at least a 2 year degree. But anyways, thanks for the pep talk, that really helps my situation. Just what a nice kindhearted person would advice me with.

i've survived rounds of layoffs at least three times, when many of my coworkers found themselves suddenly unemployed, many of them better qualified, more skilled and with seniority & more experience, having comparable work ethic, specifically because i had more & better education. i know it for a fact, hearing it as an explanation from the business owners themselves.

((whatever that's worth))

i accumulated degrees because i wanted knowledge, though - never for a high paying job or career. i just wanted to learn

I think we are all a bit foolish at 18 years of age. I took out student loans and never finished school. I defaulted on those loans and my credit worthiness diminished. I eventually got it togther, paid off those loans and started at the bottom in my field and worked my way up. May not have been able to do so if I wasn’t so foolish and dug myself a hole to get out of.