Yes, the reality one can get a degree in something that is not marketable and will not benefit that individual or society in the least, while the citizens are backing the loans on it. Also allowing every Tom, Dick, and Harry into higher education because the standards have dropped so low in order to achieve 'social justice'. Higher education in the US has become a cottage industry backed by tax payer money and is not netting the results it was intended to.
How about a little evidence for what I bolded ? TARP will end up with a net cost to the tapayer of well less than $100 B. Agree or disagree, but the banking system is the veins and arteries of our capitalist system, without which we all would be in turmoil. Bailing out the students could cost us a trillion. What benefit is there for me for the government to give my money to such ?
Actually, to the extent that may be a societal problem is not an issue. Folks have always gone to college, obtaining a major in one field, and then never working in it. However, it is more of a problem due to the same government sponsored moral hazard that has jacked up the cost of school. That being a demand for degrees in certain fields (ie. students pursuing those degrees) that would not exist were it not for government providing the funds to pusue such frivilous majors. Get government out of student loans, and half the courses will disappear, as folks will not pay for them with their own money.
The list of majors used to be limited to useful things, even if one did not follow their original path they still had a decent core education that might actually be useful in society, that is no longer the case. When I went to school the core requirements for any degree only included two useful topics, math and history, everything else was fluff garbage like art, music, and diversity based social engineering classes. I still say make the schools pay it back, it will force them to change how they do business and focus on putting out grads that will benefit society under the current market conditions.
Highlighted are my wife's degree and my degree, respectively. Both of us had GPA's above a 3.0. She currently works as a shoe saleswoman making minimum wage. I currently work as an auto salesman making commission or minimum wage. Neither job is using our college educations. Hell, I looked for this job for a YEAR, and spent half of that year working PART TIME at WALMART. I guess that is what you get when you assume that things are rosy for people getting out of college. Point taken about idiots graduating with English degrees or Art History degrees or some other such bullcrap, though.
lifeblood? It has unequivocally demonstrated that it is a vampire and has sucked the life out of our economy. none. As stupid as bailing out banks.
why do you wish to sell your skills to an employer ? Sell your skills to your clients, and take your life into your own hands. You won't be rewarded for not taking risk.
Exactly what is it that isn't marketable? Teaching? How about accounting, computer science or systems administration, accounting or hospital management.. marketing? You are taking the easy way out of blaming the victims of this economic meltdown. Do you know what "social justice" means?
Lack of startup capital and the necessity of providing for a family - which requires a more stable income than a startup business can provide.
Not when you and the OWS neo-coms say it. Do you want a communist society where everyone gets an equal share of nothing? I'll bet half the out of work college grads could not have earned a degree in math or science or engineering even if they wanted to because they were not willing to work that hard or were not smart enough. But that's where the jobs are. So you have a lot of over-educated spoiled brats pooping on police cars and demanding their share of a pie they have not earned.
This alone should tell you enough. I personally don't care if we bail out the students or not. You can continue being servants of a corrupt banking system if you like, but I'm saving up to get out of this country. Half of America doesn't even realize it's enslaved.
"I am certain nothing has done so much to destroy the juridical safeguards of individual freedom as the striving after the mirage of social justice. " - F.A Hayek
There is no where to go. Europe is far more enslaved than America is to banking interests...you are naive if you believe otherwise.
Do you have any children? What is unmarketable. .. and why ? Graphic arts, geology, electrical engineering, psychology, Mechanical engineering, ceramic engineering.. business management? What EXACTLY? What is YOUR degree in?
We could start an entire thread with this topic, but for starters... 1) Allowing states to have disparate education standards 2) Wide variances in quality of education reflected by the same variances in income by district/neighborhood 3) Corrupt deals with local food distributors for school lunches If nothing else, I can relate to the desire to privatize education when viewing just how corrupt and ineffecient the American system seems to be. I almost wonder if our government was designed specifically to encourage us to move away from state run programs, because clearly, a lot of peers can do it much more cost effectively and less corruptly. Socialization isn't the problem. American culture and its design for government would seem to be the problem.
The market has and will determine what is unmarketable...take a look at the unemployment lines and ask those folks what their degrees are in.
Norway isn't. Switzerland isn't either. Neither is Australia or New Zealand. Don't get me wrong though. I don't like the EU either.
I think a lot of these issues stem from a lack of accountability that results from a public education system. Administrators are not at all accountable, if they were private parents could speak with their money...as it stands you have to whine and complain and hope they step down or you are stuck with them for several years.
When Europe collapses everyone else will.....the amount of exposure to bad sovreign debt is just off the charts and everyone is involved. The financial reset button is going to be hit within the next 5 years.
Getting out is easy........but 'slavery' takes many forms and the benefits of our country are not so apparent until they are not there. If your Spanish is halfway decent Costa Rica or Honduras is nice.....
Thank you to all of the idiots who insisted on getting a useless degree, racking up many tens of thousands of dollars in debt, helping to create an epic education bubble, just to perform the same jobs our parents did with a high school diploma. ...............Now go whine about it.
