re: Why massive student loan debt is a good thing

This is a very good point.

quote:

---

We need to encourage middle and upper middle class people to have more children by.0

---

The problem is that kids are expensive for people that actually provide for all of their kids' care without government and largely consequence free for poor people. It really is arse backwards. Our system practically encourages the results that we are getting.

Not to mention that there is a segment of society that gets loans and has no intention of ever graduating. Loan money is used to get free stuff.

quote:

---

I've begun to realize that we need a generation of people trapped under the burden of massive, inescapable student loan debt.

---

As someone who has worked in an around education (now on the software side), I don't disagree with the end goal from the perspective of a fiscally more healthy approach in general, and that to be caused by some "cracked eggs."

However,

quote:

---

Whether it's the parents of the student, or the student himself, someone has to pay the piper for little Billy going to Dartmouth for 5 years to study to puppetry.

Only after he graduates and realizes he'll only ever be qualified for work as a barista, or illegal sex worker, will he finally understand that a $250k degree in puppetry was a poor investment.

---

This is not the issue. The issue is not the puppetry degrees, the real issue at stake is that you need a college degree for the most basic of American labor that doesn't happen in the service industry. College degree for a secretary? Manager of a store? Entry level positions? The private sector bears just as much burden as the education sector and the government. It's a bad mix of things that creates the current climate.

Because....

quote:

---

will he finally understand that a $250k degree in puppetry was a poor investment. This will then cure little Billy of one day encouraging his children chase their dreams in puppetry. The more students who realize they don't need college to chase their worthless dreams, the fewer students we'll have going to college.

---

I fully believe dreams are worthwhile, even puppetry. The kid needs to understand his investment, yes. But the college needs to do a better job preparing him for a variety of work, despite his focus (and this come from things like project-based learning, cross-subject study, etc.) AND the private sector needs to stop the stupid idea that having an entry level job needs a specific degree. It isn't true, and let's be honest, most labor is not that hard at the end of the day. 98% of jobs, meaning those outside of medical and legal, don't really require specific degrees. And many can be learned on the job, with good, well planned training. Yes, even Engineers. Companies have decreased investment in their employees significantly because they expect colleges to do it. That is not the purpose of college.
Stop trying to make it so.

Remember, to all you Business and MBA folks, the business degree was a VoTech degree until the late-1970s and the push of the GI Bill. From an academic perspective, meaning theory and study, that Business degree is just as worthless as puppetry. It is a made up field of Math and some Social Sciences. There's a reason it's JD, MD, BA, BS, etc.

We became far too specific in our fields.

quote:

---

We have way too many kids going to college.

---

And this. It's a bad combo.

At the end of the day, the best team in an office is one with a variety of perspectives - the theoretical thinker with a philosophy degree or English degree, the Finance guy, the Science Guy, the creative with a degree in puppetry. It's up to smart people to know how to use those resources effectively, because everyone has different interests, and if you understand how to do to use those interests well, you can get some great results. I say this as someone with a Literature BA and MA who works in Software. And no, I'm not involved in documentation at all.

quote:

---

We called it good rich

---

we called it something else...

Yeah we probably called it the same thing.

Dont feel like getting banned

quote:

---

Graduated with no student debt.

---

Me too but tuition was about $1200-1300 per semester when I was at LSU. I was lucky enough to have parents that just paid it for me.

quote:

---

This is not the issue. The issue is not the puppetry degrees, the real issue at stake is that you need a college degree for the most basic of American labor that doesn't happen in the service industry.

---

Why do you think this is? What led to our current situation?

Agreed. Only graduate loans should be forgiven. Anyone with a college degree or lower doesn't matter anyway.