Go to college to get a job. Get a job to pay for college.

[Indy]

[exploited]

You should eliminate student loans though.

Universal, taxpayer-funded post-secondary education. That's the way to go.

[The Comrade]

it's as if you're making a case for the importance of a college education, while simultaneous decrying people who get a college education through the only methods they can.

interesting.

[Dylan]

[The Comrade]

that's a wise attitude to have, but he's cutting off his nose to spite his face.

[Indy]

[Winchester]

[Stratego]

[gla22]

Two points:

1.) Exploited definitely has a point, that taking out loans for a worthless degree and not taking advantage of college is primarily the fault of the student. I started college as an International Relations major, by sophomore year I saw the writing on the wall and decided to double major in Economics. It also doesn't help that students going into college believe that any degree guarantees them a 50k a year job and this is a myth perpetuated by parents and academic advisers.

If you are graduating with a B.A. in history, sociology, psychology ect. what did you really learn how to do? You can write, (some graduates not very well) and that is about it. You just spent 30k-200k to become a better writer. You could've spent 4 years learning how to code and program or how to synthesize proteins or build bridges or design air compressors. Instead a lot of kids spent 4 years learning about how to B.S. a 10 page essay on how oppressed transgender people are. A lot of kids don't work or do internships in college either. That is just stupid and lazy. Work experience prepares you for a job and gives you less debt. You have the time.

2.) The overall system is B.S. and exploits students no matter what they are studying. Most of my classes were large lecture halls filled with 200+ kids. Most teachers don't make over 200k, the T.A.s make like 15k. I paid approximately 12k a year. The cost of instruction is a minuscule portion of overall costs, a lot of money is wasted on administrators and bloat.

Example: My school was the scene of the 2011 pepper spray incident where students were attacked for protesting high fees. In a rational world the administration would learn and administrator compensation and bloat would be cut and improvements would be made.

In the aftermath the students who got sprayed got settlements, 30k each, the cop got paid leave and was eventually let go, he eventually got himself a settlement of 50k+ because the experience of being hated for attacking kids was "traumatizing". The icing on the cake is that the administration hired a new communications director at a 250k+ a year salary because of the bad PR coming out of the incident. The administration just doubled down said fu*ck you to the students. The whole debacle increased wasteful spending and bloat.

[Indy]