Why Avoiding the Traditional Path of University Education Will Help, Yes HELP, Your Children Survive the Next Five Years

The proper decision now regarding your child's education may
be the difference in whether you set your child up for a life of failure or a
life of success. Yes I really do believe that the decision on whether to send
your child to university now or to forgo that traditional route  is a “make or break your child’s
life" type of decision. So in that regard, the pathway you choose for your child
right now may very well be one of the most important investment decisions of
your life .

But first a little background. Whether you like it or not, the political and social
upheaval that has afflicted Portugal, Spain, Greece, Mozambique, and is now afflicting
Tunisia, Algeria and Egypt will be coming to your country sometime in the next
3 years. Just visit this link to witness the angry mob violence in Tunisia that arose in response to massive unemployment coupled with soaring food prices that the people can no
longer afford. I know what you're thinking, "But that is Tunisia, and that
will never happen in MY COUNTRY." But this is precisely what everyone
thinks until it happens in THEIR country.

What is the absolute worst thing that can happen during a
crisis? Being unprepared for it, right? So rather than just blindly saying that
what is happening in Tunisia and Egypt will never happen in your country, it
is a much more intelligent approach to look at the triggers of that violence in
these countries and discover if these same triggers exist in your own country.

In every country that has ever suffered from circumstances
that rapidly devolved into outrage and violence, it is likely that the citizens
of that country never saw the violence coming until it was already upon them.
When economies and families' livelihoods are hanging by a thread, a small spark
can trigger a massive fire. So what are these circumstances and what does
education and your child's future have to do with the situation in Algeria,
Tunisia, and Egypt?  Everything, as I'll soon explain.

Violence and mass protests are occurring in many countries
because of massive unemployment and soaring food and energy prices that in some
instances have risen by 80% in a matter of weeks and/or months. Soaring food prices and
massive rates of unemployment are the direct result of Central Bank policies
of "quantitative easing", a euphemism for the destruction of purchasing power of
all fiat currencies around the world.  Distortions in pricing caused by
Central Banks' deliberate devaluation of currencies cause massive
inefficiencies in markets, create massive bubbles and instability, and destroy, rather than create sustainable
economic growth. This pattern repeats itself over and over in every country in the world with Central Bankers blaming everyone for these catastrophes except the reponsible parties - themselves.

Do you live in a country that has huge levels of
unemployment (in terms of REAL unemployment numbers, not the bogus "official" unemployment
numbers reported by your government)? Do you live in a country where you
have noticed significant increases in the price of food and energy, even if the
price increases have not been as steep as increases in other parts of the word and
even if these increases are hidden by smart packaging designs that give you less product for the same
price as last year? If the answer to those two questions are yes and yes, then
your country qualifies as not only eligible, but ripe, for riots and civil unrest at some point in
the next 2-3 years because Central Banks have all but ensured that these two
situations will become worse with every passing month.

If soaring food prices haven't happened in your country yet,
they will. The only reason it hasn't happened yet is because your government,
in collusion with bankers, have kicked the can down the road along with efforts
to sell the populace wild fables of economic recovery while the banks in their
nation (i.e, the US) are literally bankrupt but for false reporting standards that allow them to practice alchemy and magically turn losses into earnings.  There have been no solutions implemented,
only concerted, organized efforts between politicians and bankers of hiding the truth from citizens. Thus, the same
nightmarish destruction in the quality of life that governments and Central
Bankers have heaped upon India, Algiers, Tunisia will come to your doorstep at
some point within the next three years. Even Western leaders that typically
fill newspapers and TV with utter nonsense are warning their citizens to take
heed.

Recently, Bank of England governor Mervyn King stated that
British families will see their disposable income disappear as they, in his own
words, pay "the inevitable price" for the ongoing monetary crisis and
begin to suffer the fastest decline in living standards since the 1920's. King
continued to state that savers and "those who behaved prudently" will
pay the largest price as this crisis unfolds.  No, because those who behaved prudently would have stopped listening to bankers like King a long, long time ago and would have long since converted their pounds into gold and silver,  instead of saving pounds. Then they would be okay to deal with this crisis. However, being the
despicable snake (and those are probably much too sweet words with which to
bestow upon him) that he is, King further declared that the Bank of England,
"neither can, nor should try to, prevent the squeeze in living
standards." What he should have disclosed is that he, along with the Bank
of England, the European Central Bank and the Federal Reserve are directly
responsible for the greatest decline in living standards since the 1920's that
will afflict all Brits over the next several years.  King amazingly declared that rising inflation in the UK had
been caused largely by increases in global oil and commodity prices, which is
comparable to saying that the egg laid the chicken instead of the chicken
laying the egg. Commodity prices have risen significantly (despite King and his cronies' best efforts to knock down the price of gold and silver in a bogus paper futures market) and inflation is increasing
because Central Bankers such as himself have been destroying the fiat currencies in
which they are priced and people are losing their CONFIDENCE in these fiat currencies that will at some point, no longer even be worth the price of the digital chip in which they are stored. King further blamed tax rises such as the increase in
VAT introduced in 2011 for the coming massive destruction in living standards for British citizens and promptly
exonerated the Bank of England for this tax increase.  However, anyone that truly understands that bankers rule
governments know that bankers always have a hand in government legislation that raises taxes upon the people.  Without increased taxes, where else is the money to bail out banks again in the future going to come from?

Thus, as the global monetary crisis accelerates in 2011,
this year will be the year we move from the eye of the financial hurricane back
into the hurricane.  Given that the modern educational system 
teaches students absolutely nothing they need to know about surviving the
crisis, after four years most students will only graduate with a mountain of
debt and face a bleak economic landscape. Thus, I firmly believe that setting
aside the money targeted for tuition, books, room and board and investing that
money in gold and silver today (and take advantage of this banker created pullback in gold and silver prices now!) will leave any young adult a thousand times
better prepared to face this crisis in two to four years time than the choice
to enter university or graduate school today.  But I'm not the only one that believes this. The National
Inflation Association also believes this. At the very least, if you have a
child you are sending to college or graduate school next term, do yourself a
favor and finish reading this article. Whether you agree or disagree with me,
at least you will have the information as well as my perspective AND the
perspective of the National Inflation Association to make a proper
decision. 

In a recent US study called “Academically Adrift: Limited
Learning on College Campuses”, researchers studied more than 2,300 students that
attended 29 different US universities. Here is what they concluded:

(1) 45% of the students showed no gains in learning the first
two years of college, and

(2) 36% gained little learning even after four years of
college level courses

even though the average GPA was 3.2 among the sample of
students.

Richard Arum, the author of the study, discovered that
“students [were] able to navigate through [college] quite well with little
effort”. Furthermore, he discovered that many faculty were focused on their own
research with a disdain for teaching many of the introductory freshmen and
sophomore level courses that colleges required of them. The gains in
learning were ascertained by tests that 
measured critical thinking, complex reasoning and writing skills in a
standardized manner.

Of course, other factors outside of the enormous failures of
the US educational system are also responsible for the failures of students to
gain any critical thinking or complex reasoning skills during their years spent
inside institutional academics. There is a plethora of mass entertainment
designed to prevent young adults from noticing that bankers are ruining their
lives and ignoring all the topics that affect their quality of life while
keeping them fixated on events that will eventually have no consequence on
their quality of life. The Jersey Shore, American Idol, the Bachelor, an
18-game NFL season that will extend the nation’s fixation on football for
several more weeks…shall I continue? Arum’s study found that students spend
less time studying today and more time socializing as compared to their peers
from a decade ago and blamed students for deliberately seeking easy courses
full of fluff for their lack of learning in addition to professors and universities
that valued research and money more than teaching. Of course, the question
still persists of "Why do universities even waste students’ time by offering
students courses full of fluff?" And if students really go to college to
socialize, do students really need to waste $30,000 of their parent’s money every
year for the privilege of playing Xbox in thier dorm rooms with their friends?

Though the value derived from institutional academia seems
to be little, this hasn’t prevented the owners of these institutions from
raising tuition prices by 29% over the last four years from $84,940 to $109,172
for a four-year private university degree (Source: the National Inflation
Association). In fact, if people were to view institutional academia as the
money-making business it really is instead of a business of "education and learning", one would likely conclude that in terms of
value for money spent, this business would rank as one of the greatest all
time-scams next to the fractional reserve banking system.

Supporters of the institutional academic system frequently
quote studies that illustrate that a job seeker without a college degree will
earn substantially less than someone with a college degree or that someone without a high
school diploma has a much greater probability of ending up inside the US penal
system than someone that possesses one. Yet, these arguments and conclusions are highly
flawed. The control group in these studies that end up having lower paying jobs
or that end up in prison are those that chose not to pursue education at all.
But what if such studies used a control group of home-schooled children or
children that attended “alternate” institutions of education where they really
learned how money is created and how banking really works instead of the utter
lies that are taught in business school classrooms today? I would fathom to
think that this control group would test much higher in terms of critical
thinking, complex reasoning AND illustrate higher earnings potential after
graduation with the benefit of having little or no debt as compared to their
institutionalized peers (those that attended traditional academic institutions).

Last year I wrote a series entitled the “Astounding Failure
of the US Education System” regarding the very above topics. You may find these
three articles here along with one by the National Inflation Association.

October 21, 2010: JS Kim discusses "The Astounding Failure of the US
Educational System"

October 28, 2010: JS Kim discusses "The Astounding Failure of the US
Educational System, Part 2"

October 29, 2010: JS Kim discusses "The Astounding Failure of the US
Educational System, Part 3 (And Why Entrepreneurship Can Save America)"

January 12, 2011: The NIA discusses the "College Bubble Set to Burst in 2011"

In those above articles, though I concentrated on the
failures of the US education system from a students’ perspective, I also
discussed the astounding successes of the US education system from the
perspective of the very small elite communities that control governments and
countries around the world. The purpose of the educational system as it has
been constructed and implemented in developed countries by elite financiers,
(aka bankers), has never been to foster learning and to promote critical
thinking. It has always been to implement factory like conditions in schools
that kills creativity, intelligence, and critical thinking while promoting
apathy out of boredom, a sheep-herd like mentality that acquiesces to authority,
and an inability to discern reality from fiction.  Today, after revelations of fraud and theft time and time
again as the modus operandi, and not the exception, at the largest banks in the
world, disdain for bankers is at an all time high and very well-deserved. Still,
many Westerners cannot shake themselves from the banker created propaganda
about gold being a “barbarous relic” even as world leaders in Tunisia and Egypt
abscond with massive amounts of gold after their leadership created economic
breakdown in their respective countries.

If one were to study the history of Western education, one
would realize that bankers and the richest financiers of the time comprised the
very small, elite, select group that devised the modern academic system today. If
you believe that bankers never had the community’s best interests at heart for
the past several decades when they sold their customers zero-down, sub-prime, and negative
interest mortgages that they knew their customers would eventually default upon,
asset backed commercial paper (ABCP) and other derivative products that
eventually would lose 50% or more of its value, and stocks in a market they
were rigging and front-running every day with their HFT algorithmic models,
then why in the world would you believe that this very same group of morally
bankrupt people would devise an academic system that was designed to actually
educate and enlighten people? Specifically, if they designed an academic system that actually taught young adults the truths about business operations in business school, wouldn't they be destroying their own livelihoods by exposing to young adults the secrets about the business methods they use to lie, cheat and steal from people every day?

There are far too many people in this world that do not
critically think as the “Academically Adrift” study proved.  After being bombarded with mantras like
“Stay in School” and “Education is Good”, young adults internalize these
mantras and actually believe that they are actually being educated while attending the system that bankers and the elite designed for them. Of course, education
is good, just not the type that you will receive in traditional halls of institutional
academia. While the modern educational system still performs a fine job in
increasing the aptitude and skill level of students that train for certain specialized vocations such
as medicine, engineering, and architecture, I believe that a very large
percentage of the modern educational system achieves nothing more than wasting
four years of a student’s life and increasing the indebtedness of these
students’ parents or the indebtedness of the students themselves. This is not a
conclusion that I draw from speculation but one that I draw from the annals of
history. In the early 1900’s, the Board of Education’s Director of Charity,
Frederick Gates, stated:

"In our
dream, we have limitless resources, and the people yield themselves with perfect
docility to our molding hand. The present educational conventions fade from our
minds; and, unhampered by tradition, we work our own good will upon a grateful
and responsive folk. We shall not try to make these people or any of their
children into philosophers or men of learning or science."

Who founded the Board of Education? Frederick Gates, and
wait for it…John D. Rockefeller of the Rockefeller banking family. If you
really think that an educational system that was molded by the top banking
families in the world will freely provide to you of their own beneficence the
secrets they utilize to gain enormous amounts of wealth in the classrooms of
colleges and universities, then go ahead and waste the more than USD $200,000
it will now cost you in tuition (including room and board) at Harvard University
for that four year degree. Certainly a student does not need to spend USD
$200,000+ of his parent’s money just for the access that a prestigious degree
provides. Thus, the real question becomes, is the ACTUAL KNOWLEDGE gained through the
achievement of that degree worth USD $200,000?  A young adult would be far better prepared to
handle the fast approaching tumultuous years of this global monetary crisis by
skipping school, and investing the full amount that would have been wasted on tuition
in gold and silver. After four years, as long as the student purchased gold and silver during any of the inevitable dips that occur every year, such a student would literally have a
mountain of money to start his or her own business, even fail in his or her
first venture, start a second business, and succeed – and do so all with zero debt.
Thus the answer to the above question is definitively NO.

And during those four years, I strongly advocate the pursuit of education, just
NOT INSTITUTIONAL EDUCATION. Go to the library and read books. Go online and
take some courses for a fraction of the price of a university education. Make
appointments with business leaders and find a mentor and learn from them. Find
an apprenticeship somewhere. All this will be exponentially more invaluable to a young adult's earning potential and critical thinking skills than becoming indoctrinated
with worthless knowledge that the elite wish to impart to them.

Go to “prestigious” universities like Princeton University
and a young impressionable adult may be so unfortunate as to have Paul Krugman fill his or her brains with
lies like he stated on September 2, 2009: “There was nothing in the prevailing
[economic] models suggesting the possibility of the kind of collapse that
happened last year.”  If that was
the case, then how did I predict the 2008 economic collapse well before it
happened? And how did a handful of others around the world predict the 2008
crisis before it happened as well? And how do I know that another more serious
crisis is a near certainty that will likely kick off sometime in 2011 and
extend well into 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015? Paul Krugman failed to see the elephant
in the room that existed in 2006 and that rampaged through the room in 2008
because he subscribes to the economic conceptual nonsense that the world’s
“top” universities inject into the minds of young men and women. Men like Krugman,
have as their purpose, to prevent young adults from becoming “philosophers or
men [and women] of learning or science" because they are richly rewarded by the elite for spreading their disinformation to impressionable minds. To the contrary, those that were able to realize that
most of the economic concepts taught in business schools is utter nonsense were
able to spot the elephant in the room quite clearly, and can still see that the elephant has not left the room today.

If one really believes that the purpose of institutional
academics is to increase critical thinking, then why do SO MANY PEOPLE TODAY
still believe that the global economy is recovering and that US banks are fine
when the majority of them would be declared bankrupt today but for fake FASB
reporting measures that allow them to misreport and lie about their earnings?  If the majority of people today were
critical thinkers, the US consumer confidence index would be at about 10.5
instead of at an eight-month high of 60.6. This only proves that our “modern”
educational system has killed critical thinking. When I attended the University
of Pennsylvania, one of my roommates was attending the Wharton School of
Business. After the first day of class, he excitedly informed me that his
professor told all students on the first day of class that they would not
receive less than a grade of “B” as long as they just showed up to every class. In fact, my roommate laughed as he
told me this story, probably in disbelief of the easiest “B” he would earn in
his life. What is always among the top two concerns of college students that
desire high-paying jobs after graduation? GPA, right? If one can be assured of
a “B” by doing nothing more than showing up to class and sleeping through every
class, what significance does a GPA have? It is ironic that employers continue
to seek candidates with prestigious degrees with high GPAs because this
nonsense feeds into the desires of young adults to attend prestigious
universities and to seek the achievement of high GPAs, all at the cost of true
learning, true development of critical thinking skills, and a massive mountain
of debt that bankers are quite happy you acquired.  But as long as this cycle of non-learning continues, the
elite and their creation of the modern educational system have achieved their
goals. If you ask why I attended a "prestigious" school, the answer was because I graduated years before I finally figured out the system was a scam.

In the NIA article I referenced above, the National
Inflation Association stated that in the near future, there will be “a boom in
online education where Americans take all of their courses over the Internet
from the comfort of their own home at a fraction of the cost of traditional
college.”  I can only hope that
this prediction becomes a reality as young adults in the Western world will be
bankrupted if they continue committing themselves to massive loads of debt in
pursuit of a prestigious degree that will provide little to zero knowledge
about how to successfully deal with the coming second phase of this global
monetary crisis. If you are not attending school to learn a very specialized
skill, then I believe 100% that attending institutional academia will set you
back in your ability to succeed over the next five years of this global
monetary crisis. Even if you need the structure of a traditional academic
institution because you are entering a specialized profession such as medicine
or engineering, I still believe that delaying your education for the next two
to four years and using the money that would have been spent towards tuition,
books, and room and board to invest in gold and silver and/or buy a farm and
plant crops is a far smarter decision that will result in your ability to lead a
decent life after graduation. Central Bankers have deliberately ensured that food and
energy prices will continue to soar in coming years, so at a minimum, spending your time
wisely instead of attending school will ensure that you can eat over the next
several years when Darwin's Survival of the Fittest theory will be on display
for the entire world to see. From my personal experience, I can state one
thing unequivocally and without reservation: “Everything I learned about
succeeding in business, I learned outside of college and graduate programs.”

About the author: JS Kim is the Founder and Managing
Director of SmartKnowledgeU, a fiercely independent research, education and
consulting company that offers online education courses that teach the truth
that traditional business schools refuse to teach their students.

Comments

[Orly]

Exactly.  I think that speaks to the author's point, also, because when I graduated high school, going to college was the expected thing to do. Of course, the cost was nowhere near what it is now.  Now, he is saying maybe this decision shouldn't be so automatic.

Therefore, you have to make that choice for your child but, as you say, your child has to be ready.  Do you know how many girls in my class were studying fashion design and fashion merchandising as their major?  If my daughter said to me that she wanted to study fashion merchandising, I would tell her to get a real job and learn to trade instead.

I wonder where they are now...

[Orly]

"If you are even considering the fact that your children will have student debt, then you have not managed your money well."

My, someone awoke on the arrogant side of the bed this morning.

[RockyRacoon]

I'd like to hear your explanation of how that is wrong -- or arrogant.

[ColonelCooper]

I'll give it a stab. 

It is wrong because it assumes that secondary education is an entitlement.  It is arrogant because it assumes that everybody has the means to provide that education and if you don't, you're a failure.

I call douche on both scores.

[RockyRacoon]

I see your point.   It would seem that the root of the original post also assumes that parents are responsible for the cost involved.  My parents felt no such obligation.  I've posted extensively in previous comments about my working my way through college with only a small loan which was paid within 18 months.   Sigh. 

[ColonelCooper]

And, if my life experiences have taught me anything about people at all, you're better off for it.

I always appreciate your comments, Rocky.  Class act.

[mrdenis]

Utah considers making semiautomatic pistol a state symbol

://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2011/01/utah-considers-making-gun-state-symbol/1

[DOT]

Education, real education, is sought -out not conferred.

[scratch_and_sniff]

I don’t think you actually "learn" any material of any importance while at uni; nothing that you couldn’t teach yourself(a difficult road). But the fact that students must perform to a certain standard and stay on a particular learning curve for prolonged periods of time, is of importance. Its only through this that they find out about themselves and "teach themselves how to learn"…some don’t though.

[Putty]

My wife and I both have our Ph.D. in the material sciences.  It was a difficult process, but at the end I can honestly say that I knew significantly more about my area of expertise than my advisor.  My time in the lab taught me critical thinking, but I don't think that that level of thinking is by any means exclusive to our nation's universities.  

After a few years of busting our tails in corporate R&D, we both changed professions.  I am a trader, and my wife is a stay-at-home mom of 2.  We are much more comfortable financially than before, and living "a better life" if you will.  I feel like I sold out sometimes, as I no longer feel like I am adding value to society.  But you play the cards you were dealt with and do the best you can for your family.  Whenever our nation starts putting R&D ahead of corporate profit I may switch back as it is much more fulfilling to do research.   

[scratch_and_sniff]

I had to grapple with the merits of trading too, i also thought i was being gelded by society at one point for even considering trading as a living- if it wasn't my family and friends calling me a lunatic, it was strangers looking oddly at me after asking what i did for a living, and assuming that i was a fantasist when i told them (if they only considered the fantasy they are living in)... Now, i just dont care, and when people ask me what i do for a living i tell them i am a currency dealer instead of a trader, just to avoid the moronic questions about Ferraris or GDP.

As for R&D, i have never worked harder on anything else in my life than trading(i studied mathematics and stats at uni, and looking back it was a walk in the park compared to grinding out a living as a currency trader/gambler), the demands are endless and my reward is pitiful most of the time, but i get to do what i love...and for that matter, society can get in line.

[Seymour Butt]

Get Real.

The political and social upheaval happening in these countries will never happen in the US. This is a country divided. 

Americans sheeple are too fat, lazy and stupid to evoke any significant change. The passive and timid sheeple are too afraid of the government.

Do you think these fat bastards would risk losing their lives and miss black Fridays at Walmart or watching American Idol?  

[Bitch Tits]

Whenever some blogger mentions "fat, lazy, and stupid sheeple", I lose interest in hearing whatever else they might have to say. Sheer arrogance and faulty assumptions: that's no way to go through life, son.

It's amusing that people who say this also assume that they are not one of the "sheeple" they so sneeringly describe. The fact is, we are all more alike than we are different. A little respect for others might give your opinions more credibility. You know that old adage, you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar? Just sayin'.

[ColonelCooper]

We are fat and lazy because we have coasted off our talent and success, and become accustomed to a lifestyle that cannot be sustained.  We talk of hard decisions.  A hard decision in most of the world is deciding how malnourished you can be and still work, so you know how much of your supper you can give your child.  A hard decision in America is whether or not you like cable enough so suffer the shame of using food stamps at the grocery store.

I am not Anti-American, or anti capitalist.  In fact quite the opposite.  That's why I'm so disgusted by the society in which I am a part.  I am perfectly willing to include myself in the fat, lazy, spoiled camp, but I also am willing to put myself in the "not entitled to shit" camp.  That my friend is a small camp IMHO.

[johnnynaps]

That's exactly what makes it real. Can you imagine when the unemployed, 300 pound guy has to pay $9 for a Whopper?!

As for being afraid of the government......look at how well they handled Katrina or a teachers' union! What makes you think they will be able to handle a semi-organized million man march? They can't even find a 6 foot 6 inch muslim (he's a fucking freakshow at that height)!

[satansanus]

your stereotype of Americans is so wrong and so broken.

 America is filled with heroes, champions, crazy geniuses, artists, architects, innovators, and warriors. Each generation gets smarter and stronger regardless of the attempts to dumb them down.

[ColonelCooper]

You forgot the "off Sarcasm".

[au_bayitch]

As an educator my observations over the last 13 years lead me to believe that student/learners are not coming out of the womb any smarter. And I'm not trying to dumb any down.

[satansanus]

Those kids are GETTING WAY SMARTER. Thats why they are rejecting gramma class, and flunking history!!!!!!!!

They will not score well when forced to memorize lies and mistruth.

Recall the 200 men on lexington bridge during the revolution? Lexington bridge could barely hold 10 men if you go there yourself.

So If you KNOW the facts and they fail you for telling the truth? Grades get worse KIDS GET SMARTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[whoopsing]

 Doctorate in Pharmacy , six-year program,good or bad ?

[kitty123]

Bad

Way too many Pharmacists being pushed out into the market. The large chains have had a heavy hand in helping to fund and open 100's of schools across the country. Now, the chains have plenty of pharmacists to pick from and to treat terrible, sooner rather then later the pay will also decrease. Do yourself a big favor and look into the truth about what I am saying. I have been a pharmacist for 28 years..would not major in pharmacy today!

[whoopsing]

Thank's . My son started this year.Being a non-custodial parent, I was not part of the decision process,I just get handed the bill.Just another reason to dislike the ex

[Henry Chinaski]

Thanks.  I have three children in high school.  It would be a hard decision to steer them away from a college education, but we will make sure that they don't waste time and money.  And if they decide college isn't for them, I won't argue.

Yesterday there was an NPR interview with a disgruntled Tunisian.  The guy had a civil engineering degree and was unable to get a decent job for 7 years.  The only viable option he mentioned was entering the military at a low wage.  Don't need college for that...

Here are a couple of other sources on this topic.

Mises Institute article:

http://blog.mises.org/15411/tiger-moms-and-the-central-plan/

and a good book on this subject:

Debt-Free U: How I Paid for an Outstanding College Education Without Loans, Scholarships, or Mooching off My Parents by Zac Bissonnette and Andrew Tobias (Paperback - Aug 31, 2010)

http://www.amazon.com/Debt-Free-Outstanding-Education-Scholarships-Mooch...

edit:  We bought pre-paid state tuition and fees when they were born and that has been probably our best performing asset in the past 15 years.

[ColonelCooper]

Simply using my own experience as a reference.  Our small circle of close friends (four couples) comprise one PHD, two masters (all hard science), three B.S and one BA.  I am the only one in the group who didn't finish college.  I am also the highest paid of the eight. 

I run construction crews in an industrial construction industry.  Most of the people who work under me outearn everyone in the group except the PHD.  I have never had someone with a college degree work for me, and even had one HS dropout who was missing a tooth and never bothered to get it fixed even though his cadillac insurance would have paid for it in full.

The entitlement mentality of our culture has reached a point where once somebody (generalizing) attains their bachelors degree they completely dismiss the idea that they should have to something other than what they studied for, and certainly not a job that involves a shovel.

The old addage, "The world needs ditch diggers too" has never been more true.  The problem is that now ditch diggers are harder to find than B.A.'s.  It becomes ever more difficult to find help that is willing to work their ass off, while the real talent is sitting in a cubicle or job hunting for a white collar seat as a high school drop out (cherry picking one instance) is WAY out earning them.  Anyone see the disconnect here?

[QQQBall]

Ditch diggers are hard to find. Try looking at a HD parking lot. ;)

I sent two kids away to college at the height (so far) of the Great Depression II.  My son studied poli sci and my daughter is studying science. My son has changed and thinks the world owes him a living. He was hanging with spoiled rich kids and is kinda a douche. He has applied to law skools, but I think he will make a poor atty. I think the appx $30k/year invested in son's college, including a year's study in Europe, was worse than a waste.

My daughter is different - very studious and takes really hard classes. She will graduate in 3 years due to the courses she had in high skool. She also plans to become an atty and she will make an excellent lawyer.

When my kids went to skool I told them to think independently and learn to think critically and learn to write well.I think only one heard me?

In Cali there are "TAG" Programs where kids go to CC or JC for GE classes and are guaranteed transfer/entry to UC as a junior. They can live at home a bit longer and CCs are basically free or very low cost... you will be out of pocket a couple years of tuition and books at the UC (maybe $25,000 total) and a year's worth of living expenses if they live away from home for a year. I think that is reasonable expense.

If you are thinking of sending your kids away to college, go there a few times including Saturday mornings. At son's UC campus, it was almost vacant/deserted at 10 am on saturday mornings as the kids were all still sleeping/recovering.

[ColonelCooper]

"Ditch diggers are hard to find. Try looking at a HD parking lot. ;)"

I don't have any trouble finding warm bodies.  But generally speaking, I would have preferred to hire a bright young kid like your son (who has options) than pick one up in the parking lot at Home Depot.

He may have worked a couple of years and decided it wasn't for him, but it would have been some valuable life experience, and put one helluva lot of tuition money away.  OR, he may have been a real ass buster, loved the work, and found a lucrative career with a ton of advancement potential.  Either way it's a win, and you haven't thrown away your 100K.

[topcallingtroll]

Smart ambitious people unafraid of real work and not embarrased about blue collar work will have a chance at a good living whether they go to college or not, but that same person if he has an education in a financially rewarding field will go even further. You face a lot of competition as a contractor and have to always stay on your toes. Hats off to you....but the little guy working in construction has to move a lot or work away from home and has little job security in a downturn even if he makes good money during the hours worked. I will choose my degree and professional career any day. Higher education is good for the ambitious who plan carefully.

[topcallingtroll]

Smart ambitious people unafraid of real work and not embarrased about blue collar work will have a chance at a good living whether they go to college or not, but that same person if he has an education in a financially rewarding field will go even further. You face a lot of competition as a contractor and have to always stay on your toes. Hats off to you....but the little guy working in construction has to move a lot or work away from home and has little job security in a downturn even if he makes good money during the hours worked. I will choose my degree and professional career any day. Higher education is good for the ambitious who plan carefully.

[ColonelCooper]

I don't deny that at all, and after re-reading my post I think I probably didn't get my point across very well.  Let me rephrase it like this.  How many college educated people are out there right now bitching because they can't find work?  And how many of them would turn me down when I offered them a highly paid internship, say 50k on the check + cadillac bennies, that had a high probability of being 100K + within 2-5 years depending on workload and talent?  Many would jump all over it until I tell them that the work is dangerous, they will spend all their time outside in temps from +100 to -40, and will have to travel.  The number jumps to damn near zero.  Thus a HS dropout with missing teeth is getting a 75-100K a year package.

I like my work, and find it rewarding as Hell.  I don't disparage education, or educated people.  What I'm trying to say is that the balance has shifted, and skilled labor is becoming more valuable than a degree.  It's a supply and demand thing. Even a generation ago I would make a comfortable living at my job, but no way would I be the top earner in my circle.  Laborers could also make a decent comfortable wage, but not like today.

[RKDS]

I would at least try if offers like that existed here (not afraid of "blue collar" work by any means).  When I graduated 6 years ago (BS in CompSci), it was all "move to the other side of the country (no help) for a 3-month contract at $9 per hour."  With as thin as the classifieds have been lately, I really feel for graduates who need work.

[ColonelCooper]

That is part of the rub.  I have had years where I filed income tax in as many as six states.  Those were more in my "pay your dues" stage of the game, and things have a way of settling out for people who get after it and stick it out, but it isn't for everybody. 

[RKDS]

Like I said, I'm not above honest work or relocating, it's just that the math didn't work out.

Almost my entire extended family is in this state and those that aren't are in the next state over.  I don't have an uncle or brother or even a friend on the west coast to stay with while I look for work or an apartment out there.

Just the act of moving yourself, even if you take next to nothing, is expensive.  Then every landlord wants a security deposit, the last month's rent, and a 6-month lease.  Great, except you're just out of college with no money and student loans bills every month, job or not.  Oh and the job is a 6-week contract, so you get stuck with all kinds of early termination fees.

When that job pays about $10 an hour, you don't have alot of breathing room to start with, nevermind those "drifter" costs and the gaps between contracts.  And God help you if you get sick, because you're nearly broke, don't have benefits, and the employer might fire you for staying home or bringing the flu in to work.

It made more sense for me to work part-time at KMart and live with my parents for a year while I answered want ad after want ad in the paper and online.

They say my generation is going to change jobs something like 10 times and I have to tell you that lack of stability scares the hell out of me.

I do have 2 regular jobs now, but I'm really trying to start a side business and learn some more hands-on skills (electornics and carpentry), partly because I want to but also partly as an insurance policyt of sorts.

[topcallingtroll]

Agreed balance has shifted. Many college degrees are worthless.

[satansanus]

My father was a PHD lincoln lab researcher/ MIT prof. He was such a fuckup and a douche and NEVER made me proud once.. HE got fired from lincoln lab for fucking a secretary and blowing his clearance. My Mother had 10 degrees and licences in psychology but bounced around from hospital to hospital eeking out crummy jobs and she seemed MORE crazy than anyone I knew she got many degrees from smith where they taught WOMENSLIB as the MAIN course for all courses. She ended up a mormon.

I full rejected the degree system.

 I look at a shelf of works I have created and continue to build upon, and realize If i had spent that time getting degreed up like my parents I would have accomplished almost nothing professionaly, JUST LIKE THEM.

PHDs and Prestige and not one thing completed

[Dollar Bill Hiccup]

There are manifest problems in higher education today. Costs are not associated with education but with, shall we say "lifestyle".

The tenure system needs to be addressed, revised or abolished.

Campus as Healthclub, Nightclub and Spa needs to be addressed, revised or abolished.

Campus as Roman Colliseum centered around organized sports/business needs to be addressed, revised or abolished.

Grade Inflation at all levels of education needs to be addressed, revised or abolished.

Some people's brains are wired for reading, or mathematics, or poetry, or music, or visual arts. Some are wired to repair engines. Some are mired.

[ElvisDog]

Amen, DBH. I've written several times that for at least half of college students, going to college is not about gaining an education but rather attending "daycare for young adults". I've always had a problem with athletic programs giving full ride scholarships to athletes. Why should someone get to go to college for free, paid for by the non-athletes, just because that person can run fast or hit a ball?

[FEDbuster]

Football and basketball pay for all the other sports scholarships that are given out and in most cases produce excess revenue for the schools.  At the "big" TV schools the revenue from football and basketball is in the multi-millions of dollars.  The football and basketball players should not only get free everything (tution, books, room and board) they should also get paid $10-20K/year to play.  Big college sports programs = big $$$ and the money should trickle down to the guys busting their ass on the fields and courts at those schools.

Plus, there are far more scholarship dollars given out for academic achivement than sports every year.

[Dollar Bill Hiccup]

Just not sure what the business of sports has to do with education.  A good library, some thoughtful teachers and a culture of challenging oneself in a disciplined fashion is all that's needed.

The overhead on that is de minimus.

If there are truly talented athletes who desire a professional career, maybe they should be in trade schools designed for athletes?

[ElvisDog]

That is true about men's football and basketball, but if you look at the athletic department as a whole, every other sport costs money. The overall athletic department activities are not revenue neutral even with booster donations and that money is made up by increased tuition for the non-athlete student body.

And one other thing, football and basketball only make money at the major conferences, those with TV contracts and bowl game/tournament revenue streams. Football programs at schools like Eastern Washington lose money.

[Dollar Bill Hiccup]

Join the Army. See the world ...

[topcallingtroll]

Good point

[MarketFox]

Harvard, Princeton, Yale  etc...are all about connections....not education....

Basics are just that...and could be gained in any institution....

Even medicine is protected job-wise in the US....and look at how many doctors have parents as doctors....

And look at where medicine is today in the US....the most expensive in the world...

I say all the basics should be internet based....and specialty education should be rewarded via the internet....not via family connections....

Or would one rather see the top 1% control 95% of the wealth ?

Higher education in the US is a sham....

[tgatliff]

Do you honestly think that a biomolecular, industrial, electrical,mechanical, or chemical engineering degrees are shams?   Did I also mention that there is no shortage of jobs in these types of fields?

Once again, the problem is not education.  The problem is with the degrees.. Specialist degrees are the way to go right now just as they were in he great depression.t

[cowdiddly]

Do you honestly think that their are not already hundreds of thousands of people in India and China who already have these degrees and the whole project cannot be outsourced and sent to and fro via the internet?

[AUD]

Where I went to uni, it was more smoking pot & surfing, as in waves not internet.

They're not all bad though, the best 'business' I've ever had was growing pot & selling it at uni.

[Orly]

Excellent.

[tgatliff]

Excellent??   

I have a better idea.  Get a degree that actually does something.  Do you think that someone who graduates with an Electrical Engineering degree or Mechanical Engineering degree will have a problem getting a job?  In fact, my billing rates have gone up almost 20% in the last year, and I am not alone..

In short... Just like in the great depression, the jobs are going back to the specialists.  The problem is not with the desire to learn.  The problem is that most of the educational system is watered down.  Hiring someone should be about having them make you more money than they cost.  If they do not do this, then why bother to hire them... 

Also, you go buy that Gold and learn a painful lesson that it will never "shield" you from fiat currency.  What do you think happens when someone who has allot of gold needs money?  TThey sell it....

[Thoreau]

"Do you think that someone who graduates with an Electrical Engineering degree or Mechanical Engineering degree will have a problem getting a job?" Yep. EE and MEs have been crushed by outsourcing. Civil Engineers are doing good. I know cuz I'm a CE. Still, I'd gladly trade my degree for 2 languages and more construction skills.

[topcallingtroll]

Agreed. Sounds like the author may have 10000 in gold at best. Dont.think it will be much help.to focus excessively on that. The best return. I ever got was my education investment. I have huge cash flow with my investment while the aurhor has some.gold sitting around somewhere. Cash flow rulz, bitchez....the higher the better.

[Orly]

Actually, fellas, I don't think the author is talking about such specialised education as that.  I believe he means running off to college to study economics or psychology, while having your head filled with gibberish, learning nothing and coming out all the poorer for it.

For someone who doesn't know what they want to be when they grow up, college is definitely not the place to go to try to find out what that is.