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Is the Cost of a University Education Today Worth It?

smartknowledgeu's picture




 

Albert Einstein once described education in this manner: "It is not so very important for a person to learn facts. For that he does not really need a college. He can learn them from books.  The value of an education in a liberal arts college is not the learning of many facts, but the training of the mind to think something that cannot be learned from textbooks” (Einstein, His Life and Times, by Philipp Frank). Unfortunately, industrialists and bankers who reshaped schooling to serve their needs during the Industrial Revolution have transformed institutional academia into the rote memorization of many facts and have rotated it away from real learning that trains the mind to think. In fact, just as the penal system “institutionalizes” young men that spend the majority of their youth incarcerated, the institutional academic system “institutionalizes” children that spend the majority of their youth being reprogrammed by the behavioral modification, Pavlovian conditioning, and Skinnerian operant conditioning objectives that industrialists and bankers have imbedded into the global academic system. In SmartKnowledgeU Podcast #3, we discuss the downfall and degradation of schooling from institutions of learning into institutions of behavioral modification that turn young children into people that “yield themselves with perfect docility to [the General Education Board’s] molding hands.” As the head of John D. Rockefeller’s General Education Board stated, bankers and industrialists desired to transform the purpose of schooling into one that revolved around “teach[ing] [children] to do in a perfect way the things their fathers and mothers are doing in an imperfect way” and to prevent children from evolving into learned men and women that may grow up to challenge their authority and that possess the desire to right the wrongs they see in society.

 

Though the shills that work for bankers and industrialists often successfully marginalize those that expose the true intentions of their academic system, in today’s podcast, we provide many direct quotes from many books and policy manuals that shaped the modern day education system so that everyone may come to their own conclusions. Furthermore, we provide many links to the referenced sources in the YouTube description of this podcast that is available on our SmartKnowledgeU YouTube video of this podcast as we encourage everyone to perform their own confirming research to draw their own conclusions about this extremely important topic. In fact, the reason so many of us today are so oblivious to the truth about today’s currency wars, today’s geopolitical confrontations between the US and Russia and the US and China, and today’s fragile state of many global markets can be directly attributed to much of the behavioral modification conditioning we undergo as children as we regress through the institutional academic system. In the end, once we learn the truth about the “modern” academic system, the question all of us should be asking today is if the cost of a university “education” is even worth it.  For those of you that would like a downloadable mp3 file of today’s podcast, please click this link. If you enjoyed today's podcast, you may subscribe to our podcast RSS feed here to be informed of future podcasts.  Lastly, we have submitted our podcast feed to iTunes, so sometime within the next 24 hours, you may also download this podcast and our future podcasts for free from iTunes (just search for SmartKnowledgeU).
Is a University Education Today Worth the Cost?To listen to SmartKnowledgeU Podcast #3, click the above image, and  then click the link  "Watch this video on YouTube."

 

Other related articles to the above podcast:

Everything I Learned About Succeeding in Business, I Learned Outside of the Institutional Academic System

Inside the Illusory Empire of the Banking Commodity Con Game (and The Astounding Failure of the US Educational System)

 

 

About the author of this podcast: JS Kim is the Founder and Managing Director of SmartKnowledgeU, a fiercely independent gold & silver research, education and consulting firm that is focused on protecting Main Street from the immoral practices of Wall Street by exposing the truth behind the big banks’ campaign of deceit. Download the fact sheet to the upcoming SmartWealth online education course here. Learn more about our flagship Crisis Investment Opportunities newsletter here, up +5.26% YTD in 2015.

 

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Tue, 03/10/2015 - 13:10 | 5873822 MASTER OF UNIVERSE
MASTER OF UNIVERSE's picture

Tertiary education is just another organized Ponzi scheme that is funding the largesse of the 1% classless kleptocrats and their progeny. Moreover, every university professor that I have ever had the misfortune of knowing is unethical, unprofessional, and corrupt. Furthermore, administrators only hire those that will adhere to the dictates of the status quo. If one ventures outside of those dictates like, Aaron Swartz, you can consider yourself _FUCKED_ AND _SUICIDED_ in the long run. Bottom line is that one must learn to first attain the education before developing a plan to dismantle the corruption that it promulgates. In brief, in academia they will not teach you how to gut the educators and feed them to dogs or vermin. That is something you will have to learn all on your own, in your spare time, if they leave you any.

 

NOTE: If you don't want to support the status quo, don't attend Carleton University in Ottawa CANADA.

Tue, 03/10/2015 - 11:50 | 5873436 pine_marten
pine_marten's picture

If it allows one to drink more fully of the cup of life, yes.

Tue, 03/10/2015 - 12:37 | 5873616 Orwell was right
Orwell was right's picture

Pine....

Yes...I agree....if college allows one broader horizons, new views of life, and exposure to people and ideas "different' from those you grew up with.....it can indeed be priceless.      

My critique is based on the basic premise of this (and many articles) that only expose the exorbitant cost of college, without also looking at the deeper problems.    These articles ignore the fact that many middle income (and below) students have to take on tons of debt...(and/or put their parents into financial stress)....simply to obtain the piece of paper that amounts to "table stakes" to even get a seat at the economic table.   

Colleges have become 'money mills' primarily intent on getting more cash, more tenure, less professor involvement and more "grad student" associates teaching class....and of course more "major sports" revenue.     They perpetuate the myth that ONLY people who can afford these first 5 years....are worthy to move forward in the economic halls of US businesses.      They denigrate ALL other methods of acquiring knowledge....(including experience and "on going training" unless of course it is THEIR MBA program).

What colleges COULD do....and perhaps did better in the "old days"....seems to have been lost.

 

Tue, 03/10/2015 - 11:39 | 5873414 Orwell was right
Orwell was right's picture

This article makes the same mistake that nearly every article on this sbject makes.....it completely ignores the fact that ANY job other than "service level"...DEMANDS a college credential to even get past HR.    .....(NOTICE that I mention "credential" instead of alluding to any real requirement for knowledge or skill)....     The employment game is rigged to the point that no matter how smart a person is, or how much actual knowledge and skill they have, they can't even get an interview without "college credentials".   

If the person does (by some miracle) get interviewed  and get the job, they are then sidelined from any promotion because they "lack managment potential"....(code word for college degree).  

Until the US of effing A gets off this merry-go-round of insisting that "college degree"   and "MBA" is the only credential they look at, we will continue down this road.   

Yes...I understand that kids 'like' college for sex, booze, and partying....and yes I understand that most colleges purposely create conflict schedules and other means to keep students there for at least 5 years....and yes I understand that colleges regularly add catalog requirments for "soft" classes that don't really add substance or knowledge.      These are real problems.....but the CORE problem is the assinine insistence that only the first 4-5 years of anyone's training is all that matters....and from that point on anyone without a college degree is forever locked out of upward mobility.  

Tue, 03/10/2015 - 11:01 | 5873283 rpboxster
rpboxster's picture

The "stuff" you need to know--math, science, arts, writing, etc--is freely available in books and online.  So I keep asking what are we paying for in college?  It seems it's just the 'experience' and branding.  

Tue, 03/10/2015 - 12:35 | 5873605 Withdrawn Sanction
Withdrawn Sanction's picture

"...is freely available in books and online."

and so it is.  Unfortunately, most people have been trained that they need their hand held in order to navigate through the written material.  They need a teacher/master.  They do not trust their own minds to come to logically consistent conclusions or even to understand the material as written.  In a word or 2, they have developed "learned helplessness."  Such peoples' first (and often only) response is to ask for help rather than do the hard work of figuring things out on their own.  

Tue, 03/10/2015 - 10:41 | 5873181 q99x2
q99x2's picture

Certainly it is worth it. They pay me $1,865 every twelve weeks and give me $20/hr. for working part time while laying in bed. What the hell else could I do.

Tue, 03/10/2015 - 10:29 | 5873128 Niall Of The Ni...
Niall Of The Nine Hostages's picture

Universities, whatever they pretend to be, are finishing schools for the children of the idle rich. Nobody else needs to attend one. If it weren't for easy access to student loans, few would.

For a few years, you could fool employers into thinking you were hot shit with a university degree because so few people had one. Those days are over. Unless you're already really wealthy, and have no concern about whether your "investment" pays off, or you have parents or a sugar-daddy who are very wealthy and are willing to pay the full cost in cash, no, the benefits come nowhere near justifying the expense.

Get a dead-end job and whatever junior-college training your jurisdiction insists on for a skill you know will be marketable come what may---plumbing, dental hygiene, that sort of thing. Join the library and read Plato on your own time.

 

 

Tue, 03/10/2015 - 09:25 | 5872859 madcows
madcows's picture

why was i required to take two classes on the "philosophy" of music in order to obtain an engineering degree?

I spent two of my four years at university, studying non-engineering related material (electives), none of which by the way, included public speaking or technical writing.

These things were required in order for the school to be ABET accredited.  What utter, fucking nonsense.  Those classes were nothing but money makers for the school, and took time away from my necessary education.

 

Mark Twain.... I never let my schooling interfere with my education.

Tue, 03/10/2015 - 07:46 | 5872592 not dead yet
not dead yet's picture

Although he is right in many ways, it is the education industry itself that is the problem. The industrialists and bankers complain about the low quality education most applicants are receiving. The education industry has built itself an empire and is in the process of building a bigger one as they want the suckers to start as young as 3 and never stop going. Non stop propaganda go to college and be a winner or don't and be a loser. It's all about filling seats and pumping the "customers" full of bullshit and wasting resources. In the meantime they are on building sprees to accomodare more suckers for indoctrination while gaining prestige, power, and fattened wallets for themselves. USA, where we mint debaters instead of doers. Experts of trivial pursuit but don't have a clue about anything else. The sad part is the parents and politicians give more money and resources to the people who brought you the failed system that is sacrificing our childrens physical and mental health. The educational elite living in their ivory towers making decisions and policies based on ignorance of the real world.

Tue, 03/10/2015 - 10:39 | 5873176 Mike Honcho
Mike Honcho's picture

You misinterpret "industrialists and bankers".  His reference is the ones running the show, not anyone publicly heard from.

 

The Rockefeller, Carnegie and Ford groups have often funded (and thus steered) American education more so even than the government.

http://thearrowsoftruth.com/the-rockefeller-school-system-compulsory-indoctrination-camps-for-social-control/

Tue, 03/10/2015 - 07:08 | 5872540 barroter
barroter's picture

Had a conversation with a sales manager some years back. He said the absolute worst people to try to sell anything too were people who thought critically. He said engineers and teachers topped his list of people he had a hell of time making a commission off of.

I asked him to try his skils at selling me a menu that was on the table. He tries. I noticed that within five  minutes he had me "feeling" that he was a close friend from way back to kindergarten. I told him I spotted that and he says, "Dammit! I want you get and stay emotional...the last thing you should be doing now is dissecting who I am!"

True. The last thing those who want power over you, to manipulate you, is to be able to think.

Tue, 03/10/2015 - 05:48 | 5872476 Kina
Kina's picture

Indeed why should Accountancy, Economics, Law require University attained degrees?

Tue, 03/10/2015 - 05:22 | 5872454 Sandmann
Sandmann's picture

It was early 1970s before UK required degrees for Accountants and Lawyers.....prior to that they had been Articled Clerks learning by doing and with a superior grasp of client relationships. The move to letting Universities select rather than revruit and invest in your own was a lazy response and created transactional relationships as loyalty was to status and money.

There were fine Sandwich Courses training engineers and methods of Day Release and Block Release to train technical staff. The need for Full Time Residential University training was limited but the expansion served the interests of Education as the New Business Model and the extravagant fee structures created

Tue, 03/10/2015 - 03:01 | 5872364 John_Coltrane
John_Coltrane's picture

Just stay away from the "social sciences" and concentrrate your education in the physical sciences.  The former aren't even scientific as they make no predictions and aren't testable.  Philosphy and literature are actually more useful than economics or psychology as taught in the universities.  And, of course, you need to master the language of science, mathematics.  Then, you will be able to analyze new situations as they occur throughout your life, from why you car won't start, to whether a given drug really has any medical benefits for your condition, to why debt really is the road to serfdom.

Tue, 03/10/2015 - 12:00 | 5873455 Georgiabelle
Georgiabelle's picture

I have to disagree with you on the value of psychology coursework. There is much to be said for gaining an understanding of behavioral psychology, particularly in reference to human motivation. The insights into what makes people think and act as they do apply not only in the business world, but in nearly every aspect of life, especially parenting.  

Tue, 03/10/2015 - 03:03 | 5872368 GuusjA
GuusjA's picture

Joris Luyendijk: "Het is schokkend dat niemand iets doet om de oorzaken van de financiële crisis aan te pakken. Het is gewoon wachten op de volgende knal en blijkbaar ligt niemand daar wakker van." 

 

http://www.volkskrant.nl/binnenland/kranten-vvd-in-crisis-door-aftreden-...

 

De wiskundige definitie van de absolute waarheid is door netwerk @GuusjA al vrijgegeven, maar toch kan (of wil) het ministerie van 'waarheidsvinding en verzoening' hier geen verslag van doen. Opstelten en Teeven kunnen hun kennis gebruiken voor PartijPolitiek, want het parlement kan hen niet meer bevragen. De manier om het systeem 'Liegen om te Leven' in stand te houden.

 

http://www.volkskrant.nl/dossier-akkoord-over-iran/republikeinen-waarsch...

 

In de VS gaat 'het waarheiddelen over de koers van de dollar' gewoon in de openbaarheid. De 'deal van Obama' met Iran zit het Amerikaanse Congres helemaal niet lekker en ze gooien de kwestie gewoon in het collectief bewustzijn van de wereld. De Republikeinen zijn fel gekant tegen een akkoord over de 3e SpinozaGolf en waarschuwen de leiders in Teheran dat een akkoord dat niet door het Congres wordt goedgekeurd mogelijk geen lang leven is beschoren.

 

http://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2015/03/09/moskeebestuur-gouda-overweegt-na-all...

 

Het moskeebestuur dat in Gouda een nieuw gebedshuis wil bouwen, weet niet of het de plannen daarvoor moet doorzetten. De politiek wil weten of ze wel de juiste context van de 'Logica van de 1' gaan promoten. 

Tue, 03/10/2015 - 11:38 | 5873413 Kassandra
Kassandra's picture

Plaats dan in het Engels.

Dank je wel.

Tue, 03/10/2015 - 09:00 | 5872767 dizzyfingers
dizzyfingers's picture

Though my grandmother was 100% "Dutch" I can't read this but would like to. Sorry. English version?

Tue, 03/10/2015 - 01:48 | 5872301 Hook Line and S...
Hook Line and Sphincter's picture

JS Kim,

Pointed article. Good job. I'd like to invite you (along with interested ZHedgehogs) to jump aboard part of the solution. 

Sometime back I posted an invitation here and received a truckload of donated course material (still working on the editing and integration) - from unpublished books, to excel spreadsheets, and a bucket full of quality critique.

Would you consider sharing your knowledge to those that WANT TO LEARN? If the schools don't teach it, we can.

How? Here's your opportunity...

In the past few months I launched the only free vocational online school for students, its called ShopSquawk  http://www.shopsquawk.org  It always will be free (and I don’t make any fiat with it). It now has several hundred lessons from how to drive a pendant crane, fork lift, workplace hazards, lead awareness, e.t.c. I'm lining up business and unions to do the hands-on in partnership in students local areas. 

The next course category objective is to create financial and monetary awareness, along with entrepreneurship. 

It's like a Khan Academy that wears a tool belt and teaches you about the real world of finance and business entrepreneurship.

If you have time to contribute here you might make time to contribute there, actualizing your awareness of this need. Come by and I'll give you permissions to make your own courses (or just design the lesson and I'll integrate it). Reach me at info at shopsquawk dot calm, or make an account at ShopSquawk and start preaching OUTSIDE the ZHurch ; ) 

If you can contribute any of the following, get off your nalgas!

  • vocational skills 
  • entrepreneurship 
  • finance
  • monetary system
  • critical thinking
  • political considerations (at all levels) for various business endeavors

Each will contain the knowledge that students DON'T get taught in high school. 

Tue, 03/10/2015 - 10:44 | 5873199 Mike Honcho
Mike Honcho's picture

Kick ass bud!  Another free course offering site is EdX.org.  Took a good one on the history of American capitalism (when it existed).

Tue, 03/10/2015 - 08:56 | 5872750 dizzyfingers
dizzyfingers's picture

Fantastic!

Tue, 03/10/2015 - 01:02 | 5872246 chosen
chosen's picture

Schools have three purposes:  90% indoctrination, 9% incarceration, 1% education.

Tue, 03/10/2015 - 01:25 | 5872277 Hook Line and S...
Hook Line and Sphincter's picture

Indeed! We need a school of 'unlearning' to rip the indoctinated belief systems out from the root.

Hook Line and Sphincter

Tue, 03/10/2015 - 00:18 | 5872176 MEAN BUSINESS
MEAN BUSINESS's picture

I have not listened to the podcast Mr. Kim but you didn't mention in the article that kids are subjected to the harsh slavery training the day after maternity/fraternity leave ends and they get plunked into daycare centers. Daycare centers charges are through the roof because parents will pay almost anything to unburden their conscience as they vainly climb what they think is a stairway to heaven. The financial exhaustion from paying the daycare bills is propped up by low low finance rates on that brand.new.car! (apple watch!)

IOW, it's well underway before the kids enter the 'state' program. The 'state' is collecting income taxes from both working parents, the daycare staff (essentially all young/female that just LOVE your little Jack/Jill ), and the daycare businesses. *winning*

Next comes the divorce...

"we will pay the price but we will not count the cost" - RUSH

Tue, 03/10/2015 - 10:55 | 5873242 caconhma
caconhma's picture

The podcast  by Mr. Kim is very poor.  He must be a product of the US public education system.

An example. He asks why teachers are not paid $150,000 or even $300,000. He thinks more money is the answer. Well, just piling more money into a present educational system will not do a shit. Every single illiterate scumbag will become a teacher/professor feeding his/her pupils even more garbage. On top of it, there will not be any more engineers, scientists, doctors, etc., since it does not pay to be one.

Mon, 03/09/2015 - 23:31 | 5872055 Self-enslavement
Self-enslavement's picture

A proper brainwashing by "accredited institution" is worth every penny. With interest, of course.

Mon, 03/09/2015 - 23:23 | 5872035 Creepy A. Cracker
Creepy A. Cracker's picture

That $200,000 PhD in lesbian studies with your masters in social justice?  Of course it's worth it. A high level job in the Obama administration running people's lives awaits you!

Tue, 03/10/2015 - 12:00 | 5873452 KnuckleDragger-X
KnuckleDragger-X's picture

Yep, there is a difference between getting an education and getting a degree, I've noticed that the less they are educated the more they think they know. A Phd is now required to qualify as village idiot....

Tue, 03/10/2015 - 05:24 | 5872458 Sandmann
Sandmann's picture

I recall someone at grad school paid to go to grad school....she was black and Hispanic and I suppose grad school was cheaper than firing her......she was supremely lazy and arrogant

Tue, 03/10/2015 - 10:20 | 5873079 -.-
-.-'s picture

Ms. Rice?! Wha?

Tue, 03/10/2015 - 00:23 | 5872184 malek
malek's picture

Here, fixed a typo for ya:

ruining people's lives

Tue, 03/10/2015 - 05:28 | 5872463 ThankYouSirMayI...
ThankYouSirMayIHaveAnother's picture

either running or ruining would be correct

Tue, 03/10/2015 - 09:37 | 5872916 bwh1214
bwh1214's picture

The root cause of high education costs is the debt based monetary system.  See below, long read but all good stuff.

http://www.debtcrash.report/entry/history-and-introduction

 

 

Tue, 03/10/2015 - 15:59 | 5874752 Creepy A. Cracker
Creepy A. Cracker's picture

I disagree.  It is a factor the same as it has driven up many costs.  The major factors of higher education costs are:

1) "Free" government loans and grants to go to college.  When the money supply is infinite and advertised as "free" the demand will be high as well.

2) Multimillion dollar pensions for government union teachers (which influences private college salaries as well).  The money has to come from somewhere to pay teachers full salary plus medical benefits while retired for 40, or so, years.  It comes from tuition.

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